The National Football League playoffs for the 1998 season began on January 2, 1999. The postseason tournament concluded with the Denver Broncos defeating the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII, 34–19, on January 31, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami, Florida.
It would mark the last season until 2025 where the postseason would not feature Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or Patrick Mahomes.
Participants
Bracket
Schedule Under the new U.S. television broadcast contracts that took effect starting this season, CBS replaced NBC as the broadcaster of most of the AFC playoff games. ABC continued to broadcast the first two Wild Card playoff games. Fox televised the rest of the NFC games and Super Bowl XXXIII.
Round Away team Score Home team Date Kickoff(ET / UTC−5) TV Wild-card round Buffalo Bills 17–24 Miami Dolphins January 2, 1999 12:30 p.m. ABC Arizona Cardinals 20–7 Dallas Cowboys 4:00 p.m. ABC New England Patriots 10–25 Jacksonville Jaguars January 3, 1999 12:30 p.m. CBS Green Bay Packers 27–30 San Francisco 49ers 4:00 p.m. Fox Divisional round San Francisco 49ers 18–20 Atlanta Falcons January 9, 1999 12:30 p.m. Fox Miami Dolphins 3–38 Denver Broncos 4:00 p.m. CBS Jacksonville Jaguars 24–34 New York Jets January 10, 1999 12:30 p.m. CBS Arizona Cardinals 21–41 Minnesota Vikings 4:00 p.m. Fox Conference championships Atlanta Falcons 30–27 Minnesota Vikings January 17, 1999 12:30 p.m. Fox New York Jets 10–23 Denver Broncos January 17, 1999 4:00 p.m. CBS Super Bowl XXXIII Denver Broncos 34–19 Atlanta Falcons January 31, 1999 6:25 p.m. Fox
Wild-card round
Saturday, January 2, 1999
AFC: Miami Dolphins 24, Buffalo Bills 17
The Dolphins forced five Bills turnovers, including Buffalo quarterback Doug Flutie's fumble at the Miami 5-yard line with 17 seconds left in the game. Buffalo's wide receiver Eric Moulds set an NFL postseason record with 240 receiving yards, including a 32-yard touchdown catch.
The Bills had a great scoring chance when Moulds caught a 65-yard pass from Flutie on the first play from scrimmage, but Terrell Buckley knocked the ball out of his hands and safety Brock Marion recovered the fumble, returning it 17 yards to the Miami 29. Miami then drove 57 yards in 16 plays to score on kicker Olindo Mare's 31-yard field goal. After forcing a punt, Miami went on another long field goal drive, this one covering 66 yards in 11 plays, including a 22-yard reception by Ed Perry and two pass interference calls against Buffalo for a total of 26 yards.
Mare's 40-yard field goal gave the Dolphins a 6–0 lead with over 10 minutes left in the second quarter, but a failed surprise onside kick attempt gave Buffalo the ball on the Dolphins 42. Moulds then caught a 37-yard pass to set up Thurman Thomas' 1-yard touchdown run. Near the end of the half, Buffalo drove to the Dolphins 6-yard line, but Marion intercepted a pass from Flutie in the end zone with less than a minute left on the clock. Miami also blew a scoring chance as Dan Marino completed a 52-yard pass to Oronde Gadsden at the Bills 9-yard line on the next play, but Mare missed a 26-yard field goal on the last play of the half.
In the third quarter, Miami got an early scoring chance when Derrick Rodgers forced a fumble while sacking Flutie that linebacker Zach Thomas recovered on the Bills 40-yard line. But the Bills defense only allowed three yards over the next three plays and forced a punt. Miami's defense then returned the favor by forcing Buffalo to punt after three plays, and O. J. McDuffie returned Chris Mohr's 39-yard kick 20 yards to the Dolphins 48-yard line. Miami went on to take a 14–7 lead with a 12-play, 52-yard drive to score on Karim Abdul-Jabbar's 3-yard run (and Stanley Pritchett's 2-point conversion). However, Buffalo stormed right back with a 4-play, 81-yard touchdown drive to tie the game, taking advantage of a pass interference call against Patrick Surtain that gave them 29 yards. On the next play, Flutie's 23-yard completion to Moulds moved the ball to the Miami 32-yard line, and he ended up finishing the drive with a 32-yard touchdown completion to Moulds with less than a minute left in the quarter.
On Miami's opening drive of the fourth quarter, Marino completed 5/5 passes for 54 yards on a 75-yard drive that ended with Mare's third field goal, giving the Dolphins a 17–14 lead. Then Jerry Wilson forced a fumble while tackling Andre Reed, and Buckley recovered the ball for Miami at midfield, leading to Marino's 11-yard touchdown pass to Lamar Thomas that made the score a 10-point game at 24–14 with 3:42 left on the clock.
With time running out in the game, Flutie completed a 31-yard pass to Moulds and then threw the ball to Reed, who was tackled on the Miami 1-yard line. Believing he had scored, Reed argued vehemently with the referee Steve Zimmer and bumped into him, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct foul that got the receiver ejected from the game. It also pushed the Bills back 15 yards and left them facing second and goal from the 15 instead of the 1. Flutie's next two passes were incomplete, forcing the Bills to settle for Steve Christie's 33-yard field goal with 1:47 left. Buffalo subsequently recovered an onside kick and drove 64 yards in 10 plays to the Dolphins 5-yard line. But as Flutie stepped up to make a throw, he lost the ball while being sacked by Miami's Trace Armstrong and defensive tackle Shane Burton recovered the fumble.
