Brees V Manning

Brees and Manning have both made it to the Super Bowl this season as expected. It always looked like they were on a collision course earlier in the season, but things usually don't follow the script like this. This playoffs didn't follow the script either, but the best 2 teams did end up in the Super Bowl finally. The Saints and the Vikings played a very interesting game today. It was as close as I thought it would be and wanted it to be, but the flow of the game was completely different than what I expected. It started off with both teams scoring in the first quarter, but then the scoring slowed down and the turnovers picked up. The Vikings in the second half just refused to hold onto the ball. They kept fumbling and the Saints recovered most of it. If they didn't fumble, then Favre threw interceptions. But the Saints for some reason just could not take advantage. They still had to go to overtime and they won the game on a 40 yard field goal after 3 plays were reviewed in that OT drive.

Dallas went into New Orleans late in the season and beat them. As the theory goes, they gave the league a footprint to slow down Drew Brees and the Saints offense. There is some truth to this as the Saints offense has not been the same since. They never looked dominant even in today's game despite the 5 turnovers handed to them by the Vikes. Even when Reggie Bush gave them the ball, the Vikes fumbled it right back to the Saints. Favre played well and played hurt, but made a crucial mistake very late in the game and I am not able to decide how costly that error was. The Vikings were driving the ball to either end the game or send it to overtime. They were going to go either make a field goal or miss one or stall, but the game was down to seconds and the Saints were not going to get the ball back to do anything significant. They barely entered field goal range, when they got a stupid penalty which pushed them 5 yards back. They were now looking at a 55 or a 56 yarder, which is probably out of Longwell's range, but who cares if you are just taking a shot in a tied ball game with no seconds on the clock. But Favre killed that opportunity by throwing an interception to effectively send the game to OT. Saints won the toss and won the game.

Favre's interception was once his last pass of the season. We have seen that before. But is this the last pass of his career? Who knows and who cares. Thats a drama that will unfold all off-season as usual. I feel like he will be back for one more year and he should. He had a great year and he should play one more season. He looked pretty beat up emotionally in his post-game presser. He was also physically beat up by the Saints. Brett Favre is a diva, but I don't mind him at all during the season. Brad Childress on the other hand, I am not sure what his problem is. I don't like that guy. He sounds too arrogant and self-important for my taste and I am glad he won't be in the Super Bowl. The Saints D is not great, but they seem to get to the QB and they force fumbles. The offense is just not what it used to be and they need to get to that point if they want to challenge the Colts. The Colts had their share of problems today against the Jets today in the first half, but finally the superior talent prevailed. The Jets just did not have the firepower to compete with Manning. Like I said yesterday, their defense is also over-rated and the Jets rely on that defense a little too much. Mark Sanchez is pretty impressive though. I can't believe he plays so well as a rookie. The Jets should be good for a while. But the Colts should be the favorite 2 weeks from now in the Super Bowl given the state of the Saints offense. It should be a good super bowl though with a star-studded QB cast. I don't mind the 2 week hype on this one.

NFL Championship Games

The NFL Championship week is here. It's time for the Colts and the Saints to move on to the Super Bowl. I know there's a lot of hype around the Jets - half of it because they are from New York. But the Colts will take care of them easily. There's no defense that can stop Peyton Manning. Your only shot is slowing him down and have your offense match him pass for pass. The Jets can't do that. They don't move the ball consistently enough to bother the Colts. Plus their defense is a little overrated and the Colts D might be a little underrated. The only shot the Jets have is if Shonn Greene goes nuts. Unlikely to happen tomorrow. I don't think the Colts are going to miss 3 field goals either to help the Jets.

The Saints-Vikings game on the other hand should be a fun one, though I pick the home team on this one too. The Saints D is pretty decent and Favre has to be near perfect to stay in this one. Of course Favre has been just that this season, but this is obviously the toughest challenge to day. And Prince's stupid fight song might have jinxed them forever. I am hoping this game is a good one and not a blowout. I am kinda tired of all the blowouts this NFL playoff season. The Viking are legit though with Favre and All-Day and a good defense to back those 2 up. The only downside for me with the Saints is that some fools are starting to hype up Reggie Bush a little too much. Lets make no mistake, it's Brees's show all the way.

Lakers V Cavs

The second Lakers-Cavs match-up happened today and the King won again. It's impressive that LeBron and the Cavs have swept both the games against this year's Lakers. LeBron was awesome tonight and the torch I believe is slowly shifting from Kobe's hands to LeBron's. It was also fun and scary to watch Shaq and LeBron lined up inside and out with the ball moving back-and-forth as the guy defending LeBron had to leave him to double Shaq. It was an interesting sight. Kobe was good, but Gasol missed a couple of key free-throws and had a tough stretch at the end which finished the Lakers off. The Cavs are now just a game behind the Lakers and thats surprising considering how good the Lakers started the season and how bad the Cavs began this season. Now it feels just like last year and no wonder the Nike puppets are in full flow again. The only question is, can the Cavs take care of the East, beat the Magic and/or the Celtics and get to the finals? We know the Lakers will be there and it should be interesting to see if the Cavs get there.

