Mistakes make the difference in playoffs

It's not the skills you bring to the contest, it's the mistakes you make — or avoid — that count. Never was this more obvious than in Saturday's NFL playoff games. The teams that avoided mistakes won. The teams that kept stubbing their toes lost.

The Tennessee Titans ran up and down the field in the first half against the Baltimore Ravens, but they could manage just seven points because of crucial turnovers. For the game, the Titans had three turnovers inside the 10-yard line — turnovers that robbed them of at least a field goal and, likely, touchdowns.

In the night game, the Carolina Panthers were abysmal on their home field against the Arizona Cardinals. Panthers QB Jake Delhomme turned the ball over six times — five times on interceptions — in what has to be one of the worst games in his spotty career. Sometimes interceptions get blamed on the quarterback when he wasn't really at fault. But on most of the interceptions last night, Delhomme was at fault — he threw into double coverage, he ignored defensive backs in the path of his pass or he just threw an errant pass.

The Titans and the Panthers were favored Saturday, but their mistakes, not their skills and accomplishments, made the difference at the end. For the Panthers, who thought they had fixed their problems from last season, will have to take a long, hard look at Delhomme, a fiery, emotional player who has been a team leader but whose achievements have fallen short of stardom.