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Even in era of offense, playoffs come down to defense

The NFL's wild weekend of wild-card games demonstrated that even in this age of explosive offenses, defense still dominates in the playoffs and it often comes down to a toe, a few fingers or even a 40-year-old hamstring.

Kicker Sebastian Janikowski's season — and maybe career — ended when he popped his left hamstring on an errant 57-yard field goal try just before halftime of Seattle's 24-22 loss to Dallas on Saturday night.

Without a backup plan, the Seahawks had to go for it on fourth down in field-goal range and had to go for 2 points after a touchdown rather than try to kick it through the uprights.