Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to everybody. Try to take a moment of reflection of what that man tried to do and try continue his work
Patriots at Broncos- This game unfolded the way most people
thought it would. After punting on their first drive, Denver’s offense
dominated the rest of the game. Denver had eight total possessions. The first
resulted in a punt. The next SIX possessions were all scoring drives and the
final possession resulted in Manning taking a knee to end the game. Peyton
Manning was a surgical for the game and helped the Denver Broncos put up 507
yards of offense, the most ever given up by a Bill Belichick team in his tenure
with the Patriots. The Patriots from the
start did not match the intensity of the Broncos. All week long, Manning was
hearing how much pressure his legacy was under. He completely crushed that talk
and showed up big in what I think may have been his most efficient performance
of the season. The Patriots knew they were underdogs and the outcome of the
game really wouldn’t affect them much because they weren’t really supposed to
be there in the first place. Problem is, it looked like they played that way.
The defense was especially vulnerable after Wes Welker knocked Aqib Talib out
of the game (intentional or not is debatable, I certainly don’t think he was
trying to injure Talib but I do think it was a penalty). Peyton Manning
exploited that matchup the rest of the game. That however is no excuse for the
Patriots offense generating a dismal 3 points in three quarters. Tom Brady
missed two very crucial throws, one to Julian Edelman and one to Austin Collie.
Tom Brady had a pedestrian performance and this team is not capable to overcome
that kind of performance from the only real star remaining on the team. Though
much of the struggle was on Brady, it is also fair to point out that the throws
he was completing were pretty great passes. I think it’s amazing that Brady was
able to carry this group to this point, but at some point it was going to catch
up to them, and it certainly did yesterday. The defining play for the Patriots
offense was a 4th and 2 on which Brady dropped back and the Patriots
All-Pro guard Logan Mankins whiffed and Terrance Knighton got a sack on Brady.
On a side note, the Patriots replacement for Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, had 0
catches and one drop on the day.
49ers at Seahawks- This game was an absolute dog fight and
probably one of the most entertaining playoff games this year. We really got to
see so much in small spurts. The game started off with Russell Wilson getting
sacked by Aldon Smith and fumbling the ball. The 49ers were not able to
capatilize as the Seahawks flexed their own muscles defensively and held the
49ers to a field goal. Then Colin Kaepernick started running wild, most
significantly a 58 yard run up the middle. However, in the second half, the
Seahawks defense got stingy and had a strong spy on Kaepernick to contain his
feet. As the Seahawks did that, Kaepernick started making some plays with his
arm, most notably a 26 yard touchdown to Anquan Boldin. Then in the fourth
quarter, the Seahawks made a gutsy call by going for it on a 4th and
7. A 49er defender had jumped offside so they knew they were going to get a
free play so Wilson threw it up for grabs to Jermaine Kearse. He came down with
it for very key touchdown to put the Seahawks up by 3. The Seahawks were
looking to close the deal on the 49ers when Navorro Bowman stripped the ball
for the 49ers but it was called that the Seahawks had recovered the loose ball.
The Seahawks decided to go for it on 4th down from the 1 and had a
had handoff which resulted in a fumble and 49ers ball. Kaepernick then turned
around and just threw a horrible interception, which led to another 3 points
for Seattle. The 49ers got the ball back and started driving down the field,
which included a touch pass from Kaepernick that was identical to his
interception, a drive earlier. With time winding down, Kaepernick took a shot
in the end zone to Michael Crabtree with Richard Sherman in coverage. Sherman
tipped the ball in the field of play and Malcolm Smith made the interception to
seal the deal. Sherman’s fantastic play was overshadowed by some postgame remarks,
which we will examine tomorrow. Unlike the first game, this game really could
have gone either way but in the end the home team with the Legion of Boom
forced 3 straight turnovers on the 49ers’ last 3 drives.
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