NFL Conference Championships

Wow, Wednesday, and no blog yet for the week. Well, first-and-foremost on my mind has been the past weeekend's playoff games. I got to watch both of them in their entirety, and after watching them both, can honestly say that I suck at calling football games. I was 50% in straight game picks, but the overriding factor is just that I was so far off as to the how and the why. I got the four point win for the Colts, but expected that score not to reflect how lopsided the game was. Instead, the score did not indicate how CLOSELY the game was played.

Granted, there is something to be said for dome teams losing conference championship games outdoors, especially when said game happens in the cold and snow, but I really didn't expect it to have that much of a factor. Then again, Chicago was riding the tails of an unseasonably warm stretch, so had that continued, the outcome may have been different. Between the rash of turnovers and bad/missed calls, the Saints never had a chance in the game. Reggie Bush has been chastised all week for "taunting" on his touchdown reception, but guess what -- if I had just beaten FOUR of the opposing teams' defenders (on a "great" defense, mind you), and I was so much faster than all of them that I COULD taunt them while still outrunning them, I'd do it, too.

What I don't understand is how the Bears have put up monster offensive outings in both of their playoff games. I've watched this team all year, and I thought that after week 5 or so, teams had figured out their offense enough to put a stop to over-the-top passes by Grossman. Guess not.

As for the Indy/Pats game, I have to say, it was one of the greatest games I've ever watched. I actually like Peyton Manning and the Colts these days, and I am SO utterly sick of hearing about the Patriots (and seeing Coach Billy's poor fashion and his kids on the sidelines), so the first half was just GUT-wrenching to watch. I was close to going home and working out instead of staying for the second half, but something compelled me to stay. It's as if I actually BELIEVED that a comeback could happen.

Then, the Colts come out of the half, and played like they had gotten their heads cut off at halftime. Everything was rushed. Everything was in panic mode. There was no balance.

Actually, the beatiful part of it was that none of that happened. They came out and just played football. They staged drives that were balanced. They got first downs instead of going for touchdowns. They took sacks instead of firing up prayers that got picked off. And in the end, they proved that they belong on the big stage. After the first two TDs of the second half that pulled the Colts even with the Pats, I was interested to see where Billy-boy would go. Usually, Billy's got the answer to "stop the bleeding". While the Pats did pick it up on both sides of the ball, the defense still allowed more points than the offense could muster, and in the end, the "dynasty" was stopped for the season.

As a matter of fact, the Patriots actually surprised me at how BAD their play selection was at the end of the game. Several drives with under six minutes left in the game when they were tied and/or ahead, and the passes just kept coming, at a time when running the clock out was as valuable as anything. The thing that first bothered me about the Patriots was after their first Super Bowl win (against the highly-favored Rams). After the game, Billy was spouting off about how they were always confident that they were the better team. Yet, with a minute to go in overtime, they frantically tried to win the game. While that strategy WORKED for them, it does not mean it was the correct strategy. A team that BELIEVES they are the better team would not risk a costly turnover in that situation, and just let "regular" football in overtime decide that the better team wins. But in this case, it seemed like the opposite. It seemed like the Pats were convinced that they could not stop the Colt machine, so they were playing to score instead of playing to win, which, in the end, not surprisingly, cost them the win. Play to win, and the chances of winning are usually higher -- a rule I never thought I'd see Billy going against.

So Colts-Bears Superbowl. Three weeks ago, I'd have said no NFC team would come within 18 point of the AFC team in the Superbowl. I still don't think that the NFC will come out on top, but I could see the Bears making this a closer game than I care to realize. I WANT the Colts to win, and I EXPECT the Colts to win. Heck, I'll go out on a limb and say I expect the Colts to win BIG. I just have seen too much football in the past two weekends to think that I will know how a game will play out.

G'night