Jevon Kearse will be looking to make life miserable for the Colts offense and Edgerrin James.

They missed the playoffs.

Dallas, Detroit, Seattle and Miami all stumbled to the finish.

They made the postseason.

Life, as John F. Kennedy said, is unfair.

"I'm disappointed we had to resort to this way, but we're in," linebacker Chad Brown of the Seahawks said after his team backed into the playoffs despite losing five of its last six games.

The Seahawks, AFC West champions, will entertain Miami on Sunday in a game between teams that were running on fumes down the stretch -- the Seahawks started 8-2 and the Dolphins 7-1, and both finished 9-7.

Then there are Dallas and Detroit, the two 8-8 teams who are still playing in the NFC.

The Cowboys were 1-7 on the road, which is where they'll be as long as they win, probably not beyond Sunday at Minnesota. The Lions, who are at Washington on Saturday, lost five of their last seven. But one of their wins was over the Redskins.

What does that leave?

St. Louis is a prohibitive favorite in the NFC. The Rams finished 13-3 and are at home in the TWA Dome, where they were 8-0 with an average winning margin of 25 points.

The AFC is more wide open -- three, and perhaps four, of the six playoff teams have a legitimate shot at going to the Super Bowl, particularly with Jacksonville losing Tony Boselli, the game's best offensive lineman. The two that don't are Seattle and Miami.

Here's a quick look:

AFC
The intriguing game of the first weekend is Buffalo (11-5) at Tennessee (13-3). These are the two sleepers in the playoffs. The Titans handed Jacksonville its only two losses, the second 41-14 nine days ago.

If Tennessee wins and Seattle beats Miami, the Titans play the Jaguars again at Jacksonville on Jan. 16. Jacksonville (14-2) is not coming in on a high -- not with Boselli out with a torn ACL and quarterback Mark Brunell questionable because of a knee sprain. Nor would their confidence be very high against the Titans although Tennessee's Jeff Fisher is sure to say that the only thing harder than beating a team twice in once season is beating it three times.

One note on the Tennessee-Buffalo game:

It doesn't jump out at you because these are the Titans. But the last playoff game between these franchises was Jan. 3, 1993, when the Titans were the Houston Oilers and blew a 35-3 lead in a wild-card game at Buffalo and lost 41-38 in overtime.

The other team with a shot is Indianapolis (13-3).

The Colts can score big, but can they shut down the Titans or Jaguars?

Maybe.

Nonetheless. If Steve McNair can play close to the way he did in the second Jacksonville game, throwing five TD passes, and if Jevon Kearse can keep terrorizing offenses, the Titans will go to Atlanta for the Super Bowl.

NFC
Can anyone beat the Rams?

Conventional wisdom says Minnesota, which finished 15-1 last season before being upset by Atlanta in the conference title game, has the best chance. It won eight of 10 games with Jeff George at quarterback after starting 2-4 as the preseason favorite in the conference with Randall Cunningham at quarterback.

But listen to the noted philosopher and self-appointed Vikings spokesman Randy Moss.

"As far as the momentum and the desire and being hungry to go out there and fight for a championship, I don't think we're there yet," Moss said, with all the wisdom of his 22 years.

On the other hand, coach Dennis Green draws a comparison to the champion Broncos of two years ago, who were upset the previous year, then fought their way through the AFC as a wild card.

Remember this:

When the Cowboys played at Minnesota on Nov. 8, Emmitt Smith was tearing through the Vikings shaky defense when he broke a bone in his hand. Then, Troy Aikman went out with a concussion and a 17-0 Dallas lead turned into a 27-17 Minnesota win.

But the Vikings have changed since then. John Randle has moved back inside on the line and the defense has improved a bit.

Can anyone else challenge the Rams?

Tampa Bay's defense is devastating and so is Washington's offense.

But the Bucs quarterback is rookie Shaun King, who has played admirably but might not be ready for playoff pressure. And Washington's defense is leaky, meaning it would have to win a shootout at St. Louis.

Bottom line: