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Football Tue Jan 24 2012

What You Missed: NFL Conference Championships

Hey... that looked familiar. I watched the entire AFC and NFC Championship games, and I couldn't help but reminisce.

The Ravens' third-and-3 draw play late in the game to Ray Rice reminded me of Madden. Baltimore ran the play while at the New England 30 with about three minutes left, trailing by three.

I am not a football expert. I am not a member of the Bill Walsh coaching tree, and I did not work as a video coordinator under Bill Parcells. I learned what I know about football by watching the game, and playing Madden video games (or the legendary NFL 2K5). If I was playing as the Ravens, and if I was in that same situation, I would know that there are certain plays that are more likely to gain yards. I'm thinking of quick slants, runs up the middle or between the tackles, quarterback sneaks, fullback rushes (my favorites), or even QB rollouts.

Then, there are the plays that may lose yardage, like play-action passes, screens, pitches to the outside, and anything that may be categorized as a trick play. But the worst offender in this regard is the draw play. They only work when the defense is clearly amped up for a pass. In this situation, Baltimore obviously would like to move the chains, but even a no gain works in their favor. This was not a clear-cut passing situation.

So what happened? Rice was stuffed for a loss of three yards. Baltimore went for it on fourth-and-6, and threw incomplete. Baltimore squandered an excellent scoring chance either to tie it or even continue the drive.

Lee Evans' "drop" reminded me of Lee Evans' catch from last week. He makes an amazing one-handed catch last week, but fails to reel in an easier game-winning catch on Sunday. I know, I know... that was a great play by the Patriots defender, Sterling Moore, to break that play up. But with those stakes, I can't see Larry Fitzgerald or even Reggie Wayne not coming up with a catch in that situation.

Billy Cundiff's miss reminded me of U2's "Stuck in a Moment" music video. Poor Billy Cundiff.

Watching it live, I thought it was a combination of errors that led to the miss - I thought the snap was bad, the hold was bad, and the kick was the result of those two miscues. Nope. The snap and hold weren't perfect, but they were good enough. Cundiff just missed it.


Bernard Pollard's tackle that injured Rob Gronkowski reminded me of his hit to tear Tom Brady's ACL in 2008, and his role in tearing Wes Welker's ACL in 2009. I'm sure everyone in the Boston area immediately noticed this too.

Joe Flacco reminded me of Ben Stiller's character in Happy Gilmore.

The New York-San Francisco contest reminded me of a classic game.

Or maybe it reminded me of a bad game? I'm still not sure.

I don't think I need to state why I thought it was a good game. It was close throughout, and even into overtime I don't think anyone had any idea who would win. It felt like an old-school smashmouth game, with the longest rushing gain being 18 yards. Eli Manning threw for over 300 yards, Victor Cruz caught 10 balls for 142 yards, and Vernon Davis scored two electric touchdowns.

So why do I say it was a bad game? The big reason is that two miscues by a certain somebody ended up costing the Niners the game. If Kyle Williams doesn't come close to the punt that touched him, or if he holds onto the ball in overtime, we have a different contest.

The worst part was in the fourth quarter, score tied, and 5:39 left. Typically, that's enough time for two well-played drives. Sunday? Each team got the ball three times after that point before regulation ended! Giants three-and-out, 49ers three-and-out, Giants three-and-out, 49ers three-and-out, Giants drive stalls at the 50-yard line, and the Niners finish the 19 seconds left in the fourth with a half-hearted attempt to move the ball upfield.

This even carried into overtime. The Giants took over at the 20 after a touchback, got a first down, then punted after three more plays. The 49ers went three-and-out. The Giants got a first down, then lost eight yards over three plays before punting.
Then Kyle Williams fumbled the punt, and that was that.

The rematch between the Giants and the Patriots reminded me of this. And this. Let's hope Super Bowl XLVI is half the game Super Bowl XLII was.

 
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