FOX Sports South takes a whimsical and diverse look at 20 star-driven factoids for Conference Championship Weekend -- a piece that might help shape fantasy decisions (playoff leagues can be quite lucrative) and/or inspire more real-world and barstool debates, among friends and kind strangers.
For good measure, we have also included two trivia questions at the end of Part I and Part II.
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1. How's this for polar opposites: In 17 career meetings, the Packers are 9-0 when scoring 25 or more points against the Seahawks. On the flip side, Green Bay owns a porous 1-6 record against Seattle when tallying 24 or fewer points.
2. For what it's worth, during postseason play only, Patriots QB Tom Brady has never accounted for multiple touchdown passes against the Colts. Of those four playoff outings against Indy, Brady holds pedestrian averages of 203 yards passing/1 TD.
3. The Seahawks (just 56 points allowed in their last seven games -- all victories) are obviously happy to entertain the Packers in Sunday's NFC title game, but they might be similarly delirious about another consequence from from Sunday:
For the season, including last week's postseason win over Carolina, Seattle has allowed just one 400-total-yard outing -- Week 6 against Dallas ... only the second home defeat of the Russell Wilson era.
4. The losing club of the AFC championship hasn't scored 21 points or more for seven consecutive seasons (2007-13) -- a feat that has only been replicated once since the 1980 campaign (1990-96).
5. Hat tip to ESPN for the following nugget: This year marks only the third time in the Super Bowl era that both conference-championship clashes serve as rematches from the regular season.
1981: 49ers-Cowboys / Chargers-Bengals
2007: Giants-Packers / Chargers-Patriots
2014: Packers @ Seahawks / Colts @ Patriots
It's worth noting: In 1981, San Francisco and Cincinnati topped Dallas and San Diego, respectively, for both the regular season and playoffs. But in 2007, only New England trumped its title-game opponent twice during that season.
The Giants, you may recall, started out the '07 campaign at a woeful 0-2 -- including a Week 2 home drubbing to the Packers -- before rallying to claim a wild-card berth, revenge victories over Green Bay (NFC title game) and New England (Super Bowl) ... and the first Lombardi Trophy for the Tom Coughlin/Eli Manning era.
6. No NFC club has ever scored 30 points in the conference title game and failed to reach the Super Bowl. The highest-scoring losing teams? It's a tie between the 1994 Cowboys (lost 38-28 to the 49ers) and 2009 Vikings (fell 31-28 to the Saints in overtime).
7. Here's a good news/bad news/good news sandwich involving Russell Wilson:
Good: His stellar outing against the Panthers last week (290 total yards, three TDs) busted a string of 23 consecutive games without three touchdown passes -- including last year's playoffs.
Bad: Wilson has never eclipsed the 200-yard passing mark against the Packers.
Good: The Seattle quarterback has never lost to Green Bay.
8. For the first 11 NFC title games in history (1970-80), the losing club never scored more than 13 points. Speaking of droughts ... from 1984-89, the losing teams from the NFC championship scored a grand total of 16 points! That figure includes back-to-back shutouts (1984-88).
9. The red-hot Eddie Lacy (1,566 total yards, 13 TDs in 2014) has notched 100 total yards and/or one touchdown in 11 straight games; and going back to Week 4 -- after enduring a brutal opening stretch of the Seahawks, Jets and Lions (Weeks 1-3) -- the Packers tailback boasts stellar averages of 108 total yards/1 TD in a 14-outing span.
Speaking of which, in his only career clash against Seattle (Week 1), Lacy produced a ho-hum 45 total yards on 15 touches.
10. Dolphins QB Bob Griese (1967-80) notched five postseason victories with single-digit completions -- a playoff record in the Super Bowl era. (The Hall of Famer also owns the mark for fewest completions by a victorious starting quarterback in a conference championship -- three.)
Can you name the OTHER Hall of Fame QB to rack up at least four playoff triumphs with single-digit completions?
ANSWER: Terry Bradshaw tallied four games of single-digit completions for the 1974 and '75 playoff runs (both resulting in Super Bowl victories).
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11. Granted, it's a small sample size. But in his brief, but prolific NFL career, Colts QB Andrew Luck is a perfect 3 for 3 in eclipsing the 300-yard passing mark against the Patriots -- with per-outing averages of 323 yards passing/2 TDs.
12. Tom Brady (NFL-record 19 postseason wins, among starting quarterbacks) has never lost a playoff game when completing 30 or more passes.
13. Wideout Julian Edelman (92 catches, 972 yards, four TDs) has collected double-digit targets in his last five games -- including the Patriots' divisional-round victory against the Ravens.
Of course, the highlight-reel moment of the last week's win entailed Edelman's 51-yard TD toss to Danny Amendola -- Edelman's first pass of his pro career.
14. At the tail end of last year (regular season/playoffs), Patriots tailback LeGarrette Blount enjoyed a three-game tear for all time, absurdly averaging 144 total yards/2.7 TDs -- highlighted by a 166-yard, four-TD demolition of the Colts in the Divisional Playoff round.
Which brings us to this: In the last 12 months, two different New England backs (Blount, Jonas Gray) have rushed for four TDs -- otherwise known as an Al Bundy Game -- in a single outing against Indy.
15. Seahawks wideout Jermaine Kearse has scored at least one touchdown in three straight playoff games. Not bad for a guy who has never collected double-digit targets in 43 career outings (including the postseason).
16. For what it's worth, Russell Wilson has never incurred a double-digit defeat in the pros, whereas Aaron Rodgers has suffered through four 20-point drubbings as a starter -- including a Week 1 shellacking at the hands of Seattle.
17. The Ravens' Joe Flacco owns the NFL record for playoff road wins by a starting quarterback (seven). He also shares the following feat with Bernie Kosar, Kurt Warner and Aaron Rodgers:
Most consecutive postseason games with at least three TD passes (three).
18. Since the NFL-AFL merger (1970), only two clubs have won their conference title game by scoring 10 points or less -- the 1979 Rams (9-0 winners over the Bucs) and 1991 Bills (10-7 victors over the Broncos).
19. In the Super Bowl era, the Giants (5-0), Bengals (2-0) and Cardinals (1-0) are the only NFL franchises to sport perfect records on Championship Sunday (minimum: one game).
And last but not least ... here's some trivia to digest:
20. The Colts franchise (covering the Baltimore/Indianapolis years) has never won an AFC title game on the road.
In fact, the Colts serve as one of only two clubs to play in at least four conference-championship road tilts ... without ever winning one.
Can you name the other team?
ANSWER: The Jets ... title-game road losers for the 1982, 1998, 2009 and 2010 seasons.
Jay Clemons, the 2008 Fantasy Football Writer of the Year (Fantasy Sports Writers Association), can be reached via Twitter, day or night, at @ATL_JayClemons.
