Top Story
Giants, 49ers, Patriots, & Ravens move on to Conference Championships
In what was an insanely exciting weekend of playoff football, 4 teams emerged victorious and moved one step closer to going to Indianapolis for Superbowl XLVI. Here's what went down...
- The New England Patriots demolished the Denver Tebows Broncos 45-10. The Patriots had this game on lock, save for one 1st quarter Brady interception, the Broncos were never in this game. The New England defense was surprisingly dominant, forcing Tebow to scramble even more so than usual as he threw for an extremely pedestrian 136 yards while only completing 9 of 26 pass attempts. Tom Brady, on the other hand, had a record-tying performance, matching Steve Young for the most touchdown passes in a single playoff game with 6.
- The Patriots will be facing the Baltimore Ravens who took care of business against the injury riddled Houston Texans. The Ravens won 20-13 as Houston was able to hang around with rookie quarterback T.J. Yates who struggled mightily throwing 3 interceptions against the tough Baltimore defense. Of Yates' 184 passing yards, 111 of which went to Andre Johnson. Arian Foster led the way for Houston's offense with a touchdown and 132 yards rushing, but it wasn't enough. The Texans had a chance to tie it late in the 4th as they were driving down field when Yates threw an interception to safety Ed Reed who would seal the deal for Baltimore and punched their ticket to the AFC Championship game.
- In what may have been one of the greatest, if not entertaining NFL playoff games of all time, the San Francisco 49ers managed to defeat the New Orleans Saints in a back & forth nail-biter, 36-32. The stellar 49er defense was able to force 3 turnovers in the first quarter alone against the dynamic Saints offense including a fumble recovery on their own 2 yard line after Pierre Thomas was knocked out of the game with a hit from Donte Whitner. The 49er offense struggled through most of the game as it remained close despite the dominant showing from the San Francisco defense. At the beginning of the 4th quarter it was 20-17 San Francisco. That's when all the fun began. A David Akers 37 yard field goal made it a 23-17 game with 7:36 to go which was followed up by a 44 yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees to Darren Sproles to put the Saints up 24-23 with 4:02 left in the game, just 1 of Sproles' record-breaking 15 receptions in the game. The 49ers answered when their quarterback, Alex Smith was able to rush for a 28 yard touchdown on a 3rd & 8 with 2:11 left in the game putting San Francisco up 29-24 after a failed 2 point conversion attempt. New Orleans answered right back as Drew Brees threw an epic pass to Jimmy Graham that ended up as a 66 yard touchdown pass down the middle, as the Saints were able to tack on the 2 point conversion making it a 32-29 game with only 1:37 left in the game. Game over, right? Wrong. Alex Smith led the 49ers down the field and capped it all off with a 14 yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis, who had 7 receptions for 180 yards & 2 touchdowns, including the game-winner with just 9 seconds left in the game. A tearful Davis returned to the sidelines after the catch and embraced his rookie coach Jim Harbaugh in an image that will live on forever.
- The 49ers weren't the only NFC team to pull off what was perceived to be an upset this past weekend. The best team in the regular season, Green Bay Packers who went 15-1 were defeated at home by the New York Giants 37-20. This was a game that, surprisingly, the Giants had control for most of the way through. The Packers defense was their downfall as Eli Manning was able to throw for 330 yard and 3 touchdowns. The probable MVP of the regular season, Aaron Rodgers had a very pedestrian game for his standards, as he was only able to muster up 264 yards on 2 touchdowns and an interception. Not all on him though, as his wide receivers dropped several balls that came back to bite Green Bay in the ass. Hakeem Nicks led the way for the Giants on offense as he caught 7 passes for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns, including a 37 yard bomb to end the first half that he was able to grab in the endzone.
So we have the Ravens & Patriots and the 49ers & Giants. Personally, I love these matchups and will be rooting for the 49ers and Ravens. Give me a Har-BOWL! With Jim in San Francisco and his brother John in Baltimore, this could very well be a very Harbaugh Superbowl. This 49ers team is a hell of a lot of fun to watch and virtually impossible to root against. Seriously, unless you're a Giants fan, I don't see why you would want to root against them next weekend. I know I sure won't be.
