The Ravens Came To Play
I noted in my predictions for this week that everyone should put the Broncos/Ravens game on upset alert, even though I was too chicken to take a chance on them with my final pick. No matter, Baltimore still showed up to play and how, making an improbable late fourth quarter comeback against the previously 11 - 0 Broncos and eventually taking home the W in a 2-OT affair. From start to finish, (and return game aside) the Ravens did their job this week - Joe Flacco had one of his best career games with clutch big plays, Ray Rice provided critical balance in the run game, and the Ray Lewis-led defense forced three turnovers including a Peyton Manning INT that set up the game-winning field goal at Mile High. I'm out of breath just recalling all of this. For anyone who thought Ray Lewis' retirement party was a bygone Wild Card memory, this team has found Rasputin-like powers that the Patriots should be more than a little nervous about next week. They're starting to look like those pesky '07 and '11 Giants, and I can only imagine they'll be thrilled to have one more shot in Foxboro to get to the Super Bowl.
The flip side of Baltimore's incredible rise back into contention was getting our fair share of Manning face on Saturday, since all plays that go against Peyton Manning's team are patently unfair and against God/Tebow's will. (P.S., That might not be true since Tim Tebow has somehow won more playoff games in Denver than Peyton Manning has. Also, Joe Flacco has seven wins in five years to Peyton's nine in fourteen years. Weird.) Anyway, you can check out the whole schadenfreude-worthy montage on Deadspin here. This is in no way intended to discredit his incredible comeback this season, but the stats on Peyton's postseason performance are right where he left 'em and even slightly worse now. Despite racking up 4 MVPs over the years, Manning is now 9 - 11 in the playoffs including 8 one-and-done appearances. He still gave the Ravens just about all they could handle this weekend, but I have no doubt that his ill-advised interception late in overtime, which in effect cost the Broncos the game, will keep him up for months to come. Just like this one did in Miami three years ago, #whodatbaby #canthelpmyself
Supercalifragilistic Offense
Throw any complaints you had about Wild Card weekend's less-than-inspiring affairs (Bengals-Texans, Vikings-Packers) right out the door. Defense still mattered a lot this weekend, but only on the margins. Incredibly, no team scored fewer than 28 points during the highest scoring playoff weekend of all time, and there were so many statistical records broken, they'd be meaningless to list in full here (and a headache from a pro bono blogging research standpoint). But in broader strokes, both Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson put up close to 450 yards individually in passing and rushing, and the Baltimore/Denver game yielded over 800 yards and 73 points while the Green Bay/San Francisco game yielded over 900 yards and 76 points. Heck, even the Texans weren't quite as embarrassing on offense this time around with Arian Foster earning 2 TDs in his fourth consecutive playoff game with a score. These, my friends, are what pundits used to call Tecmo numbers before the myth became reality.
Confession: I nearly decided to do a feature prior this past weekend of the Top 10 games of the season after Wild Card weekend was a little less than stellar. Thankfully the lazy bug caught up to me because I'd be missing 20% of that list right now. Saturday's Broncos-Ravens rumble had everything a football fan could ever want: two of the greatest players of all time facing off in the winter of their careers, a ridiculous number of explosive plays, dramatic turnovers, and the first two-overtime game in nearly a decade that eventually clocked in at over four hours. Things were looking grim for the rest of the weekend after Colin Kaepernick dismantled the Packers with surgical precision and the Falcons maintained a 20 point lead against the Seahawks well into the third quarter. But then, however improbably, we had ourselves a game. Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch combined for three TDs in the fourth quarter including a Lynch punch-in at the goal line with only 30 seconds left on the clock. It would have been one of the quickest and largest comebacks in NFL history with Seattle looking at a 28 - 27 lead. But with the Seahawks playing bend-don't-break defense against Falcons QB Matt Ryan, he completed three deep laser passes and moved his team over 50 yards in less than 20 seconds. Whoa. Kicker Matt Bryant sent the winning field goal straight through the uprights, and the rest is history as they say. On a side note, here's an interesting conundrum: suppose Denver defensive back Rahim Moore deflects that last bomb from Joe Flacco to Jacoby Jones and Pete Carroll doesn't ice Matt Bryant's first kick that sailed wide right. We'd be hailing Peyton Manning's return and begrudging Matt Ryan's playoff haplessness now for things they didn't do.
Tony Gonzalez Finally Got the Win He Deserved
As spectacularly down to the wire as Sunday's win in Atlanta was, it was still by and large difficult for me to stomach the Falcons finally winning a playoff game under Mike Smith and Matt Ryan. So I looked back through my annals of irrational sports-related coping techniques and thought of the small comfort I found knowing that at least Shane Battier finally got a ring when the Miami Heat won the NBA Finals last year. Similarly, as much as this gal dry heaves at the thought of the Falcons doing the same (which they won't because Colin Kaepernick is a robot from the future, right?), I am genuinely happy that Tony Gonzalez finally got his very first playoff win in his incredible 16 year Hall of Fame career as a tight end. If I had my druthers, that'd be it, T-Gon would have enough closure to retire with this one win and leave the rest of the NFC South alone, and we'd all ride off into the Falcons' Super Bowl-less 2013 sunset. But the man exudes classiness, grace and greatness-- it is literally impossible not to root for him and him alone as long as Atlanta's still in the hunt.
Make that two kings - with the Patriots' easy win over the Texans on Sunday night, Tom Brady now stands alone with the most playoff wins of all time, passing Joe Montana's 16. Brady was a virtuoso on Sunday, and if there's anyone who's feeling worried about how the loss of Rob Gronkowski and Danny Woodhead might impact him in the championship, look no further than Shane "Who?" Vereen's performance that day. The third string running back scored three TDs on Sunday including two incredible receptions from Brady. He also put up over 120 all-purpose yards in the process as a total unknown who might now be looking for Matt Flynn-style compensation. As automatic as the Patriots have been in the Belichick-Brady era, don't say there aren't still surprises like these sometimes. The way Vereen connected with Brady this weekend, you know this has been an ace up Belichick's sleeve for some time. Even so, as the Texans found out the hard way on Sunday, it's nearly impossible to beat these Pats even with 28 points on the board. Definitely looking forward to that rematch with Baltimore this weekend.
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