Championship Sunday Review

If you watch the NFL on a week to week basis, you know that many games are decided on turnovers, bounces, penalties, and breaks. Sunday's NFC and AFC Championship Games were prime examples of how sometimes the breaks or mistakes can go one way and decide the outcome. The Patriots won 23-20 when Baltimore's Billy Cundiff missed a 31 yard field goal in the waning seconds. The Giants defeated the 49ers 20-17 in overtime on the heels of San Francisco's Trent Williams fumbled a punt deep in his own territory. The Pats got a break and the Giants got a key turnover which directly led to their respective teams winning. You can call it luck, but at the end of the day that is how games are won in today's NFL. Overall, the championship games were close, competitive, and very good games. Now that the dust has settled the Patriots and the Giants will meet in Super Bowl XLVI-four years after their classic matchup in Super Bowl XLII. Here is my breakdown of the two games.........

AFC Championship

New England-23 Baltimore-20

1) Give credit to Joe Flacco because he outplayed Tom Brady in the game. I am very critical of Flacco on a week to week basis, but he played really well. He finished 22-36 for 306 yards 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. After a shaky start, Flacco settled down and played really well. He drove his team down for the apparent game winning touchdown pass to Lee Evans. Although Evans had it swatted away, Flacco had positioned the Ravens for a game tying kick to send the game to overtime. Had the game gotten to overtime, I really think that he would have driven the Ravens down for a score. This might have been Joe Flacco's official coming out party.

2) On the flip side Tom Brady did not play well at all. You could tell something was missing early on in the game. Brady missed a wide open Rob Gronkowski for an easy score in the first quarter. He also threw a terrible interception in the first quarter right into double coverage. It seemed like Brady was playing a little tentative and nervous. Maybe the enormity of the game got to him a little bit. He finished 22-36 for 239 yards 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. His quarterback rating was 57.5! If I gave you those numbers for Brady before the game, there is no doubt that you would have expected to see the Pats lose. They survived, and Brady gets a chance to redeem himself in two weeks at the Super Bowl.

3) The biggest sequence of the game was Danny Woodhead's fumble. After the Ravens took the lead 17-16 in the third quarter on a Flacco to Torrey Smith 29 yard catch and run touchdown, Woodhead fumbled the ensuing kickoff had his own 30. The Ravens recovered, and they could have really taken the control of the game with a touchdown to make it 24-16. The Ravens ended up settling for a field goal, and only led 20-16. That was a very big stop by the Patriots defense and a huge set of plays in the game.

4) The Patriots always seem to get the breaks. That is the exact text message I sent to my friends after Billy Cundiff "Finkled" that field goal try. Think about how many games they have won since 2001 on some lucky breaks. It starts with the Tuck Rule game in 2001 against the Raiders. Then, you have TWO Super Bowls won on last second field goals. Also, you had Drew Bennett's drop in the Tennessee/New England Divisional game in 2003. The fumbled interception by the Marlon McCree to clinch the game for San Diego in the 2006 Divisional Playoff. Now, you can add Cundiff's kick to the list. It is just amazing when you think about it.

5) The Ravens window may be closing. The Ravens exited the playoffs last year after blowing a 21-7 lead at Pittsburgh. T.J. Houshmanzadeh and Anquan Boldin both had big drops in the fourth quarter of that 34-31 loss. This year the loss to the Patriots will hurt more. Lee Evans drop in the end zone was a cruel twist of fate for Baltimore, and Cundiff's miss will haunt them all offseason. The question will be can the Ravens get there again? The defense isn't getting younger, and they have to use money to get Ray Rice resigned. Can they get to the Super Bowl? Can they get back to the AFC Championship? The expectations are now Super Bowl or bust in Baltimore, but it will be interesting to see if this was their last chance for a while.

6) The Patriots head to their 7th Super Bowl appearance. It is the 5th appearance for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. They have a 3-1 record in the Super Bowl together. A fourth Lombardi Trophy would officially cement their place in the annals of NFL history. They are one win away from NFL immortality.

NFC Championship

Giants-20 49ers-17

1) Let's be honest: Trent Williams killed the Niners in this game. The 49ers punt returner misplayed one punt return in the fourth quarter, and he fumbled away another return in the overtime. His last fumble gave the Giants great field position, and set them up for the game-winning field goal. His first muffed punt-GET AWAY FROM THE BALL!- was a terrible mistake and it gave the Giants life in the 4th quarter. The Giants were down 14-10 at the time, and Williams' error led to an Eli Manning-Mario Mannigham touchdown to give the G-Men at 17-14 lead. Make no mistake about it: Trent Williams was the goat of this game.

2) Give the Niners defense credit: They played great. The 49ers have a championship caliber defense, and it stepped up in a big way against the Giants. They garnered six sacks, five passes defensed, and five tackles for losses. They hit Eli Manning constantly, and it was a shame that the Niner offense let them down. That 49ers defense is definitely Super Bowl worthy.

3) Eli Manning's performance was gutty and gritty. He played well, and he got hit all night long. Eli finished 32-58 for 316 yards with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. His third-down touchdown throw to Manningham to make it 17-14 midway through the fourth quarter was one of the best throws I have seen this year. He played well again on the road in a big spot. Manning proved he is elite this year, but he take a whole other step if he wins the Super Bowl in two weeks.

4) This Giants run is very similar to the 2007 run. Both teams looked like they were going to be on the outside looking in at the playoffs, rallied late in the year, got healthy at the right time, took care of their first round AFC South opponent, beat the 1 seed on the road in round 2, beat the two seed on the road in the Conference Championship on an overtime field goal by Lawrence Tynes, and head to the Super Bowl to take on Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots. I wasn't drawing the parallels between the 2007 and 2011 Giants the first weekend of the playoffs, but after this week's win in the NFC Championship you can't ignore it. The Giants pulled off one of the greatest postseason runs in NFL history in 2007, and they are on the verge of doing it again only FOUR YEARS LATER! Incredible, just simply incredible.

5) The Giants defense also deserves credit in this game. Yes, Alex Smith did not play well with the exception of two touchdown passes to Vernon Davis, but give the Giants defense the nod for stepping up once again down the stretch. The Giants got 3 sacks, 5 tackles for losses, and 5 passes defensed. Plus, they held the 49ers to 1-13 on third down conversions. They Niners got the ball twice late in the fourth quarter, and both times the Giants defense forced a three and out. As impressive as the 49ers defense was, the Giants defense stepped up too.

6) The Giants head to their 5th Super Bowl appearance, and they currently have a 3-1 record in the Super Bowl. They can get ring number four this year, and Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning can both cement their status in Giants lore by getting their second rings each.