NFL Playoffs 2012: MVP Awards for Every Winning Team on Wild Card Weekend

With the NFL's Wild Card Weekend in the books, let's take a quick look back at each winning team's MVP.

Houston Texans: RB Arian Foster/CB Johnathan Joseph

What a luxury it must be for Texans head coach Gary Kubiak to have Foster in his backfield. In all reality, Foster has saved the Texans season.

Not many teams (see: Chicago Bears) could lose their starting quarterback and stay afloat. Houston has. Foster again carried the offensive load on Sunday with over 150 yards rushing and two scores. 

You also can't overlook the play of Joseph, who locked down A.J. Green for the most part and had the game-clinching interception against his former team. He's been a big reason for the Texans' defensive revival in 2011. 

New Orleans Saints: Offensive line

Drew Brees is too obvious an answer, so I'll go with the Saints offensive line. If there was any hope of the Lions hanging in on defense, it was through their front-four pass rush.

No such rush ever materialized because of how well the Saints offensive line played. They also paved huge holes for the Saints running backs. Overall, this was an A+ performance from the big guys up front. 

New York Giants: RB Brandon Jacobs

Eli Manning deserves some consideration here, as does Hakeem Nicks and the Giants front four. But I'll give it to Jacobs, who revitalized the Giants running game with 92 yards.

When the Giants are at their best on offense, they'll run the ball to set up Manning's play-action pass. That's been missing almost all season.

If Jacobs can have another big performance against the Packers this Sunday, Manning will be picking apart the Green Bay secondary on pass fakes all afternoon.

Denver Broncos: QB Tim Tebow

I tried thinking of someone clever to put here instead of Tebow, but that was a quick and futile exercise. Tebow was terrific in shutting up the critics (at least for one game) on Sunday night, throwing for 316 yards and three touchdowns on just 10 completions.

His throw—the one that set up the 80-yard touchdown—was right on the money. You can hate on the guy all you want, but there's very little you can nitpick from Tebow's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.