First of all, Peyton Manning yelling out Omaha is not something new.  Stop acting like you’ve never heard him say it when he’s at the line of scrimmage.  Alas, it won’t stop now that the Denver Broncos are headed to the Super Bowl.   Continue reading →

New England Patriots (12-4) vs. Denver Broncos (13-3)

Patriots – 7th

Broncos – 1st

Patriots – 26th

Broncos – 19th

You just knew that if the Seahawks could get Marshawn Lynch going they would beat the New Orleans Saints.  They did and now Seattle is just a little bit closer to getting to their second Super Bowl appearance.  Now the way this game was going it wasn’t a dominant performance by Seattle.  There were many chances for the Saints to make some noise, but a few failed fourth down attempts and a brain fart on the last play of the game by WR Marques Colston marked their fate.  New Orleans’ defense did better than I thought and that should be an encouraging sign going into next season.  As much fan fare as the Saints get on offense, they did run the ball well without Pierre Thomas, but they need more receiving options.  TE Jimmy Graham was virtually shutout and Colston was the only reliable target for Drew Brees.  Seattle did just enough with Lynch, but they will need more to actually win a Super Bowl.

The Patriots always seem to get the best out of players whom they gave second chances to.  RB LaGarrette Blount is the newest to join that class.  He is a bruiser at the line of scrimmage and if he has an opening he is deceptively fast.  The Colts found that out the hard way with their loss at Foxboro.  Normally with the Patriots in the past they don’t run the ball enough to scare opponents.  Now that they use a three man rotation that is starting to center around Blount, teams have to prepare for it from now on.  Indianapolis could have put a little scare into the Pats until Andrew Luck threw an interception on their first drive.  That pretty much set the tone. Now there were many injuries to the Colts this season, the biggest being WR Reggie Wayne.  But the fact that even when the Colts acquired RB Trent Richardson from the Cleveland Browns earlier this season, he has been a huge disappointment.  Without a running game to offset the pressure on Luck the Colts were doomed for an early exit.  It was just delayed by one week.

It was supposed to be a close game and it was for the first half. After the 49ers scored a touchdown just before halftime, the Panthers must not have known there was another half to play.  The Panthers had a long drive to start the second half, but Cam Newton getting sacked and the Panthers offense being stagnant resulted in no points.  That set the tone for the whole half as the 49ers dominated keeping Carolina scoreless and adding another ten points to their lead.  I’m just wondering what seemed to happen to the Panthers who were supposed to be the surprise team of the playoffs.  Judging by the way they played during the season and how they played against the 49ers is they didn’t go with what worked for them.  Cam Newton was involved in the read option offense in the first half and they scored 10 points.  That offensive game plan was abandoned in the second half.  Carolina should be back in contention next year although there might be some new faces.

A simple way to win a football game is to pressure the quarterback. Denver was able to do that against Chargers QB Philip Rivers. San Diego had some problems running the ball effectively too with Ryan Mathews having a bum ankle and Danny Woodhead missing some time late in the game.  Also the Chargers seemed to not have any urgency to their offense when Denver was out to a sizable lead. If San Diego showed more life to their offense they might not have had to spend so much in the fourth quarter.  Denver was the better team, but the Chargers exposed their secondary once again and the Patriots are sure to try it in the AFC Championship game.  San Diego surprised many this year, but they need to fill some holes to make another run next year.

New Orleans Saints (11-5) vs. Seattle Seahawks (13-3)

Saints – 4th

Seahawks – 17th

Saints – 4th

Seahawks – 1st

It seems to be a recurring nightmare for the Saints the last few years.  Traveling to Seattle to play the Seahawks.  They’ve already done so once this season and were embarrassed right from the first kickoff.  If New Orleans doesn’t want it to happen again they will have to do one thing.  Don’t commit a turnover.  Seattle’s defense feeds off their opponent making mistakes.  If the Saints start to do that again they will be in for a long game.  Drew Brees must play his best game of his career.  Yes, even better than his performance to win the franchise’s only Super Bowl title.  There must be a perfect balance between them running and passing the football and the defense must play until the game’s final whistle.  If they do that they could avoid another early playoff exit.  Seattle has a relatively simple task.  Cause turnovers and control the ball for as long as they can.  If they can accomplish those two things then the Seahawks will be hosting the NFC Championship.  If they let Drew Brees run his offense and they can’t get the ball rolling with theirs, then it will be a disappointing end to their season.  Marshawn Lynch has been in the Saints nightmares for many years now and if has another field day in the playoffs, it will be tough to beat Seattle.

