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Before the game I gave out my predictions for today’s Championship Games on Twitter: Jets to defeat Colts; Saints to defeat Vikings. Of course given my playoff picks the last several weeks, it would only follow that the Colts and Vikings won. Well the Colts did manage to hold off the Jets in convincing 30-17 fashion while the Saints barely squeaked past the Vikings 31-28 in overtime making me 1-1 in my picks for the weekend.
The early game featured the Colts being patient enough before they figured out what the Jets were up to. And it wasn’t pretty. In fact the Jets roughed up quarterback Peyton Manning pretty badly in the beginning of the game to take a 17-6 lead. But Manning led his team to a touchdown drive in the two-minute drill to end the first half to swing the momentum their way.
In the second half, Manning seemed to know where the blitzing rusher was coming from. He knew exactly where there was a sag in the defense and hit the receiver. And even more the Colts managed to run the ball successfully down the stretch.
We all knew at some point the Jets would run into a problem with having a vanilla offense and relying too heavily on their defense as great as it might be. The only reason I picked the Jets was because I was completely wrong about them against the Bengals and Chargers. Also having the Jets, and namely braggadocio head coach Rex Ryan, in the Super Bowl would make it very enjoyable.
But it wasn’t meant to be. It wasn’t a repeat of Super Bowl III. It was just one the most cerebral quarterbacks we’ve seen since Joe Montana taking his time to figure out how best to carve up an excellent defense and do his part to dispel the defense wins championships myth.
As for the NFC Championship Game a lot of people on Twitter were saying what a great game it was. It was a thrilling game for sure since it was a back and forth event with neither team getting out to more than a touchdown lead. But the sloppiness left a lot to be desired.
The Vikings fumbled the ball six times while losing it three times while the Saints fumbled three times while losing it once. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson fumbled the ball twice although the Vikings recovered the ball both times. Reggie Bush lost the ball once when fielding a punt deep in Saints territory. To add to the mess in all of this The Quarterback Who Shall Not Be Named threw two interceptions. In fact TQWSNBN’s final play of the game was an intercepted pass at the Saints 22 yard line as the Vikings were driving for a game winning field goal with seven seconds left to play. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
So we have the Saints and the Colts for Super Bowl XLIV. Get ready to be assaulted by these storylines:
But be grateful for this: we won’t have to hear the utter ballwashing the media will give TQWSNBN as the savior of the Vikings. While that should help keep my meals down in the next two weeks, I have a haunting suspicion the prima donna will find a way to insert himself into the headlines.
And speaking of ballwashing all the love Reggie Bush has been getting this past week? 41 total yards of offense. He rushed the ball seven times for eight yards averaging 1.1 yards per carry. He did have two catches for 33 yards, although one of them was for 28 yards. And of course in his one punt return he muffed the catch. So let’s just say that he went back from where he came from.
