American Football: Rampant Rams pick off Favre

Billed as the shootout of the season, the play-off confrontation between the St Louis Rams and the Green Bay Packers saw one of the game's great gunslingers send his team to the sporting equivalent of Boot Hill with a calamitous series of self-inflicted wounds.

Brett Favre's well-deserved reputation as a master craftsman has been garnered over a decade of excellence, but there is also a touch of the gambler about a man who took his team to consecutive Super Bowls in the 1990s. Against the Rams on Sunday, Favre rolled the dice, and came up with six. He equalled a post-season record by throwing six interceptions in his side's 45-17 drubbing, and as if that was not bad enough, three of them were returned for touchdowns.

Two were claimed by the veteran Rams defensive back Aeneas Williams, the first player to return a pair of interceptions for touchdowns in a play-off game. Williams also had a third, but his return of a fumble was called back after a video review.

By contrast, the Rams quarterback, Kurt Warner, enjoyed a quiet night, throwing a pair of touchdowns, while the prolific running back Marshall Faulk added a second-half score. St Louis hardly needed the services of their big guns: with a staggering eight turnovers, the Packers were bent on a course of self-destruction.

"Today wasn't one of his best days, and he'd be the first to admit that," said the Packers head coach, Mike Sherman, of Favre. "We have received a lot of benefits of his good days, and obviously this wasn't one of his better ones." Favre's thoughts were brief and to the point: "This one hurts, but I'll be back."

The Rams will entertain the Philadelphia Eagles next week, with the winners booking their place in the Super Bowl in New Orleans on 3 February. The Eagles impressed in their 33-19 triumph in Chicago on Saturday. The game turned on a single play. Chicago's Jim Miller threw an interception, then, adding insult to injury, was hurled to the ground, legally, by Philadelphia's Hugh Douglas. Miller was sidelined with a separated shoulder and the Eagles never looked back.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are also within sight of a Super Bowl appearance following an impressive 27-10 rout of the Baltimore Ravens. The defending champions swaggered into the game with a sense of their own invincibility, and their prospects appeared even more promising when Pittsburgh's leading running back, Jerome Bettis, broke down during pre-game warm-ups.

However, Baltimore confidence soon evaporated as his replacement, Amos Zeroue, scored a pair of first-half touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Steelers' top-ranked defense was making life miserable for the Ravens' Elvis Grbac. Relentlessly harried throughout, Grbac was forced into a series of errors, including two interceptions in the Pittsburgh end zone, both claimed by Brent Alexander.

With Baltimore unable to move the ball, Pittsburgh's only moment of anxiety came in the third quarter when Jermaine Lewis scored on an 88-yard punt return, the longest in play-off history, to make it 20-10. Steeler jitters were soon ended, however, when Kordell Stewart capped an impressive drive with a touchdown to Plaxico Burress, ending the Ravens' brief reign of terror.

The New England Patriots will visit Pittsburgh next week and, after their amazing 16-13 triumph over the Oakland Raiders in a blizzard on Saturday night, will believe they are destined for greatness. The game seemed over when New England's quarterback, Tom Brady, lost a fumble inside the last two minutes. However, a video review overturned the call: the Patriots got the ball back, Adam Vinatieri tied the scores on a 46-yard field goal with less than 30 seconds remaining, and then completed the comeback with the winning kick in overtime.

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS (Sunday): AFC: Pittsburgh v New England (5.30pm GMT). NFC: St Louis v Philadelphia (9.0pm GMT).