Fourth and Long 1.17.08: NFL Conference Finals
Posted by Matt McEwen on 01.17.2008
On the heels of one of the best divisional weekends ever, the NFL playoffs move on to the conference finals. What combination of the Patriots, Chargers, Packers and Giants will still be alive come Monday?
Well, if conference championship weekend is even a fraction as good as last weekend's divisional round, we're all in for a treat.
Great game after great game, football fans got their money's worth. Starting from Ryan Grant fumbling his first two touches, only to come back and run for 200 yards through a blizzard, and ending with Eli Manning making a lot of people – myself included – eat all the bad things we said about him, it was a weekend where the NFL showed why it's the most popular sport league in North America.
Sandwiched in between Green Bay and New York shoring up their meeting Sunday afternoon at Lambeau, we had the Patriots led by a near perfect Tom Brady dismantling the Jags in the second half to move to 17-0 and the Chargers being led by their junior varsity squad handing Peyton Manning and the defending Super Bowl champion Colts a loss at the final game in the history of the RCA dome.
Insanity all around really.
So now, we move into the NFL semi-finals. The early game Sunday improbably takes place in Lambeau field, and if a playoff game in Green Bay doesn't get you just a bit excited as a football fan, then you probably aren't a football fan. There isn't a stadium in sports that somehow makes it's aura come through the TV like Lambeau does, and last weekend's blizzard comeback just added another chapter to it's amazing history.
Will the Packers write another chapter this weekend? It looks like the pieces are in place for the answer to be a resounding yes.
The key to the Giants' wins the last two weeks have been buying Eli time to be comfortable in the pocket and hit his receivers. I think that changes Sunday. Aaron Kampman, KGB and the rest of the Packers D are pretty adept at pressuring the QB, and the Giants' O-line just isn't going to be able to hold them off for four quarters. I'll give Eli enough credit to say that after winning two playoff games he's not going to curl up and die after getting sacked a couple of times, but he's going to have problems hitting receivers with the aggressive and skilled Packers secondary in coverage. A two or three interception game isn't out of the question here.
On the other side of the ball, I think the timeless Bret Favre is going to have a field day ripping up the injured Giants secondary for big gains. He loves to air it out, and against that decimated group that could lead to some big scores. And while the Giants have a fantastic pass rush, the Seahawks led the league in sacks and only managed a single questionable one last Saturday. Add in the fact that you HAVE to pay attention to Ryan Grant – who was incidentally plucked from the Giants in September – and Favre should have plenty of time to attack the fore-mentioned ailing secondary.
Packers 35, Giants 17
Then we head to an equally frozen Gillette Stadium and Patriots continued quest for perfection. The Chargers are the surprise opponent, and I think a lot of New England fans resent them for robbing their team for a chance at redemption against the Colts, but have to feel pretty confident.
The Chargers will be coming in with an injured starting QB, and injured Hall of Fame running back, and an injured top receiving tight end. That's not a good recipe when you have to deal with the best offense in the history of professional pigskin. Actually, that's the kind of recipe that gets you barred from cooking for a life time.
The Chargers defense should be aggressive enough that Brady won't repeat his near perfect performance against the Jaguars, but it won't be enough. Even if everyone was fully healthy, it won't take a miraculous interception/fumble/recovery sequence for the Pats to seal up another Super Bowl berth.
Patriots 42, Chargers 13.
I'm 4-4 on playoff games so far this year, but I'd be shocked if I'm not 6-4, and we're not staring at a NFL marketing dream match up of Favre vs. Brady in the Super Bowl.
you are sadly mistaken, the giants led the league with 53 stacks, seattle was fourth with 48. and the giants pass rush is miles over NE, even is that huge 12 sacks game hadn't happened they would still be tied for 5th with chicago. their front 4 not only gets to the quarterback alot, they are also pretty smart and hit the qb if they can get away with it, and we all have seen what they can do to good quarterbacks such as romo and garcia, who are deffinetly not in the league of "god" favre, but they certainly arent scrubs, i think your 2 td and fg prediction is off, i honestly have a hard time predicting who wins since both teams are pretty good at different things, and its just going to come down to which defense can kill the other offense first, which both teams i believe have an equal shot at doing.
Posted By: P (Guest) on January 17, 2008 at 07:55 PM
THe giants do have a great pass rush, but that rush will be slowed down thanks to Ryan Grant. It will be tough for the G-Men to send 6 or 7 guys when the packers can run and/or throw so well. The audibles, the "Farve cadence" all things that will slow that rush. Seattle has a great pass rash and well...they got tore up. Favre should have no problem with the banged up secondary. 5 VERY capable wideouts are the last thing the Giants wanted to see. As far as the Giants on offence...just hope good eli gets off the plane, and comes to play. The Giants have two physical recievers, one who is banged up. They are not a "burn 'um" deep recieve core. AL Harris and Charles Woodson will be licking their chops sunday. Add in that Atari Bigby has emerged as a great "hitting" safty and Nick Collins growth....it should make a great match up for the packers on D. THe Giants are RED HOTT right now and are playing amazing football on the road. But this Green Bay. 4 degrees....snow....packer fans! It will be a good game, but i just dont see the Giants being able to hang in 60 minutes.
Posted By: GoPackGo (Guest) on January 17, 2008 at 08:14 PM
I am looking forward
for the playoffs and
it will be good one
and nice match ups
Posted By: Steven (Guest) on January 17, 2008 at 08:33 PM
I think the Chargers may fall victim to the same thing that plagued them the first 10 games of the season - IMMATURITY.
They came into the season talking like they believed their own hype, and acted like they were already in the playoffs. It blew up and they realized they actually had to WORK to get into the postseason. Now they get a nice streak and a HUGE win over the Colts, and here go the mouths again. I hope the Pats do the Merriman dance after this one, too.
Posted By: Matt G (Guest) on January 17, 2008 at 11:49 PM
I too hope they do the sack dance again, after blowing them out. That whole "controversy" was incredibly stupid. I'm supposed to hate the Patriots because they stole a man's DANCE? Sounds like a gay thing, really. Not to mention that HAVING a sack dance in the first place is tasteless, you don't get to be all offended when the other team uses it to mock you. The Chargers are the whiniest team in the league.
Posted By: Jim (Guest) on January 18, 2008 at 12:23 AM
Go G-Men! Gp Ravens!
Posted By: Prime Time Louis (Guest) on January 18, 2008 at 10:37 AM
