As Asante Samuel undercut a Jacksonville pass route and ran an interception back to seal the Patriots’ wild card win, it dawned on me. Xs and Os are important in the playoffs, but two things truly determine who advances: the ability of teams to take advantage of the breaks handed to them and individuals making outstanding plays at critical junctures.

Besides Samuel’s game-sealing interception, the other play that will go down on the long list of individual brilliance in Pats’ playoff history is the Ben Watson jaw-dropping, Jaguar-shedding touchdown catch and run in the third quarter that took away whatever fight that was left out of the Jags.

Watson’s quarterback had the most inconsistent playoff performance in his short, stellar career. Tom Brady was confused the entire first half by the Jacksonville defensive coverage and uncharacteristically held onto the ball just long enough to get sacked a few times.

And when he did get the ball off, it was inaccurate or thrown into triple coverage, as was the case on a deep ball to David Givens. Every great quarterback, including Brady, deserves a mulligan when looking back over his body of work. This will likely be his.

With his quarterback and running backs struggling to put the game away, Watson did the heavy lifting on one of the most exciting plays in Patriots history.

Up until these two individual performances, it was anybody’s game. With the score 7-3 in favor of New England, it was time to feel uneasy. Three trips into Jaguars’ territory had yielded just seven points. The offense was unable to take advantage of the Eugene Wilson-forced fumble. It felt like it was going to be the kind of sloppy game that a team like Jacksonville would have a chance to win at the end.

But thanks to the big plays by Samuel and Watson in the third quarter, that didn’t prove to be the case. The Pats have a laundry list of players that are unafraid to be called upon for a big play.

Forget strategy and game planning – that’s the factor a team craves at this time of the year.

I suppose you could also throw a pinch of attitude into a successful playoff recipe as well – an attitude like the one that was displayed in the fourth quarter by the Patriots defense when it refused to allow the Jaguars even a field goal during garbage time.

It was quite clear what was going on. The message being sent wasn’t so much for Jacksonville, but rather for the Colts and Broncos.

Looking ahead to this coming weekend, a rational person could make a case for each of the remaining AFC teams advancing to the Super Bowl. It’s difficult to recall a year when there has been such quality among the last four teams in a conference. Compare this quality with the Jekyll-and-Hyde routine being advertised as the NFC playoffs, and it’s easy to conclude that whoever wins the AFC will win the Super Bowl.

Do the Patriots have a chance of being the lone survivor in the AFC? Of course they do. And at this time of the year, that’s all one could hope for. That, and the type of players like Samuel and Watson, who want to make “The Play” with the season on the line.