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Vikings' Asher Allen retires at age 24
HOUSTON, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- The chase for the Vince Lombardi Trophy begins Saturday with the Houston Texans appearing in the NFL playoffs for the first time in team history.
Houston, New Orleans, Denver and the New York Giants will host wild-card games on the opening weekend of the playoffs, which -- for only the second time in history -- will include six teams with at least 12 regular-season wins.
This will also be the 16th consecutive season that at least five teams will be a part of the Super Bowl chase that were not involved in the playoffs the year before.
Two of those teams -- Cincinnati and Houston -- will meet in the post-season opener, which kicks off at 4:30 p.m. EST Saturday. The Bengals, led by rookie quarterback Andy Dalton, are making only their second playoff appearance since 1990.
Houston won the AFC South title for the first time since joining the league as an expansion franchise in 2002. The Texans closed the regular season with three straight losses after quarterback Matt Schaub was knocked out for the season.
Saturday's other game will send Detroit to New Orleans, where the Saints hope to begin their bid for a second Super Bowl title in three years. New Orleans (13-3) joins Green Bay (15-1), New England (13-3), San Francisco (13-3), Baltimore (12-4) and Pittsburgh (12-4) in the group of teams that have at least a dozen wins this season.
That ties a record set in 2003.
On Sunday, Atlanta will be at New York and Pittsburgh will travel to Denver. New England, Baltimore, Green Bay and San Francisco will all host a game the following weekend.
Both Denver and Houston went from last place in their division to first place this season. This is the fifth time in the last nine years that at least two teams have pulled off that accomplishment.
Six of this year's playoff teams have won a Super Bowl crown since the turn of the century. Green Bay is trying to become the ninth defending champion to repeat as Super Bowl winner. The Packers hope to join Pittsburgh as the only club to have done so twice.
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