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With the completion of this week's NFL games, another professional football season is now in the books.  There weren't too many surprises to speak of in the final week.  The New York Giants clinched their division and made it into the playoffs.  The rest of the teams that advanced to the postseason are:  the Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, Washington Redskins, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Jacksonville Jaguars, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Cincinnati Bengals.

Teams that don't make it to the playoffs can typically expect a lot of personnel changes in the offseason.  Those moves started very early this year, as five teams announced head coach firings soon after the final games were over.  Let's take a look at some of the swan songs that we saw on Sunday.

Minnesota Vikings over Chicago Bears
Minnesota head coach Mike Tice has been under fire for most of the year.  His troubles started way back in training camp when a story broke that he had been reprimanded by the league for selling his Super Bowl tickets.  Then Tice's troubles continued during the season as the Vikings got off to a very slow start.  When several members of the team were involved in a midseason boat party scandal, rumors started flying that Tice's days as head coach were numbered.  Those rumors proved to be correct, as Tice was let go shortly after the Vikings defeated the Bears 34-10 in a game that was largely meaningless for both teams.

The playoff-bound Bears rested most of their starters, including newly-anointed starting quarterback Rex Grossman.  That meant rookie Kyle Orton got another chance to play under center for the entire game.  He was virtually ineffective from start to finish, and showed that the coaches are making a smart decision by going with Grossman, who actually has a worse won-loss record in the NFL.  Orton completed just 6 out of 14 passes for a scant 59 yards.  The Bears offense had trouble moving the ball all game long and was held to 251 yards on the day.  Running back Thomas Jones gained 62 yards on 12 carries in his limited playing time before giving way to backup Adrian Peterson.  Peterson ran the ball 8 times for 35 yards.

Minnesota QB Brad Johnson had a nice game to finish off the season.  He completed 27 out of 40 passes for 247 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions.  Johnson spread the ball around to eight different receivers, but clearly favored going to Travis Taylor and Nate Burleson.  Taylor had five catches for 68 yards and a touchdown, while Burleson ended up with six catches for 66 yards.  Running back Michael Bennett chipped in 82 rushing yards and a touchdown of his own to round out the Vikings' scoring threats.

Green Bay Packers over Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks were another playoff-bound team that had nothing left to prove in the final week of the season, so the 23-17 setback at the hands of Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers didn't mean much.  However, the game itself was still noteworthy for several reasons.  

First of all, Favre might very well have played in the final game of his storied NFL career.  The veteran of 15 seasons has been contemplating retirement all year long, and early indications are that he will indeed hang up his spikes for good.  Despite the win, the lowly Packers finished the season at 4-12, which was the first time in all of Favre's years with the team that they ended up with a losing record.  Favre also had the worst year of his career stat-wise.  He had a rating of just 70.9, and threw 29 interceptions.  Nevertheless, if Favre does decide to retire, he will do so as a winner and as a lock for the Hall of Fame.

The second noteworthy aspect of this game is the fact that Seattle running back Shaun Alexander was able to accomplish two spectacular feats in his limited playing time.  Alexander scored a touchdown on a one-yard run in the second quarter, which gave him a total of 28 on the season.  That mark is now the new NFL record for touchdowns in a season, previously held by Priest Holmes of the Kansas City Chiefs.  Then, later in the game, Alexander overtook Tiki Barber of the New York Giants for the league rushing title.  All in all, it was an excellent season for Alexander, who didn't let impending contract negotiations distract him from doing his job out on the field.

Finally, the game was noteworthy because it was Packers' coach Mike Sherman's last one with the team.  Even though Sherman had a lot of success in Green Bay in recent years, including three consecutive divisional championships, a lot of analysts expected his firing.  It seems that the Packers franchise would like to move in a different direction, and that involves bringing in a new head coach to groom their young quarterback Aaron Rodgers to take over for Favre.  It will be interesting to see where Sherman ends up, and which coach the Packers will bring in to replace him.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers over New Orleans Saints
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers secured the NFC South championship by defeating the New Orleans Saints by a score of 27-13.  The Buccaneers finished the regular season with an 11-5 record and will play host to the Washington Redskins in the first round of the playoffs next week.  The Saints, on the other hand, finished their season with a dismal five-game losing streak that dropped their overall record to 3-13.  Needless to say, they will be in rebuilding mode during the offseason.

