FOOTBALL

On Saturday, Peyton Manning and the Broncos kicked things off hosting the red hot Baltimore Ravens.  Manning and the Broncos had control of the game at the beginning, but simply couldn’t shake the Ravens.  In fact, the Ravens came back at the very end to tie up the game.  The controversy came when with 30 seconds to go, with home field advantage, and arguably the greatest quarterback of all time (Manning), the Broncos decided to take a knee and take their chances in overtime.  Bad idea, as the Ravens had all the late momentum and upset the Broncos, ending Peyton Manning’s dream comeback season.  Surely he pictured himself hoisting a Super Bowl trophy.  But it was not meant to be.  However, the storied career of the motivational Ray Lewis shall continue at least another week.  Baltimore 38, Denver 35.
Then, it was a prime time matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers.  Everyone is afraid of the Packers explosive offense, but not many people talk about how much their defense is rather mediocre.  The 49ers extremely dynamic second year quarterback Colin Kaepernick exploited that defense to a disgusting degree.  He ran all over the them, including one very long touchdown run that left the entire Green Bay defense running after him.  The Niners won with ease and look like a very difficult team to beat right now.  San Francisco 45, Green Bay 31.

On Sunday, it was an electric game between the determined Seattle Seahawks and the #1 seed Atlanta Falcons.  Remember, for as much as Atlanta has improved the past few years, they have yet to win a playoff game under Matt Ryan.  Ryan showed that they meant business, as they were up 20-0 going into the half and the game looked to be a blowout.  But Seattle came back in the second half and even took the lead with just 30 seconds to go.  Fortunately for Atlanta, their QB is “Matty Ice”, and almost effortlessly, he marched the Falcons into field goal range and Matt Bryant booted a field goal to win the game and keep the hometown fans from crying for weeks at a blown game. Atlanta will face San Fran in the NFC Championship. Atlanta 30, Seattle 28.

Finally, the Patriots hosted the Texans in a rematch of a blowout from a few weeks ago.  Houston had a chance to redeem themselves, but clearly the Patriots have their number, as they were able to get out to a big lead and keep the Texans offense in check.  The Texans had a magical season, but completely fell apart the last few weeks.  They weren’t able to get the train back on track in the playoffs, whereas the Pats are well-oiled machine every post season and we will see a rematch of the Patriots/Ravens in the AFC Championship.  Will the Ravens drop two in a row to the Pats?  New England 41, Houston 28.