Features

January 21, 2008
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NFL Conference Championship Football

The Story So Far...

Vik Binning

I you haven’t been watching the NFL
playoffs so far, you need to start now.
After all, it’s not too often in the NFL
that'll see games with major playoff
implications played in this type of
extreme winter weather.

Getting you up to date with the
goings on so far, the wild-card weekend,
played back on the weekend of January 5
saw two games played on that day. Things
started off with the Seattle Seahawks
taking on the rejuvenated Washington
Redskins, winners of four straight, who
proceeded to play their best football of
the season after having to cope with the
death of one of their stars, Sean Taylor.
Even though the Skins were without their
starting Quarterback Jason Campbell,
his replacement Todd Collins started
off strong, throwing for 266 yards with
two touchdowns and two interceptions.
After going down early 13-0, the Skin’s
came back to make it 14-13, but after
Hasselbeck threw his first touchdown
of the game with 6:06 left in the fourth,
Todd Collins gave the game away to
the Hawks’ throwing two picks taken
back for touchdowns. The Seahawks
moved on to the NFC Divisional Round,
dominating the Redskins, 35-14.

The second game of the day
was a match-up of two of the best teams
in the AFC, with the Pittsburgh Steelers
taking on the red-hot Jacksonville
Jaguars. Expected to be the best game
of the wild-card weekend, the game
lived up to the hype. It started off as a
completely one-sided affair with the
Jag’s leading 28-10 going into the fourth
quarter, but the Steelers showed their
resiliency, and showed everyone why
they deserved to be in the playoffs,
staging an unbelievable comeback, and
with 6:21, the Steelers had the lead 29-
28, although failing on two, two-point
conversion attempts. The biggest drive
of the game seemed like the last chance
the Jag’s had to make a comeback. With
2:38 left in the game, the Jags received
the ball off the punt at mid-field. With
1:56 left in the game, the Jags were
faced by a 4 and 2, and Quarterback
David Garrard stepped up, and ran the
ball down the field, picking up a 32 yard
gain, and setting up the game-winning
field-goal by Josh Scobee, as the Jag’s
win, 31-29.

Sunday was a much more
uneventful day, starting off with the New
York Giants, taking on the favorites,
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After the
Bucs got off to a quick 7-0 lead, it was
all Giants from then on. Eli Manning
threw for 185 yards, two touchdowns,
and no picks, and Ahmad Bradshaw, and
Brandon Jacobs combined for 100 yards
on the ground, as the Giants went on to

 

win, 24-14.
The second game of the day
pitted the Tennessee Titans against the
San Diego Chargers. Chargers were
favorites to win, a big part of that was
due to the quarterbacking of Vince
Young, having a tough season throwing
only 9 touchdowns, while throwing 17
interceptions. The game began with a
mediocre start, as the Titans went into
the half leading 6-0. The second half
belonged to the Chargers who scored 17
straight and took the win 17-6.
The match-ups

for the

Championship, awaiting the winner of
New York and Dallas.

Saturday night was the most
anticipated game of the Divisional
Round, and it had my New England
Patriots, undefeated at 16-0, (the first
team to accomplish that feat in the
regular season) set to take on the blazing
hot Jacksonville Jaguars. The game
lived up to the hype and was tied 14-
14 going into the half. The second half
went the Pats way as Tom Brady threw
2 touchdowns in the third quarter, and
the Pats defense held Jacksonville to

 

Divisional Round were set; the NFC was
highlighted by the Green Bay Packers,
and the rejuvenated Brett Favre taking
on the Seattle Seahawks, and the New
York Giants, taking on the electric Dallas
Cowboys. The AFC matched-up the San
Diego Chargers against the Indianapolis
Colts, and my New England Patriots,
taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Last weekend, January 12,
started off with the Packers taking on the
Seahawks in Green Bay. Starting off just
cold, with the Seahawks taking a quick
14-0 lead in the first five minutes of the
game, the tempo seemed to change with
the weather. As the snow picked up, so
did the Green Bay Packers. It was all
Packers the rest of the game, as their
veteran leader Brett Favre stepped up
and took charge, scoring a touchdown
on 6 straight possessions, as the Packers
came out on top 42-20. Although the
game lacked in excitement because of
the one-sided affair, the snow definitely
made up for the missing excitement. The
Seahawks were unfortunately eliminated
again from the playoffs, as the Packers
headed on to the NFC Conference

)
2 second half field-goals, as the New
England Patriots continued on the road to
perfection, becoming 17-0 with a 31-20
win over the Jags. The biggest difference
in this game was the Pats balance on the
ground and through the air, as Laurence
Maroney ran for 122 yards, and the player
of the game, Tom Brady, broke Phil
Simms playoff record completing 26-28
passes for a completion percentage of 93
percent throwing three touchdowns and
262 yards.

Sunday’s games ended up being
the best games of the weekend. The early
game started off with the Indianapolis
Colts taking on the San Diego Chargers.
The game was intense until the end, as
Chargers QB Philip Rivers threw three
touchdowns, with one pick, while Peyton
Manning threw two touchdowns, but two
picks. The scoring was back and forth, and
as everything was looking good for the
Chargers who were expected to lose big,
LaDainian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers
were both injured. The Chargers brought
in backup QB Billy Volek, and all looked
lost, as the team went three and out their
first position with Volek at the helm.

Then the unthinkable happened. As the
Colts led 24-21, and looked in control,
Billy Volek orchestrated an unbelievable
78 yard drive, and capped it off with a
QB sneak to give the Chargers a 28-24
lead. The Chargers defense took charge
after that, and it was set, the Chargers
were moving on to the AFC Conference
Championship game.

At the time of writing, the
Conference Championship weekend
of January 20 is looking better by the
minute. The second game of the night is
the one that seems to be the more one-
sided affair. The New York Giants look
to make a game of it as they head into
an icy Lambeau Field to take on the
Packers. The Giants have won eight road
games in a row, and beat the best team
in the NFC, as Eli Manning has finally
stepped up and won his first 2 playoff
games of his young career. The 14-3
Packers are looking to end the New York
Giants road winning streak, and punch
their ticket for Super Bowl XLII. The
scales are tipped in favor of the Packers
thanks to Mother Nature. Eli Manning’s
poorest performances have come in cold-
weather games even though they play in
a lot of cold games back in New York.

The game that will most likely
garner the most attention this weekend
is the early game, with the New England
Patriots set to take on the San Diego
Chargers and hopefully come out on top.
After living in Boston for four years,
and being a fan of all the Boston sports
franchises, especially the Pats, and the
Red Sox, I’m what you call, extremely
superstitious when it comes to sports.
Even if the Pats were to play the 1-15
Miami Dolphins this weekend, I'd still
be terrified, and say that they might
hopefully win. I’m so much against all
these people saying that the Pats are
going to win, that anytime I hear anyone
about to say anything about the game, or
the Pats record, I change the channel. So
as a superstitious Boston-area sports fan,
I can only hope that my New England
Patriots will come out on top.

The Conference Championship
this weekend promises to be a gift in
the making for all football fans, and
you'd be crazy to miss out. You have
your teams that probably shouldn’t be
there, the New York Giants, and the San
Diego Chargers, and then you have two
of the teams expected to be there from
the start, the New England Patriots, and
the Green Bay Packers. I can say whole-
heartedly that I am dying to watch this
game. Although Terrell Owens and his
Cowboys won’t be partaking in this
exciting football weekend, I have to end
this with one of his most recent quips:
“getcha popcorn ready!”

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