Schottenheimer's days numbered; Colts 'D' the story

	Marty Schottenheimer has lost six straight playoff games and is now 5-13 in the postseason. Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images

CHICAGO -- Gone, gone, gone. Marty Schottenheimer's tenure as the Chargers coach was as good as over as soon as Patriots rookie kicker Stephen Gostkowski sent his 31-yard game-winning field goal through the uprights at Qualcomm Stadium.

That will be the price of San Diego losing at home to New England and wasting the No. 1 seed in the powerful AFC playoff field. I see next to no way Chargers general manager A.J. Smith won't pull the plug on Schottenheimer, who has consistently won in the regular season during his 21-year head coaching career, and consistently lost in the playoffs. Often in one-and-done fashion despite a lofty seed.

• New England vs. Indianapolis, one more time. This time for the AFC Championship, and in the Colts' RCA Dome rather than the frosty environs of Gillette Stadium. What a build-up this one will have.

Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning again. Adam Vinatieri versus his replacement, Gostkowski. Bill Belichick, history's preeminent postseason coach, versus Tony Dungy, who has never won a conference title game in his 11-year head coaching career.

Okay, I'll say it: The Pats-Colts will be Super Bowl XLI, even if it won't be played in Miami. Whoever advances out of New Orleans and Chicago in the NFC, I like the AFC champ by a lot in the next game.

• That's got to hurt in San Diego. Reche Caldwell, the Chargers cast-off, makes the key catch on the Patriots' game-winning field goal drive, and for good measure had the touchdown grab that put New England into position to tie the game on a two-point conversion.

Does anybody get more out of other teams' failures than New England?

• Pretty tricky of Belichick, the direct snap to Kevin Faulk on the game-tying two-pointer. Who said the man in the gray hoodie is as dull as vanilla ice cream?

• I promise you that Brady -- he of the zero NFL MVP awards -- took special delight in upsetting San Diego and near-unanimous league MVP LaDanian Tomlinson. Brady never even comes close to winning the league's highest individual honor. But he is 12-1 as a starter in the playoffs. And that counts for something.

• Anybody out there -- but me -- keeping track of the playoff picks turned in by Sports Illustrated's NFL experts? I'm 8-0 in this year's playoffs, and am particularly glad I trusted my gut and went with both the Colts and Pats to pull road upsets this weekend. Road teams in the divisional round have fared horribly since the league went to the 12-team playoff format in 1990. But they were 2-2 this weekend.

• At times Sunday, it seemed Bears rookie return man Devin Hester was single-handedly trying to doom Chicago. Hester not once, not twice, but three times muffed punts. He recovered all three, but the hearts of Bears fans everywhere stayed lodged in their throats for the rest of the game.

• If the Bears do let linebacker Lance Briggs get to free agency some how, some way, there's some lucky team out there who's going to get themselves a big-time play-maker. Briggs' stuff of Seattle running back Shaun Alexander on 4th-and-1 with two minutes remaining in regulation and the game tied 24-24 was a thing of beauty.

• Here's why it's silly to write "60 minutes'' on your arm before the game, as Chicago receiver Rashied Davis did on Sunday, reminding himself to play until the end: Sometimes you go overtime. As it turns out, Davis and the Bears had to play two seconds shy of 65 minutes.