Matchup to watch for: Saints QB Drew Brees vs. Seahawks defense

Indianapolis Colts (11-5) vs. New England Patriots (12-4)

Colts – 15th

Patriots – 7th

Colts – 20th

Patriots – 26th

With their Wild Card victory the Colts know that they can’t assume that they will be able to come back and win another game like that again.  Indianapolis has to play better right from the start against a resilient Patriots team who will not let up like the Chiefs did.  QB Andrew Luck did lead the Colts charge to victory, but he must not throw another three interceptions.  They had to abandon the running game being down by so many points last week.  That’ll have to change if they want to keep Patriots QB Tom Brady off the field.  The Colts learned a lot last week and that should help them going forward.  If the Patriots want to crush the hopes and dreams of Indianapolis, they’ll have to do it in a strong fashion.  They can’t leave any room for them to jump back into the game.  Bill Belichick is one of the game’s best strategists and he will have a good one. He doesn’t allow his players to make terrible decisions at the worst possible time, but when they do he does make adjustments on the fly.  They don’t always pane out, but his career in New England shows that he has a pretty good record.  Their defense is suspect and they will be exposed.  They just hope that their offense can do enough to offset that weakness.

Matchup to watch for: Colts QB Andrew Luck vs. Patriots defense

San Francisco 49ers (12-4) vs. Carolina Panthers (12-4)

49ers – 24th

Panthers – 26th

49ers – 5th

Panthers – 2nd

San Francisco didn’t have a healthy Vernon Davis for the entire game against Carolina the last time they met this season.  For every loss the 49ers have had this year, Davis was either out or missing for most of the game.  Also the Niners will WR Michael Crabtree and LB Aldon Smith to face the Panthers.  Certainly it is fair to say that the pressure will be on the 49ers for this game since they are the defending NFC Champions.  But they have shown their resiliency down the stretch with not so perfect performances.  They will need another near perfect performance to defeat the upstart Panthers.  QB Cam Newton is making his playoff debut and it will be interesting to see how he performs.  The last time we saw him play in a big game it was for the BCS National Championship while he was playing for Auburn.  Not many know which Cam will be at the forefront in Carolina’s first home playoff game in some time.  If the Panthers offense can match the intensity that their defense will show then Carolina will tough to beat.  If Carolina’s offense falters then it will be a short lived season for them.

Matchup to watch for: 49ers defense vs. Panthers QB Cam Newton

If you’re still wondering how the Indianapolis Colts came back from a 28-point deficit to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, you’re not alone. There were many factors, but the biggest one to me was the Chiefs porous defense.  You can expect QB Alex Smith to only do so much and without their best player, Jamaal Charles who left the game early in the first quarter with a concussion, they were doomed.  The play calling on both sides for the Chiefs was suspect in the 2nd half.  Clock management was again a problem for an Andy Reid coached team and they seemed to never know where Colts WR T.Y. Hilton was at any point in the game.  With many injuries mounting during the game it seemed like a perfect storm was brewing for a big letdown by Kansas City.  With all the pundits piling on the Chiefs, you have to give all the credit to the Indianapolis Colts.  You can’t win a game without playing some good football.  It wasn’t perfect, but they didn’t think they couldn’t at least make it a close game at halftime.  The Colts have their rash of injuries too, but they know they can win no matter the circumstances and that should scare future opponents.

We were expecting a higher scoring affair, but we really weren’t surprised that the New Orleans Saints ended up winning.  The Eagles showed that they are a team that can make a run in near future, but this wasn’t going to be the year they do it.  They still have some holes to fill or improve, but they can be a contender. The New Orleans Saints still have a problem when it comes to their defense playing when they want to and with Drew Brees throwing inopportune interceptions.  That probably won’t be fixed anytime soon.  One thing that the Saints did improve upon was their ball control.  If they can keep the ball out of their opponents hands they have a better chance of success.  The Eagles offense didn’t have the ball enough of the time to make any dents.  New Orleans needs that to beat the Seattle Seahawks who haven’t been too kind to them in the past.

Once again the Cincinnati Bengals had an early exit in the Wild Card round for the third consecutive year.  They are starting to be what the San Diego Chargers once were when they had home field advantage throughout the playoffs, but would lose in the Divisional Round.  The Chargers were not going to let the Bengals play their game and in turn Andy Dalton was throwing the ball into the Chargers’ defenders hands.  I know Dalton is a better quarterback than he has shown in his three playoff starts.  It’s getting harder to say that after his worst performance by far in a playoff game.  The Bengals were playing at home and hadn’t lost at home all season long.  For some reason there was no balance to their offense and it became worse when rookie RB Giovani Bernard fumbled near the goal line.  That play changed the momentum for good.  The Chargers have been an upstart team once the calendar turned to December and they want that trend to continue.

There are many drives that define a quarterbacks career and the one that 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick was on to win the game in Green Bay might define his.  Like the Kansas City Chiefs did with the Colts and their wide receiver T.Y. Hilton being wide open for just about every catch, the Packers seemed to forget that Kaepernick could run the ball if he had to.  He did and it was the difference in the Niners winning the game.  We were pretty sure that the Packers would make every effort to not let Kaepernick beat them with either his arm or his legs, but it happened again.  Aaron Rodgers for the most part was kept in check, but he still had his team in a position to win the game.  The Packers unfortunately will have a lot of soul searching to do in the offseason and that might include finding a new defensive coordinator.  It’s not his fault that so many defensive players were out with injuries this year, including their best one in Clay Matthews Jr.  We’ll see the Packers competing for a playoff spot again, but they know they missed a big chance this year.