Was it just me or were all the playoff games until Sunday’s very one-sided and not that exciting?
All the games in the Wild Card were close ones until the teams stepped on to the field. Then in the division round on Saturday was the same. Finally, on Sunday’s games, I finally had that feeling of “Yes. This is what I was waiting for. This is playoff football.”
Saturday had the most interesting games of the weekend. First off with Seattle and Atlanta, I don’t know of many people that had Seattle winning besides the bandwagon fans that hopped on a few years ago, that may be because I don’t know many people in general, nevertheless it may be time to get off and let Seattle have their true and real fans.
Atlanta has the best offense in the league with MVP candidate Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and the great one-two punch of Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman to name a few. Their defense is stellar as well. With Vic Beasley Jr. leading the league with 15.5 sacks in just his second season in the league. This helping the Falcons to have one of the best run defenses in the league.
The game started out nice, better after a penalty on a long punt return from Devin Hester brought the ball inside Seattle’s own 10 and then the next two plays ended the short drive in a safety by Ben Garland. The Falcons went on cruise control to win 36-20.
The second game of the night with New England Patriots and Houston Texans started out hot. With the score 17-13 in favor of the Pats going into the half. This had me thinking, “Can the best defense in the league stop one of the hottest offenses right now?” In the second half, I was proven wrong. New England came out and was like, “You think you can play with us? That’s cute.”
The Patriots went on to win 34-16. Tom Brady now has 23 playoffs wins, that is more than 27 teams since the merger. Bill Belichick has 24 playoff wins as a coach, one with the Browns in 1994.
I figured out why Brock Osweiler is not that good this year. He is 6’8” so he is not getting as much oxygen and it’s hard for him to breath and he gets all loopy and get see and makes bad decisions while on the field.
Now Sunday is where the real action happens. The game we all were waiting for. Green Bay and Dallas, not for the reason that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman called the game. Where’s that petition at? I like you Troy, not you Joe.
The game started great for Green Bay, jumping out to 21-3 before Dallas made it 21-13 before the half. Dallas came storming back to tie it at 28-all with 4:08 left. Now I don’t like Green Bay for the purpose I’m a Vikings fan, but I hate Dallas. Green Bay would make a field goal with 1:33 left before Dallas made their own field goal with 58 seconds left. Now that’s too much time for the Packer offense.
They have this guy called Aaron Rodgers, you might have heard of him. On the second to last play of the game, Rodgers made a play that was designed like what you do in a backyard game. Just tell people what to do and get open. He through a dot to Jared Cook to set up Mason Crosby for a 51-yard gaming winning field goal.
In the final game of the weekend, Chris Boswell was the hero. Going 6-6 in field goal to help Pittsburgh defeat Kansas City 18-16. Usually Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell are the big names, but not today.
With some say that on KC two-point conversion to tie the game at 18-all called back on a hold was a bad call. Yeah, Eric Fisher just wanted a huge hug from James Harrison. It clearly was a hold. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had some strong words on the call, but maybe if he would have caught the ball with 3:00 left in the 3rd and not have the unnecessary roughness for 15 yards that finished in a field goal for the Chiefs, maybe you could have had a touchdown and won the game.
Know your roll, do your job and shut your mouth. If you win, say little. If you lose, you say less. Rant over.
With both games next week being both exciting match ups, I’m going to make some bold predictions. Pittsburgh having such an explosive offense with lots of weapons, they are going into Nebraska and winning. This will be 13 out of the last 14 years that either Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Ben Roethlisberger have been in the Super Bowl of the AFC. The lone year being in the 2012-2013 season with Joe Flacco for the Ravens.
In the NFC championship game, Atlanta is going to win it. It will be a very high offensive game, but defense wins championships and Falcons have a better defense than the Packers. Setting up for the Super Bowl, Atlanta, being in their second Super Bowl and first since 1999, will defeat the Steelers, winning their first Super Bowl in franchise history.