He’s back.  All the questions and opinions were focused on who would finish the game as Denver’s quarterback.  Well, my thought process was simple.  If the game was close, Tim Tebow would be the quarterback.  Of course if Tebow played like he was during the end of the season I wouldn’t hesitate in yanking him.  But he ended up playing the best game of his career against the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Now I was wondering why the Steelers kept putting 9 guys in the box on defense when Tebow was converting on the deep passes.  It was basically the same scheme the New York Jets tried on the Broncos earlier in the season and it failed miserably.  Pittsburgh’s defense is better than that.  They had a lot of injuries on defense as well.  Both before and during the game. But that’s no excuse for not changing your gameplan on the fly. To their credit Denver was keeping the Steelers honest by trying to run the ball, but they weren’t going to abandon throwing the ball down the field.  After all it was working.  The last play to end the game in overtime will make Tim Tebow the talk of the town for the rest of these playoffs and into next year.

Aside from the boneheaded decision making from the Atlanta Falcons coaching staff, the New York Giants needed no help in dismantling them.  It was a one sided affair the entire game.  What made the Giants win even more lopsided was the fact that they were able to run the ball effectively for the entire game.  RB Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw were unstoppable.  And the blocks in front of them were setup perfectly.  This is what makes the Giants the best team in football.  They control the game at the line of scrimmage.  While the offense was running the ball, the defensive line was getting after Falcons QB Matt Ryan and RB Michael Turner the entire game.  Atlanta had no answer in stopping the pass rush and couldn’t create holes for Turner.  This will be a good first test for the defending champion Green Bay Packers.  If the Giants dethrone them it will come as no surprise to me.

You better believe that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn’t like seeing the Houston Texans winning their first playoff game when his team has only two playoff victories since 1996.  Houston had the perfect gameplan.  Rookie QB T.J Yates wasn’t the first, second or third option on offense.  It was RB Arian Foster who was the first, second and third option on offense.  The Cincinnati Bengals defense knew they had to stop Foster, but had no answer for him.  The Texans defense was superb in thwarting Bengals rookie QB Andy Dalton.  The game could have gone either way going into halftime.  That is until Dalton was intercepted at the line of scrimmage by Texans rookie DE J.J. Watt who returned it for a go-ahead touchdown.  That was essentially the ball game for Houston as the Bengals were shutout the entire second half. Going forward the Texans have all the confidence in the world. Aside from the Denver Broncos they are the true underdogs in the entire NFL playoff picture.  Baltimore had better not give them an inch of life next weekend.

This game was closer than the score indicates.  The Detroit Lions had all the momentum going into halftime.  But their defense realized that they couldn’t keep it up for an entire game and let the Saints walk all over them by scoring 35 points in the second half. It wasn’t fair.  Saints QB Drew Brees picked them apart.  For the second consecutive game the Lions pass defense couldn’t put any pressure on the quarterback and were torched through the air. Remember Green Bay Packers backup QB Matt Flynn threw for 6 TD passes during the last game of the season.  Brees could have done the same, but he settled for 3 TD and 466 yards passing. Detroit didn’t commit a lot of penalties, but the life was taken out of them when they came out of the locker room for the second half. New Orleans would like to have a repeat performance on offense in San Francisco, but they should expect a tougher matchup with the 49ers defense causing the most turnovers during the regular season.