Within each conference, the three division winners and one wild card team (the top non-division winner with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The three division winners were seeded 1 through 3 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card team was seeded 4. The first round, the divisional playoffs, had a restriction where two teams from the same division could not meet: the surviving wild card team visited the division champion outside its own division that had the higher seed, and the remaining two teams from that conference played each other. The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games then meet in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the third and final round of the playoffs, was played at a neutral site, the designated home team was based on an annual rotation by conference.

The Raiders stormed into the 1976 playoffs in dominant form, with an NFL-best 13-1 record. However, their only loss of the season was to New England, a brutal 48-17 thrashing in week 4. New England finished the year with an 11-3 record, a spectacular turnaround after going 3-11 the previous season, to make their first playoff appearance since 1963.

The Raiders overcame an 11-point fourth quarter deficit to win on quarterback Ken Stabler's 1-yard touchdown run with 14 seconds left in the game.

Raiders return man Neal Colzie gave his team an early scoring opportunity by returning a New England punt 24 yards to the Pats 46-yard line. Oakland was unable to move the ball, and despite a solid Ray Guy punt that pinned the Patriots back at their own 14-yard line, their defense could not stop them from driving 86 yards in 10 plays to take a 7-0 lead on Andy Johnson's 1-yard rushing touchdown. The key plays of the drive were a spectacular one-handed 48-yard catch by tight end Russ Francis on 3rd down and 7 from the Patriots 33-yard line, and a 24-yard 3rd down reception by receiver Darryl Stingley. On Oakland's next possession, Stabler's completions to Fred Biletnikoff and Cliff Branch for gains of 22 and 17 yards set up Errol Mann's 40-yard field goal, making the score 7-3 with 1:14 left in the first quarter.

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