GREAT championship weekend. Both games went down to the wire and both games decided by mistakes which is common in tight games.
Going into the Raven/Pats game, the big story was Flacco and what he would do. I thought he had himself a good game. He started out a little rocky but calmed down and really put his team in a position to win the game. With less than 2 minutes remaining, Flacco engineered a late drive culminating with a nice throw to the corner of the end zone to Lee Evans who had it but couldn't hold on to it as the Pats DB got a hand on it to knock it out. Still, it was a ball the veteran Evans should have had. Funny because Evans was brought in this offseason to be that second receiver to complement Boldin. Evans got hurt early in the year and never really amounted to much for the Ravens. He had a chance to redeem a disappointing year but he did not come through. The drop forced the Ravens to kick a game tying 32 yard FG for Billy Cundiff (a Pro Bowler last season) but he pulled it. The faces of the Ravens on the sidelines said it all. I imagine the entire Raven nation had the same looks on their faces. They showed Suggs on the sideline mouthing in slow motion "OH MY GOD!" Tough way to lose but it seems common for big games that are close to come down to a mistake.
The Giants/49ers game was equally entertaining. It was a soggy field and a defensive struggle. The game really boiled down to the 49er punt returner flubbing two punts and costing his team the win. The first punt occurred in the 4th quarter with the 9ers up 14-10 and the punt bounced and he thought about picking it up but didn't. However, the ball clearly bounced off of his knee. He tried to play it down but it was obvious. The Giants recovered and it set up a 3rd down and about 15 yard strike from Eli to Manningham. Great route, great throw, great catch. 49ers ended up coming down and were stopped deep inside of Giants territory forcing a game tying Akers FG. Game ended up going to OT and with both teams getting opportunities it came down to another botched punt return. This time to 9er dude got it but as he was going upfield, he was stripped with the Giants recovering again inside of 9er territory. Tynes ended up kicking the game winner and it was another tough way to lose but again, we have all seen these mistakes happen in big games that cost the game. Interesting game as I thought Alex Smith showed he could not do much late in regulation and OT. He threw a number of balls into the ground and just seemed scared to not be the one to make a mistake. Also, don't like Jim Harbaugh that much. He has done wonders this season however, just seems like an arse in terms of sportsmanship. We all know how he boasted and gloated in the victory over the Lions earlier this season but he barely gave a handshake to Coughlin in the loss. He's an arse.
Anyway, it sets up a rematch of the Super Bowl a few years back with the Giants taking on the Pats. That's the obvious story line going into the game. Another big story line will be Brady and if he is to come away with another victory only furthering his legendary status (same with Belichik). Another is if Eli can pull out a victory, he will prove that he is an elite QB in the league and will have entirely crawled out from his brother's shadow. It'll be interesting to see how this one unfolds. Congrats to both teams for making it.
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