Wide receiver Joey Galloway led the way for the Tampa Bay offense.  He had four catches for 38 yards and two touchdowns.  Those two touchdowns brought his season total to 10, which set a franchise record.  Getting the ball to Galloway was third-year quarterback Chris Simms.  Simms completed 12 out of 25 passes for 143 yards in the game, plus the two touchdowns to Galloway.  He'll be making the first postseason start of his short career next Saturday.

The Saints, meanwhile, continued to be mired in the mediocrity that defined the majority of their season.  Quarterback Todd Bouman was 25 out of 37 on pass attempts in the game for 265 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.  Running back Antowain Smith gained 55 yards on 16 carries and tight end Zachary Hilton caught five passes for 74 yards to lead the Saints in those categories.

The day after the game, the New Orleans organization announced that they had decided to part ways with head coach Jim Haslett.  Haslett had been at the helm in New Orleans for the past five seasons and amassed a 45-51 record in that time.  Although his record is below the .500 mark, it nevertheless put him second on the Saints' all-time win list.  Haslett also coached the Saints to their first-ever postseason victory in the 2000 season, which helped him earn Coach of the Year honors.  But the last four years have been marred by a failure to win big games, so the Saints are looking to move in a new direction.  According to most analysts, Haslett should have no trouble landing another head coaching gig in the NFL very soon.

San Francisco 49ers over Houston Texans
This game was a matchup between two of the worst teams in the league.  The 49ers prevailed by a score of 20-17 in overtime, which allowed them to end their 4-12 season on a note of respectability.  The loss gave the Texans the distinction of locking up the first overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft.  This most likely gives them the rights to USC star running back Reggie Bush, should he decide to turn pro and declare himself eligible for the draft.  It will be the second time in the four-year history of the franchise that they will get the number one pick.  When the Texans entered the league in 2002, they selected quarterback David Carr with the first pick.  

Speaking of Carr, he saw limited action as he went out in the first half of the game with an injury to his right elbow.  Until that point, he had completed 4 out of 11 passes for 23 yards.  Carr was replaced by veteran backup Tony Banks, who connected on 14 out of 25 passes for 173 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions.  Rookie running back Vernand Morency got some significant playing time in the game, and made the most of his chances by gaining 83 yards on 21 carries to lead the Texans in that category.  He also scored the second touchdown of his career on a three-yard run in the first quarter.

The 49ers had a less than stellar season themselves, dropping seven consecutive games at one point.  But they were able to put things together in the final two weeks of the season and end with back-to-back wins.  That's certainly something positive that they can build on in the offseason.  Rookie quarterback Alex Smith completed 16 of 29 passes for 159 yards on the day.  The former Utah star and the first overall pick of the 2005 draft also reached the first milestone in his NFL career when he hit wide receiver Brandon Lloyd late in the second quarter for his very first touchdown pass.  Lloyd had a total of 4 catches for 48 yards in the game.

Houston head coach Dom Capers turned into yet another coaching casualty this season when the organization announced his firing on Monday.  In his four seasons with the Texans, Capers put together an 18-46 record and never made it to the playoffs, so the firing really didn't come as a surprise to anybody.  Some might argue that he never had the right players to help him succeed, but that's really to be expected with an expansion team in its first few years.  The bottom line is that he failed to make significant improvements this year, and actually regressed in terms of the team's record.  According to most NFL analysts, it will be a difficult task for Capers to find another head coaching job in the pro ranks for next season, which means we might not be seeing him for a while.