As curtains fall on some teams, Jets stumble on big stage

Curtains for the Chargers.

Curtains for the Chiefs.

Curtains for the Cardinals.

And drapes for the Jets.

That’s right, the New York Jets were looking for any kind of psychological edge Saturday against the Giants, so they used black drapes to obscure the Super Bowl logos outside the Giants’ locker room. Seeing as the Jets were the home team at the stadium the New York teams share, they had the prerogative.

Tweeted Jets great Joe Namath: “Anything to get under the opponent’s skin … all’s fair on gameday.”

Sorry, Broadway Joe, this day belonged to Big Blue. The Giants tore at the fabric of Gang Green’s playoff hopes with a 29-14 victory that helped create some playoff clarity with one week remaining in the NFL season.

“This is about the city, the city of New York and what team wants to be responsible,” Giants left tackle David Diehl said. “They have talked all week and said what they wanted to say. From Day 1, they’re our big brother and other stuff. We went out there and played our game and showed whose stadium this is.”

The Giants will play host to Dallas next Sunday with the NFC East championship on the line — and with the right hand of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo on ice all week.

Romo suffered an injured throwing hand early in a 20-7 loss to Philadelphia, but the Eagles gained no benefit by winning. They had already been eliminated by the Giants’ victory earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, Detroit grabbed a playoff spot for the first time since 1999 by crushing San Diego, 38-10, an outcome that could seal the fate of Chargers Coach Norv Turner and perhaps General Manager A.J. Smith. For the second consecutive season, San Diego will not make the playoffs.

Kansas City was also eliminated from the running in the AFC West, by virtue of a 16-13 overtime loss to the Raiders. Denver lost, too — a ghastly game in Buffalo for Tim Tebow — but still controls its postseason destiny. If the Broncos win their finale at home against Kansas City, they claim the division.

“Everything is still on the table,” said Tebow, who had four interceptions in the 40-14 loss, two returned for Bills touchdowns. “We have to go and execute and play a little better. Hopefully, we can get in the tournament.”

But Oakland remains in the mix. If the Broncos stumble, and the Raiders beat the Chargers in Oakland, the Silver & Black wins the division.

If both Denver and Oakland win, the Raiders could still sneak in as an AFC wild-card team — but only if Cincinnati loses at home to Baltimore. If the Bengals win, they’re in.

“We started this quite a while ago — seems like just yesterday,” said Cincinnati Coach Marvin Lewis, whose team benefits by the Jets losing. “But now we’re right where we want to be at the end.”

It was Cincinnati that eliminated the surging Cardinals on Saturday with a 23-16 victory at home.

So it’s entirely possible the AFC North could send three teams to the postseason, as Baltimore and Pittsburgh are already in. The Steelers kept alive their hopes of a division title with a 27-0 blanking of St. Louis, and Baltimore — which swept Pittsburgh this season — inched closer to a division crown with a 20-14 win over Cleveland.

The Ravens have plenty of incentive to beat Cincinnati. A win would secure them a first-round bye and a home playoff game.

In that regard, New England can breathe easy. In coming back to beat Miami on Saturday, the Patriots clinched one of the top two seeds in the conference and a week off to start the playoffs.

New England fell behind, 17-0, after two quarters before rallying to win, 27-24.

“You don’t want to, certainly, make a habit of this,” said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who threw for one touchdown and scored two more on one-yard sneaks. “We showed some resiliency.”

Final NFC Wild Card

Atlanta, which plays at New Orleans Monday night, would qualify for the postseason with one more win or a loss by Chicago, which plays at Green Bay on Sunday night. The only way the Bears can qualify is with two victories and two Falcon losses.

A bad turn

What else could go wrong for the Minnesota Vikings?

This: Pro Bowl running back Adrian Peterson suffered what looked to be a gruesome knee injury at Washington when he was hit by safety DeJon Gomes on the first play of the second half. Peterson said he knew “it was something bad,” and was scheduled for an MRI exam late Saturday. Various reports ranged from a knee sprain to torn ligaments.

“It’s such a special person that you want to be right before you prognosticate on what might be,” said Vikings Coach Leslie Frazier, whose team lost quarterback Christian Ponder to a concussion on the next play but went on to beat the Redskins, 33-26, with Joe Webb at quarterback.

“Any time you take a blow to the knee like that, you’re concerned about the ACL, MCL,” Peterson said. “I’m trying to stay as positive as I can.”

If the ACL is torn, Peterson could be in peril of missing at least the start of next season.

Not easy being green

The Jets did themselves no favors by losing to the Giants. They can still get in as an AFC wild card, but need to win at Miami next week, and get losses from Cincinnati, Tennessee, and either Denver or Oakland.

“We don’t deserve to control our own destiny,” Jets linebacker Bart Scott said. “We haven’t played good enough football to do that. We need to try to finish strong, but if you don’t make it to the playoffs, you’ve got nobody to blame but yourself.”

Seven-game itch

Buffalo is out of the playoff picture and is guaranteed to finish with a losing record, but at least the 6-9 Bills had something to celebrate Saturday with their home win over the Broncos.

That victory ended Buffalo’s seven-game losing streak — one that derailed the team’s 4-1 start.

“We’ve lost seven games in a row. It wears on you,” linebacker Chris Kelsay said. “We got rewarded. We came together and we executed.”

That includes quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who had his best game in two months, completing 15 of 27 passes for 196 yards and no interceptions. Those aren’t jaw-dropping numbers, but they’re welcome ones considering he had eight touchdowns and 12 interceptions during the slide.

Passing Peyton

Carolina quarterback Cam Newton carved out a spot in the NFL record books by breaking Peyton Manning’s mark of 3,739 yards passing for a rookie.

Newton came into the Tampa Bay game needing 18 yards to eclipse the record and did so on the Panthers’ opening drive.

“It’s very nice to do something with a record that’s so prestigious in this league,” said Newton, who finished with 171 yards and three passing touchdowns in the 48-16 rout. Most impressive was his 49-yard touchdown run up the middle at the end of the third quarter.

“With the guys that we have on our team, with my father, my family members here, it was just saying, ‘Don’t get caught. Don’t get caught because if I get caught I’m never, ever going to hear the last of this,’” Newton said. “I just wanted to finish it out with a touchdown and put a smile on my face first so I can have something to talk about.”

Heels over head

The most stunning play of the day was a flip into the end zone by Cincinnati’s Jerome Simpson, who left from both feet before the goal line, cleared 6-foot-2 Arizona linebacker Daryl Washington, and nailed the landing. He then raised both arms like Mary Lou Retton.

“One of the key parts for me was I stuck the landing,” Simpson said. “I stuck the landing like a gymnast. That was probably one of the most surprising of all the plays in my career. It was pretty awesome, I thought.”

Quick hits

• Not only did Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch score a touchdown for the 11th consecutive game, but he also did so on the ground against San Francisco. To that point, the 49ers had not given up a rushing touchdown all season.

• San Francisco’s David Akers kicked four field goals in his team’s 19-17 victory over the Seahawks, setting an NFL record with his 42nd field goal of the season. He isn’t missing Philadelphia.

• Even though they beat Houston on Thursday, the Indianapolis Colts still have the inside track on the No. 1 pick — almost surely Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck — because the Colts hold the strength-of-schedule tiebreaker over St. Louis and Minnesota.

But if the two-win Colts finish with a victory at Jacksonville and St. Louis loses to San Francisco, the Rams would have the top pick.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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