Championship Games

Hi all,

As I'm sure you were all waiting for, this is my thoughts on both the AFC and NFC championship games. Well let's start with the NFC: The Bears and Packers. This game was one that really surprised me, I did not see it ending the way it did. This was a great match up between two great teams. The Packers seemed to be more in tune and on point in this game as they jumped out early to a quick 14-0 lead and held it till late into the game. The Bears ran into trouble early with Jay Cutler going down with a knee injury as well as a bloody elbow on his throwing hand. Which brought in the backup who was just as ineffective as Cutler. One of the biggest mistakes that they could have possibly made was putting in the third stringer, Caleb Hanie. This was the last QB on the roster and meant that Jay Cutler or Todd Collins could not come back into the game regardless. They got lucky in that Hanie didn't go down and get hurt because they would have been forced to put other bodies back there to try and play quarterback. For the most part Hanie had a great game and made little mistakes for a third stringer. He only threw 2 interceptions one of which he didn't even see the linemen standing there, and that one was returned for a touchdown which gave the Packers a 21-7 lead. The second one was more critical in that it was at the end of the game with seconds remaining and the Bears were driving to tie the game and send it into overtime. Hanie had no where to go with the ball and there was tons of pressure in his face and he tried to squeeze the ball into tight coverage. This ended up ending the game with one Packers knee to let the clock run out and send them to the Super Bowl to face the winner of the Steelers and Jets, which I will be getting to that game now.

The AFC Championship game was one of the better games, as I thought it would be. The Steelers and Jets were playing for the second time this season. The Jets got the better of the Steelers during the regular season and Pittsburgh was looking to avenge that loss and come out strong. They did just that. Pittsburgh came out and put points on the board on their first drive all the way down the field and took over 8 minutes off the clock. The Jets offense came out and looked a little off or maybe even tired out from the big time win of the Patriots in the Divisional round. Either way at the end of the first half the score was 24-3 Steelers. New York came out in the second half and looked like they had new life being down so much and not wanting to go down more. They came out and got a big time play and a catch by Santonio Holmes. There was a break down in coverage with Ike Taylor who fell down on the play. This brought the score to 24-10 and the Jets had new life. The Steelers defense was not about to give up and made a great stop on the next Jet's possession on the one yard line. This came back to hurt Pittsburgh when they fumbled the snap with Marcus Pouncey getting hurt in the first quarter. This gave the Jets a safety and the ball, which they then brought the ball down the field late in the game to score again, which would be the final, 24-19. But the Steelers defense wouldn't let them down yet again and made a big time stop and gave Ben and the offense the ball back where they were able to kill the clock and win the game. This sent the Steelers to their 3rd Super Bowl in 4 years. I look for a great game between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. My  prediction is that the Steelers will pull through in a close game and win their 7th Super Bowl trophy.