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THE FIFTH DOWN; Rex. Rob. Matt.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – By the end of the day Sunday, the Giants will have faced a number of notable opponents on their quest for a Super Bowl: the New England Patriots, the San Francisco 49ers, the New Orleans Saints, the Green Bay Packers and three guys named Ryan.

On Dec. 24, the Giants beat the Jets and their portly, outspoken coach, Rex Ryan, to win the unofficial city championship. Last Sunday, they defeated the Dallas Cowboys and their portly, outspoken defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan, to clinch a playoff berth. So perhaps it is only fitting that they open the postseason Sunday against Atlanta and the steely, sure-armed Matt Ryan.

”Why not?” Giants offensive lineman Kevin Boothe said. ”Let’s go for three.”

That the Giants finished the regular season with consecutive games against the Ryan coaching twins was an N.F.L. scheduling quirk. That they would face an unrelated quarterback with the same last name and an entirely different demeanor in the playoffs is a funny coincidence.

In any event, the Falcons’ Ryan could not be more different from the two coaches with whom he shares a last name.

”Well, Rob has a great head of hair on him,” Boothe said of the differences between the three. ”Other than that, one’s playing and the other two are coaching. One is offense and two are defense, too.”

The Ryan brothers both predicted, at varying points before or during the season, that their teams would end up in the playoffs. So much for that. The Jets descended into chaos as they made an ignominious early retreat home for the winter. And the Cowboys were on the wrong end of a 31-14 loss to the Giants that kept them out of the playoffs.

Matt Ryan, in contrast, has a plain-spoken manner and a cool demeanor that earned him the nickname Matty Ice, though he has a total of four interceptions in his two career playoff games, both of which the Falcons lost.

He surely hopes that he differs from the other Ryans in another crucial regard: by being able to beat the Giants.

N.F.L. PLAYOFFS: WILD-CARD ROUND: ATLANTA at GIANTS: 1 p.m. Sunday TV: FoxnThis is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTOS: COACH RYAN: For all of Rex’s brash talk, it was Tom Coughlin who prevailed in the showdown.; COORDINATOR RYAN: Rex’s twin, Rob, did no better a week later. His Dallas defense derailed.; QUARTERBACK RYAN: Not related to Rob or Rex. He’s half their age, maybe half their weight.(PHOTOGRAPHS BY, FROM LEFT, MIKE EHRMANN/GETTY IMAGES; SHARON ELLMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS; CHRIS GRAYTHEN/GETTY IMAGES)

N.F.L. Playoff Races Entering the Final Week

A.F.C. East

WHAT HAPPENED It was a very, very good day for the New England Patriots, who showed resilience in a second-half comeback victory over the Miami Dolphins and saw their archrival, the Jets, pushed to the brink of elimination with a loss to the Giants. The Patriots’ defense and offensive line will be concerns going into the playoffs, but they secured a first-round bye, which will be critical for the health of left tackle Matt Light and safety Patrick Chung.

NOW WHAT? A Patriots victory next week secures the A.F.C.’s top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. To get the wild card, the Jets need to win, and need losses by Cincinnati and Tennessee combined with a loss by Oakland or Denver.

A.F.C. North

WHAT HAPPENED Big wins for the entire division. The Steelers won without Ben Roethlisberger. The Ravens and the Bengals won with everybody. The division title comes down to the final weekend, and the Bengals, with the victory over the Cardinals, combined with the Jets’ loss, are now in a wild-card spot.

NOW WHAT? Baltimore plays at Cincinnati next week. Pittsburgh plays at Cleveland. If the Steelers and the Ravens wind up with the same record, Baltimore wins the division and Pittsburgh is a wild card, because the Ravens swept the Steelers this season. Baltimore should have the tougher game, because the Bengals will grab a wild-card spot with a victory. Whoever wins the division has a first-round bye.

A.F.C. South

WHAT HAPPENED The Titans’ victory over the Jaguars keeps them in the wild-card race, but the more significant game happened Thursday. The Texans have already clinched the division, but they played their worst game of the season against the Colts.

NOW WHAT? The real intrigue will be at the game between the Jaguars and the Colts. If the Colts win, they could lose their shot at the first overall draft pick and Andrew Luck. There are multiple possibilities for the Titans to get a wild-card spot. The Texans are locked into the third seed even if they lose to the Titans, but after a bad loss to the Colts, they could use a victory to get some momentum going into the playoffs.

A.F.C. West

WHAT HAPPENED The wheels came off the Tim Tebow train. He was awful in Denver’s loss to Buffalo, blowing a chance to win the division. Oakland’s overtime victory over Kansas City eliminated the Chiefs and pulled the Raiders into a tie atop the division. The Chargers’ loss to the eliminated them from contention and probably doomed Norv Turner.

NOW WHAT? If the beat the Chiefs next Sunday, they win the division, no matter what else happens. But if they lose and the Raiders beat the Chargers, the Raiders win the division. If Denver and Oakland both lose, Denver wins the division.

