During that season, they won their only NFC Championship Game since the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, and reached Super Bowl XLIII.

On January 18, 1999, the Falcons upset the top-seeded 15 – 1 Vikings at Minnesota in the NFC Championship Game, 30 – 27 in an epic overtime victory.

In the divisional playoffs, the Falcons defeated the St. Louis Rams 47 – 17 in the Georgia Dome, advancing to the NFC Championship, which they lost to the Eagles 27 – 10.

Walsh went 102 – 63 – 1 with the 49ers, winning ten of his 14 postseason games along with six division titles, three NFC Championship titles, and three Super Bowls.

After defeating the defending Super Bowl champions, the Dallas Cowboys, they advanced to the NFC Championship, but fell 30-13 to the Packers, who went on to win the Super Bowl.

They then defeated the Bears 29 – 21 in the Divisional playoffs, before falling to the Seahawks in the NFC Championship, losing 34 – 14.

However, despite playing in the NFC Championship Game three consecutive years ( 1980 – 1982 ), the Cowboys did not reach the Super Bowl during the 1980s.

The Cowboys finished 12 – 4 in 1994, but missed the Super Bowl by losing to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, 38 – 28.

Dallas's lone victory in a conference championship or Super Bowl wearing the blue jerseys was in the 1978 NFC Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams.

As when the Philadelphia Eagles hosted the Cowboys in the 1980 NFC Championship Game, and their November 4, 2007 meeting.

The Washington Redskins, after wearing white exclusively in the ' 80s and ' 90s, including the 1982 NFC Championship Game ( having gone 3 – 0 in them during the regular season, during CBS ' pregame show, Jimmy " The Greek " Snyder actually invoked the blue jerseys in picking Dallas to win the game ), have since 2002 occasionally reverted to using their burgundy jerseys for second-half home games, but will still wear white against the Cowboys.

Some notable moments in the rivalry include Washington's victory over Dallas in the 1982 NFC Championship and the latter's 1989 win over the Redskins for their only victory that season.

In January 1981, the two teams faced off in the NFC Championship, with Philadelphia winning 20 – 7 ( The Eagles subsequently lost to the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XV ).

In 2008 the rivalry became more intense when in the last game of the year in which both teams could clinch a playoff spot with a victory, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Cowboys 44 – 6, and clinched a playoff spot, where they would go to lose the NFC Championship game to the Arizona Cardinals.

Nine years later the two teams met at The Stick again in the NFC Championship Game ; in their third season together 49ers coach Bill Walsh and quarterback Joe Montana authored a history-making moment on Montana's last-minute touchdown to Dwight Clark and a 28-27 San Francisco win.

In 1992 under fourth-year coach Jimmy Johnson the Cowboys met the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game again, this time against Steve Young ; the Cowboys pulled out a 30-20 win en route to Super Bowl XXVII.

In, the Vikings again won the Central Division with a 9 – 5 record and advanced to their 4th NFC Championship Game in 5 years, but were defeated by the eventual Super Bowl Champion Cowboys, 23 – 6, at Texas Stadium.

The Vikings played the Washington Redskins in the NFC Championship Game on January 17, 1988, at RFK Stadium.

He also led Minnesota to three playoff appearances, including a division title and an NFC Championship Game.

In his 10 seasons as the coach of the Vikings, Green won four NFC Central division titles, had eight playoff appearances, two NFC Championship game appearances and an all-time record of 97 – 62.

The Vikings entered the decade by winning the divisional championship and an appearance in the NFC Championship game, but struggled the following season by posting a 5 – 11 record in 2001.

After easily beating the Saints in the Divisional game 34 – 16, they traveled to New York to face the Giants in the NFC Championship Game.

The Eagles would go on to defeat the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants in the Divisional round, only to lose to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game.

In 1980, after a nine game winning streak, the Falcons posted a franchise then-best record of 12 – 4 and captured their first NFC West division title.

The 49ers faced the Cowboys again that same season in the NFC title game.

However, the Panthers ' season came to a crushing end, as they lost to the Arizona Cardinals 33 – 13 at Bank of America Stadium in the NFC Divisional playoff game.