"There wasn't any doubt he was in", Bills coach Wade Phillips said about Reed's ejection after the game. "That game looks a lot different at the end. With Andre Reed in the game and us only down 3, we would have done some different things at the end."
This was the fourth postseason meeting between the Bills and Dolphins. Buffalo won all three previous meetings.
+Buffalo leads 3–0 in all-time playoff games
NFC: Arizona Cardinals 20, Dallas Cowboys 7
Quarterback Jake Plummer passed for 213 yards and two touchdowns as he led the Cardinals to their first playoff victory since 1947, ending the longest playoff win drought in NFL history. Their victory was especially satisfying against the Cowboys, who defeated them twice during the season (38–10 on opening day and 35–28 in week 11). Arizona running back Adrian Murrell rushed for 95 yards and caught two passes for 16 yards and a touchdown, while their defense sacked Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman four times (twice by linebacker Jamir Miller and two more by Andre Wadsworth) and intercepted three of his passes (two by cornerback Aeneas Williams).
Dallas had a chance to score on their second drive when Tyrone Hughes returned an Arizona punt 11 yards to the Cowboys 38. Aikman then led the team to the Cardinals 19-yard line, but the drive ended there and Richie Cunningham missed a 36-yard field goal attempt. On the first play of the Cardinals' following possession, Plummer completed a 59-yard pass to receiver Frank Sanders, setting up Murrell's 12-yard touchdown catch a few plays later.
In the second quarter, the Cowboys got another scoring opportunity when cornerback Kevin Mathis picked off a pass from Plummer on the Dallas 37. Dallas went on to drive to the Cardinals 7-yard line. On fourth and 1, the Cowboys tried to convert with a run by Emmitt Smith, but he was stopped by linebacker Mark Maddox, who broke through the line and dropped him for a 1-yard loss. Dallas' three remaining drives of the half would result in an interception by Williams and two punts, the second which was returned 10 yards to the Cardinals 38 by running back Eric Metcalf with less than two minutes left in the half. Plummer then completed a 15-yard pass to receiver Rob Moore and a 20 yarder to Metcalf, setting up a 37-yard Chris Jacke field goal that gave Arizona a 10–0 lead going into halftime.
On the second play of the second half, Murrell took off for a 74-yard run to the Cowboys 3-yard line. It was the longest postseason run ever surrendered by the Cowboys in their 52-postseason game history. On the next play, Plummer threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to fullback Larry Centers, making the score 17–0. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Williams recorded his second interception from Aikman, setting up a 46-yard field goal by Jacke. Now desperate for points, Dallas tried to convert a fourth and 1 deep in their own territory, only to have Aikman get sacked by Miller for a 10-yard loss. An interception by Darren Woodson prevented Arizona from scoring, but with only ten minutes remaining on the clock, there was little hope for a comeback. All Dallas could do was avoid a shutout when Deion Sanders' 41-yard punt return set up Aikman's 6-yard touchdown pass to Billy Davis with 3:33 left in the game.
It was the last time ABC aired a game between these two teams, after six games on Monday Night Football. ESPN finally aired a game between these two in 2017 (though they did meet on Sunday night on ESPN once). It was the last playoff game at Texas Stadium until 2007.
Arizona ended a nine-game losing streak at Texas Stadium; their previous win was during the Cowboys' 1–15 season of 1989. This was just the Cardinals' second victory vs. the Cowboys in the previous 18 meetings, the other being a 25–22 overtime victory in week two of 1997 at Sun Devil Stadium. Arizona lost its last four visits to Texas Stadium between 1999 and 2005, and finished with an all-time mark of 5–27 in the facility.
This was the first postseason meeting between the Cardinals and Cowboys.
January 3, 1999 AFC: Jacksonville Jaguars 25, New England Patriots 10
Running back Fred Taylor ran for 162 yards and a touchdown as the Jaguars won their first home playoff game in team history. Jacksonville kicker Mike Hollis contributed four field goals. Patriots running back Robert Edwards, who rushed for 1,115 yards and nine touchdowns during the season, was held to 28 yards on 17 carries.
The Patriots, playing without starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe, receiver Terry Glenn and linebacker Ted Johnson due to injuries, could not score any points in the first half. Hollis opened up the scoring with two field goals. The second one was set up by a 46-yard run by Taylor and followed two overthrown passes by quarterback Mark Brunell to receiver Keenan McCardell and running back George Jones, who were both wide open in the end zone. Brunell struggled throughout most of the game, finishing with just 14 of 34 completions for 161 yards. Later in the second quarter, Taylor's 21-yard run gave his team a first down on the Patriots 34-yard line. Four plays later, he scored on a 13-yard touchdown run, giving his team a 12–0 lead after a failed 2-point conversion attempt. Jacksonville got another chance to score when cornerback Aaron Beasley recovered a fumble from Edwards on the Jags 49-yard line. But New England's defense managed to force a turnover on downs at the Patriots 23-yard line, and the score would remain 12–0 going into halftime.