Sometimes, a Wild Card Can Play Tricks : Pro football: An NFC division winner has been upset in first round the last four years.

So quarterback Brett Favre is 13-0 when it’s freezing outside and the Green Bay Packers have never lost a home playoff game.

So what?

When the Atlanta Falcons play Green Bay at Lambeau Field on Sunday, history will be on their side. Since 1990, when the NFL went to a three-team, two-game wild-card format, the last four NFC division winners to play in a wild-card game have lost.

And the team that started the trend was Atlanta.

And the last three champions that have lost were from the Central Division.

Led by a former track star who played the trumpet in high school, the Falcons defeated the NFC West champion New Orleans Saints in that wild-card game after the 1991 season. Wide receiver Michael Haynes, who had been a Saints’ fan all his life--until then anyway--scored the winning touchdown on a 61-yard pass play to beat the Saints, 27-20.

Since then, the NFC division winner has never advanced.

The next year, the Washington Redskins, who were lucky to be in the postseason at all, held the Central champion Minnesota Vikings scoreless for the final 55 minutes of a 24-7 upset.

Then in 1993, Favre, with a minute left in the season and his team trailing the Detroit Lions, didn’t like his coach’s call. So he scrambled around, saw Sterling Sharpe alone in the right corner of the end zone and connected on a 40-yard pass.

“I figured what the heck,” Favre said, “I’d give it the big heave-ho.”

And Green Bay, which had finished tied for second in the NFC Central, upset Detroit, 28-24.

Last season it was the Chicago Bears, with a roster that read like a waiver wire, who pulled off a 35-18 upset over the Vikings. The Vikings had five Pro Bowl invitees on their team. The Bears, who finished fourth in the NFC Central, had no players voted to the Pro Bowl.

For wild-card teams, though, the postseason is often a road to nowhere. Under the new expanded format, only one of the 20 teams that has won a wild-card game has made it to the Super Bowl--the Buffalo Bills after the 1992 season. And only one other team has even advanced to a conference championship game--the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993.

The only wild-card team to win the Super Bowl was the Oakland Raiders in 1980. Then, only two teams qualified as wild cards and all division winners had a bye until the second round.

But even though wild-card teams often play the role of the spoiler, one of the most exciting games in NFL history was won by a seemingly hapless team that was without its star quarterback, running back and linebacker.

Few thought the Bills had a chance in that 1992 wild-card game against the Houston Oilers.

Not even the Bills.

Especially since they were trailing, 28-3, at the half.

“I remember feeling very sorry for myself,” said Charlie Jones, who called the game for NBC along with Todd Christensen. “It is cold, we are tired after covering the Fiesta Bowl, and the game is out of hand very early. I remember when we returned [the telecast] to New York at the half, Todd and I looked at each other and said, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ ”

It would get worse. Backup quarterback Frank Reich, who started in place of an injured Jim Kelly, threw an interception at the beginning of the third quarter that was returned 58 yards for a touchdown. The Bills trailed, 35-3.

Then came the remarkable turnaround. The Bills scored 28 points in 6:52 of the third quarter. They took the lead in the fourth quarter.

Houston tied the game on a field goal, but the Bills won it in overtime, 41-38.

No team in NFL history had ever come back from a 32-point deficit. No team has since.

“People often ask me, as I look back on my career, what game is the most memorable,” Jones said. “I say Super Bowl III, of course, but this game was right up there.”