Foxboro:-New England, winners of three of the past five Super Bowls, opened their National Football League playoff campaign with a 37-16 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday.

A second contender from the Big Apple then fell by the wayside as the Philadelphia Eagles edged the New York Giants 23-20 to reach the second round.

The fourth-seeded Patriots will now play American Conference top seeds San Diego in the second round next week.

In a game that matched Patriots coach Bill Belichick against Jets protege Eric Magnini, New England utilized a varied offence that mixed Tom Brady's precision passing with an effective running attack and a defence that forced two critical turnovers en route to the American Conference wild card victory.

Mangini, who was an assistant under Belichick when the Patriots won NFL titles in 2001, 2003 and 2004, left New England to take over the Jets last January and orchestrated a turnaround from a 4-12 season to a 10-7 playoff run this campaign.

But Belichick preserved his record of never losing a home playoff game, a 7-0 mark that includes six victories with the Patriots.

"We just played a complete game today," Belichick said.

"It wasn't perfect by any means, but we did a lot of good things. Our tight ends and running backs did a great job in blitz pickup," he said.

Brady, a two-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, threw for 212 yards and two touchdowns.

"I think we had a great plan," said Brady, who is 10-2 in his career against the Jets. "This is a pressure defence. They bring a lot of different blitzes and I think we were prepared much more for the pressure this time around."

The backfield tandem of Corey Dillon and rookie Laurence Maroney combined to rush for more than 122 yards and Jabar Gaffney caught eight passes for 106 yards.

The Patriots also got some big plays from their defence.

Defensive tackle Vince Wilfork recovered a ball that was deflected by linebacker Rosevelt Colvin and returned it 31 yards to the New York 15.

That set up a 28-yard field goal by rookie Stephen Gostkowski with four seconds left in the third quarter, giving New England a 23-13 lead.

Cornerback Asante Samuel, who tied for the league lead with 10 interceptions this season, sealed the win when he intercepted a pass by Chad Pennington and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown with 4:54 left in the game.

In Philadelphia, David Akers kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Eagles to victory over the Giants and into a second-round clash with the New Orleans Saints next Saturday.

The defeat marked the end of Giants running back Tiki Barber's career. Barber, the team's all-time leading rusher, announced last month he would retire after this season.

The Giants rallied from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit. Jay Feely kicked a 24-yard field goal 10 seconds into the fourth quarter to pull New York within 20-13.

And New York pulled level when quarterback Eli Manning connected with Plaxico Burress on an 11-yard touchdown pass with 5:04 left. It was Burress' second touchdown of the game.

But Brian Westbrook upstaged Barber, rushing for 33 yards on Philadelphia's winning drive to set up Akers' field goal.

It was the 10th career game-winning field goal, including two in the playoffs, for Akers.