Redskins and Titans march on

SEASON-ENDING victories by the Washington Redskins and Tennessee Titans advanced both teams into the NFL playoffs, with reserve quarterbacks named Collins leading each triumph.

Tennessee’s Kerry Collins entered when Vince Young suffered a leg injury and guided three drives for field goals to give the Titans a 16-10 victory at Indianapolis and the final berth in the American Conference playoffs.

“We pulled it out. It wasn’t pretty but we got it done,” Collins said.

Todd Collins guided Washington to a fourth win in a row since he replaced injured Jason Campbell, completing 22 of 31 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown in a 27-6 rout of Dallas to reach the National Conference playoffs.

“It all feels like we’re going for a ride right now. It’s really something,” Collins said.

The Redskins (9-7) open the NFL playoffs Saturday at Seattle (10-6) and would face Dallas (13-3) in the second round by beating the Seahawks. The Cowboys, like Green Bay (13-3), had already secured a first-round bye.

The other National Conference playoff match-up has the New York Giants (10-6) at Tampa Bay (9-7) Sunday.

In the American Conference, undefeated New England (16-0) and Indianapolis (13-3) grabbed first-round byes. Jacksonville (11-5) will visit Pittsburgh (10-6) on Saturday with Tennessee (10-6) at San Diego (11-5) Sunday.

Indianapolis benched starters to avoid injuries, so reserve Jim Sorgi rather than star quarterback Peyton Manning guided a rally, tossing a 3-yard touchdown pass to Craphonso Thorpe 5:51 into the third quarter for a 10-7 Indy lead.

Young suffered a strained quadriceps on the next series and Collins guided Tennessee downfield for Rob Bironas to kick field goals of 40, 54 and 33 yards, the shortest and last coming with 2:56 remaining to produce the final margin.

More than 10 years had elapsed since someone other than Manning had guided the Colts on a fourth-quarter touchdown march and Sorgi was not up to the task, a fourth-down in completion with 2:00 remaining giving the ball to the Titans, who ran out the clock to book their playoff date.

“It’s great to get in,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. “It took a great effort against a very talented team. (Vince) probably could have come back in but Kerry was managing the game well.”

Washington’s Collins, a 37-year-old journeyman who had not started a game in 10 years, has taken a team reeling from the shooting death of star defender Sean Taylor and guided it into the playoffs after a 5-7 start.

“We dedicated each game to Sean,” Collins said. “We’ve had some real low lows and some real high highs. We just want to keep it going.

“I saw a lot of guys crying in our locker room,” Redskins coach Joe Gibbs said. “We’ve been through a lot. This was the biggest one. We can’t wait to go to Seattle.”

The rout was a good omen if the Redskins win next week and face Dallas again in the playoffs, although the Cowboys were without star receiver Terrell Owens and benched quarterback Tony Romo in the second half.

Minnesota and New Orleans, which needed a Washington loss to have any playoff hope, both lost.

Denver beat Minnesota 22-19 on Jason Elam’s 30-yard field goal in over-time and Chicago downed the Saints 33-25 although New Orleans’ Drew Brees set an NFL record for most completions in a season with 443, breaking the old mark of 418 set by Oakland’s Rich Gannon in 2002.

Cleveland improved to 10-6 with a 20-7 triumph over San Francisco but the Browns lost a tie-breaker to the Titans for the last American Conference slot.