The All-star starters were announced today and the Suns have 2 guys starting - Amare and Nash. I have to say they don't have the record to justify 2 all-stars these days though these 2 guys definitely deserve to be there. They have good numbers, but lately the Suns are losing a lot of games. One of my friends says they may drop all the way and miss the playoffs altogether. It's entirely possible given how tight the Western race is and how good teams like Memphis and Oklahoma City are playing. On the positive side, the Suns are still only 3.5 games behind the second placed team in the West and lets hope they move in that direction. Nash somehow jumped over T-Mac in the voting and thats good for the NBA. In the East, it's kind of stupid that Iverson is starting, but what can you do if fans vote that way. AI is truly popular, but T-Mac apparently is benefitting from the Chinese vote since he is Yao Ming's teammate.

San Diego chokes again

There are two things that has not changed a whole lot in the last 5 years - Nate Kaeding's playoff performance and my life. Whenever I think of Kaeding, I think of Marty Schottenheimer stalling the offense in the dying stages of a playoff game and asking Kaeding to kick the field goal that was supposed to win or tie the game for the Chargers. Kaeding invariably missed those and ended the Chargers season pre-maturely. The same thing happened today, only that he missed the kicks throughout this game and not just at the end. He is a good kicker and has great regular season stats, but he always screws up in the playoffs. The fact that he has survived so long in San Diego tells you that he is good. He just missed 3 field goals all season long, but he missed 3 today. The middle one was a 57 yarder and could have put the Chargers up 13-0. But the other 2 field goals were very makable and I don't know what gets into his head during the playoffs.

The Jets were lucky with those missed kicks, but they once again proved the adage that "defense wins championship". We all love offensive football and points, but the Jets are the only team this weekend that went into a hostile environment, didn't get a first down until the second quarter and still won the game. Thats because the defense came to play and induced Rivers into 2 interceptions. Very familiar type of loss to the Chargers. They have been losing like this pretty much every year. All the teams that lost this weekend had at least 2 turnovers. The defenses at home are especially aggressive and they come after the offense and induce a boatload of turnovers. Dallas had to deal with the same thing as they got blown out of Minnesota. The Vikes got to Romo repeatedly and forced him to fumble the ball. Dallas missed a field goal too and they couldn't stop Favre to Sidney Rice either. Favre had 4 TDs and the last one actually pissed off the Boys.

Now the Vikes goto the dome in N'aalians and the Colts host the Jets. I can't believe the Jets are in the AFC championship game after making the playoffs only because the Colts and the Bengals sat all their starters when they played the Jets towards the end of the season. The Colts won comfortably yesterday, but they had their share of problems against the Ravens D. I saw something in that game that I might not see ever again. Ed Reed intercepted Peyton Manning not once, but twice on the same drive and the Ravens didn't get the ball both times. Pierre Garcon chased after Reed and knocked the ball out for a fumble after the first interception. The second one was called back because the receiver was interfered by another guy while Reed was busy catching the ball. I guess even Peyton Manning has to be more lucky than good sometimes. They ran for negative yards almost always on first down and Peyton got them the first down anyways from 2-Nd and 12 or whatever, Jets D might even be tougher. Not sure if the Colts can succeed without running the ball effectively. Plus the Jets run the ball well too. Both games have a potential to be interesting, but they might be blowouts too.

Is Warner done?

The Arizona Cardinals had a rough day today at New Orleans. I thought going in that this was going to be their toughest game in their path to a Championship, even if they went all the way. New Orleans and Drew Brees are too tough to handle for anybody and for the Cards defense on the road, they are pretty close to indefensible. So the Cards offense had to carry them today. They started fast on their first offensive play from scrimmage - a 70 yard TD scamper by Tim Hightower. I am usually not a big fan of such quick hits early in the game via the running game. These plays are not going to happen again and while the offense gets 7 points on the board, they really don't get in rhythm, they don't get to do what they do best. Saints got the ball back and scored. The Cards then had a couple of bad turnovers that changed the game. The Saints went up 21-7, but the Cards cut it to 21-14. The game then got out of their hands quickly. Warner got knocked out of the game in the second quarter and that obviously didn't help. Reggie Bush made a bunch of plays and you are in trouble if Reggie Bush is making a difference in a game. He is a peripheral Saint these days at best and when he is impacting the game, the Saints are unstoppable. He ended up with 217 all-purpose yards in this game and that single stat in and of itself should be embarrassing to the Cards defense.

It was 35-14 at the half and even with Warner coming back in the second half, this game was out of hand. The Cards couldn't score again and they looked lost in this game except for the first quarter. Warner looked dazed and physically old for the first time after that brutal hit. It was amazing how a single hit added 10 years to his age. Now the talk is about his future. I love this guy and I hope he comes back. Between the Rams and the Cards, he has turned around 2 franchises in his career and when he retires, the Cards will take a big step back. I think he might retire, but then he has 10 million reasons to come back. Lets see how it goes. In the other game, the Colts blew out the Ravens. That game was close in the first quarter and slipped out of the Ravens grasp pretty quickly after that. So far this weekend, the home teams have won both games and I expect Minnesota and San Diego to continue the trend tomorrow. Dallas might cause the upset. Thats the game to look forward to tomorrow. In other news, the Suns have totally come down to earth. They are at a point where they are losing quite a few games at home and almost all the games on the road. They are barely a .500 team right now and I am not sure if that will change anytime soon. Thank God they had a 14-3 start and thats keeping their record respectable.