Following the regular season, in which the 12-4 Panthers won their third NFC South division title, they hosted the Cardinals at Bank of America Stadium in the Panthers first home playoff game since January 2004.

In the 2005 season, the Bears won the NFC North Division and the No. 2 Seed in the NFC Playoffs, entitling them to play at least one home game in the postseason.

Following their bye week, Dallas went on a three game winning streak including wins over Atlanta and NFC East division rival Philadelphia.

The following season, the Cowboys avenged that defeat by beating the Eagles three times: twice during the regular season to claim the title as NFC East champions and once more in a wild-card playoff game by a combined score of 78 – 30, including a 24 – 0 shutout in week 17.

Their fellow second-year NFC expansion team, the Carolina Panthers, also got to their conference championship game, where they lost 30 – 13 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

On January 4, 2009, the NFC North champion Vikings hosted the Philadelphia Eagles for the Wild Card round, their first home playoff game in eight years.

The Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round on January 17, 2010, and won the game by a score of 34 – 3, advancing the Vikings to the NFC Championship game, the ninth in franchise history.

This would also be the first NFC Championship game for the team since 2001.

The season ended on January 21, 2007 when the Saints lost 39 – 14 to the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship game.

Although its opponents would include winners of 9 of the last 15 NFL MVP awards, the team advanced to the 2010 NFC Championship game where they defeated the Minnesota Vikings, led by Brett Favre, 31 – 28 in overtime ( at 9: 19 CST ), and then went on to win their first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.

New Orleans Saints beat the Detroit Lions in the 2011 NFC wild-card playoff game 45-28.

After finishing the 2006 and 2007 seasons with records of 8 – 8 and 7 – 9, respectively, the Panthers rebounded in the 2008 season, finishing the season with a 12 – 4 record, claiming the NFC South title and a first round bye in the playoffs.

Star receiver Michael Irvin was suspended by the league for the first five games of 1996 following a drug-related arrest ; he came back after the Cowboys started the season 2-3 ; they finished 10-6 and won the NFC East title, but were eliminated in the divisional round of the playoffs 26-17 by the second-year Carolina Panthers.

The Saints and the Carolina Panthers have been minor rivals since Carolina was introduced into the NFC West as an expansion franchise in 1995.

Collins was the first – ever draft choice of the expansion Carolina Panthers in 1995, and led the Panthers to the NFC Championship game in his second season.

In 2008, the Giants won the NFC East with a record of 12 – 4 ( and also were the number one seed in the NFC after beating the Carolina Panthers for home field advantage ), but lost 23 – 11 to the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Green Bay then defeated the Carolina Panthers, 30 – 13, in the NFC Championship Game.

* NFC Championship Game: January 18, 2004: ( Carolina Panthers 14, Philadelphia Eagles 3 ).

In his first season with the Cowboys, he led them to the playoffs with a 10 – 6 record ( losing to the eventual NFC Champion Carolina Panthers in the opening round ), thus making him the first head coach in NFL history to guide four different teams to the playoffs.

On February 1, 2004, Brady led the Patriots to a 32 – 29 victory over the NFC champion Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII and was named Super Bowl MVP for the second time.

* 2003 ( NFL )-Super Bowl XXXVIII-2 / 1 / 04 AFC New England Patriots 32, NFC Carolina Panthers 29

Super Bowl XXXVIII was an American football game between the National Football Conference ( NFC ) champion Carolina Panthers and the American Football Conference ( AFC ) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League ( NFL ) champion for the 2003 season.

The Patriots and Panthers both played against the AFC South and NFC East in the regular season.

Since the Panthers finished with the third best regular season record in the NFC, they had to win three playoff games to reach the Super Bowl.

The Panthers then went on the road again to eliminate the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, 14-3.

In the NFC Divisional game against the St. Louis Rams, Manning's timely interception of Marc Bulger set up the game-winning touchdown to propel the Panthers into the NFC Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Irvin's reputation was further damaged in 1996 as the Cowboys prepared to play the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Divisional Playoff game.

Bank of America began shining the top of the crown shaped spire from white to blue in honor of the Carolina Panthers who were NFC champions in the 2003-2004 NFL Season.