N.F.C. East

WHAT HAPPENED The Giants’ victory over the Jets eliminated the Eagles from the playoff race, but set up a winner-take-all game against the next Sunday. The Eagles may have given the Giants a bit of help anyway. Dallas quarterback Tony Romo hurt his right hand when it smashed against Jason Babin’s helmet. He was ready to return, though, until the Cowboys realized the Giants had won and they did not need him.

NOW WHAT? The game of the year is next Sunday: Cowboys at Giants for the division. An ancillary consideration is whether Tom Coughlin’s job also hangs in the balance.

N.F.C. North

WHAT HAPPENED The Lions completed their renaissance by clinching a wild-card spot, their first playoff trip since 1999.

NOW WHAT If the Packers beat the Bears on Sunday night, they wrap up the top seed in the N.F.C. and have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

N.F.C. South

WHAT HAPPENED Buccaneers Coach Raheem Morris took another step toward the unemployment line and Cam Newton served notice he was going to terrorize the league for the next decade in Tampa Bay’s 48-16 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The Falcons play the on Monday night.

NOW WHAT? A Saints victory Monday secures the N.F.C. South, but the Falcons are still in good position for the wild card.

N.F.C. West

WHAT HAPPENED Not a whole lot. San Francisco’s defeat of Seattle puts the 49ers in position to get a first-round bye, but their struggle to score touchdowns will give them a lot to think about heading into the playoffs.

NOW WHAT? If the Saints lose to the Falcons on Monday, San Francisco clinches a first-round bye.

Falcons Get Their Man, Julio Jones

But for , the engineer of the boldest player transaction in an off-season filled with them, the notion of paying a king’s ransom for one college player who was not the consensus leading pick at his position began brewing soon after Atlanta hired him.

Dimitroff, 45, caught wind of wide receiver Julio Jones in 2008, when he was the Southeastern Conference freshman of the year at Alabama. In time, he grew smitten with Jones’s skills, admiring of his grit, blown away by his humble nature.

“The fact that he was as talented as he was on the field, sans the diva qualities you sometimes have at that position, was very attractive to this organization,” Dimitroff, who has 22 years in player evaluation, five as the director of scouting with the New England Patriots, said last week.

As the approached, with the Falcons picking 27th, Dimitroff began calculating the cost of taking an unprecedented leap toward the front of the line to select Jones. This year’s first-round pick, he figured. Ka-ching. Next year’s, too. Ka-ching. Probably a No. 2. Ka-ching. Some likely middle-rounders.

“We got our heads around it quite quickly, after the initial sticker shock wore off,” he said.

Dimitroff dug into the N.F.L. archives, which reminded him that a one-for-many trade carries risks that can rise to embarrassment. There was the Great Train Robbery of 1989, which involved 18 players but boiled down to Minnesota’s sacrificing eight draft choices to the .

“It eased my mind when we looked at our compensation package and I thought, ‘Ah, ours isn’t that bad,’ ”Dimitroff said.

Ten years later, New Orleans Coach Mike Ditka concocted a swap of all six of that year’s draft picks for the experienced Ricky Williams. The Saints promptly went 3-13 and Ditka was fired, along with his entire staff and the general manager.

A more comparable exchange, at the 2004 draft, sent Eli Manning to the Giants from San Diego for four draft picks.

The Falcons also were undeterred by the foot surgery Jones had in March, by the sketchy legacy of first-round receivers or by the implied advice against a move from a numerical guideline.

The computer-based Trade Value Chart assigns a points total to each spot in the draft. (Example: No. 1 over all is 3,000, No. 32 is 590.) It allows general managers to comparison-shop. Some ignore it. Dimitroff does not. Ultimately, the numbers did not favor the Falcons, but the difference was within a range he found acceptable.

Then there were various analyses, combining statistics and subjectivity, that concluded that waiting until later rounds for receivers is the wiser course. Some cited the Detroit Lions, with one of four receiver draftees in a five-year span panning out. Others reached back to the last quarter of the 20th century, when the Cincinnati Bengals spun the wheel six times on first-round wideouts.

Dimitroff processed the data, sniffed and assembled the package to offer. “We all took a deep breath in saying: ‘This is significant. Let’s make sure we’re doing the right thing,’ ” he said, meaning Coach Mike Smith and the owner Arthur Blank.

They found a suitor in the Cleveland Browns, who were sixth in the draft, and parted with five picks, including two fourth-rounders.

Research had determined that fewer than half of N.F.L. fourth-rounders in the previous five years had been activated for a game.

The Falcons’ daring reflected the here-and-now philosophy of a team that craves another outlet for quarterback Matt Ryan, Dimitroff’s other heavily scrutinized draft-day call.

“We have thought for the last three years that we’d love to have a 1 and a 1-A receiver, not a 1 and a 2” that characterized the Falcons squads, he said.

Jones was not apprised of the steep price he bore until news media interviews the night of the draft. His first thought, as he recalled this week: “They really want me.”

Jones is trying to tamp down expectations that accompany someone who prompted Dimitroff to “bet the farm” on him, as one analyst wrote.

“I’m human,” said Jones, no shrinking violet to contact, which leads to his theory why many first-round receivers flop.

“Guys ain’t used to hitting and getting hit,” he said. “Some can’t really handle that.”