NFL 2011 season is one for the books

After a crazy 2010 NFL season which included the Green Bay Packers winning the Super Bowl with 15 players ending the season on injured reserve, 7-9 Seattle winning its first round game against defending champion New Orleans and the Metrodome collapsing forcing the Vikings to play a game in Detroit, who would have thought 2011 would possible even more crazy?

A streak of nine consecutive playoff births and two straight AFC South championships by the Indianapolis Colts was broken when star quarterback Peyton Manning had to miss the entire season due to a neck surgery. The Houston Texans won the division and earned their first playoff birth ever. Indianapolis lost its first 13 games and finished the season a league-worst 2-14.

The first game of the regular season dictated how the season would go as Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers were trading blows. Ultimately, Green Bay won on a goal line stand 42-34 at Lambeau Field.

In 2008, Brees came up 15 yards shy of breaking Dan Marino's record for most passing yards in a season. In 2011, he not only surpassed Marino's record, he shattered it, as he broke the record by nearly 400 yards.

If Brees wouldn't have broken the record, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady would have, as he also eclipsed Marino's record. Of the quarterbacks who passed for more than 5,000 yards in a season, three of them happened this year. Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was the other to reach 5,000.

After winning last year's Super Bowl, Green Bay was not content, winning its first 13 before falling to Kansas City en route to a 15-1 regular season record. The postseason was not as kind, though, as Green Bay lost its first game to the New York Giants.

Many rookies made huge impressions in 2011, but none bigger than No. 1 overall pick Cam Newton. In his first game against the Arizona Cardinals, he threw for 422 yards and two touchdowns, as he was the first rookie to ever throw for over 400 yards in his first game.

That game set the tone for Newton's season, as he set numerous records, including most passing yards in a season for a rookie with 4,051 and most rushing touchdowns for a quarterback with 14. His 35 total touchdowns by a rookie also is an NFL record.

A little bit north of Carolina, the next great passing connection might have been born. In the first two rounds of the 2011 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals took wide receiver A.J. Green and quarterback Andy Dalton. Those two led the Bengals to the playoffs this year. Dalton started from day one and threw for 3,398 yards and 20 touchdowns, leading the Bengals to a 9-7 record. Green, on the other hand, had over 1,000 yards receiving and caught seven touchdowns.

And of course, how could somebody talk about the 2011 NFL season and not mention the name Tim Tebow? In week five of the NFL season, Denver was staring at a 1-4 record and down big to the San Diego Chargers, Tebow came in and nearly led Denver back to win. After that game, the 1-4 Broncos made the change at quarterback.

After over three quarters of poor play in his first start of the season against the winless Miami Dolphins, Tebow led the Broncos to two straight touchdown drives at the end of the game to send it into overtime, where the Broncos won the game. Tebow won seven of his first eight starts with many of them coming in similar fashion. The final chapter of the storybook season for Tebow was in the Wildcard Round against the heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers as Tebow found Demaryius Thomas over the middle on the first play of overtime and Thomas went 80 yards to give the Broncos a 29-23 upset win.

And finally, who could forget about the "Dream Team." The Philadelphia Eagles were the darling of the off-season, signing All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, defensive end Jason Babin and defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins, not to mention also picking up Pro Bowl cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in a trade with Arizona.

Philadelphia started strong with a 31-13 win in St. Louis, but the Eagles went downhill after that, losing its next four to fall to 1-4. Philadelphia rebounded with four consecutive wins to end the year, but for a team that was expected to be a frontrunner to win the Super Bowl this year, its 8-8 record was far from a success.

This season also welcomed back the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers to the playoffs. Led by a powerful defensive line and All-Pro wide receiver Calvin Johnson, Detroit made it to the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

San Francisco, behind first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh, took the NFL by storm, going 13-3 and earning the No. 2 seed and its first playoff appearance since 2002. The 49ers won its first playoff game against the Saints in a back-and-forth game as Alex Smith found tight end Vernon Davis over the middle for the touchdown to give the 49ers the lead with nine seconds left.

Super Bowl XLVI pits the New England Patriots against the New York Giants in a Super Bowl rematch from four years ago which the Giants upset the Patriots 17-14, ending New England's perfect season.