Wow, what a day of NFL Football. First, the Packers thanks to two Ryan Grant fumbles find themselves down 14 points to Seattle just five minutes into the 1st quarter. And what does Packers coach Mike McCarthy do? He leaves Grant in the game. Good thing he did because the former NYG rushed 27 times for a team postseason record 201 yards and 3 TDs. The ageless wonder Mr. Brett Favre threw 3 TDs as the Packers posted their biggest point total in postseason history beating the Seahawks 42-20, outscoring them 42-6 after the early 14-0 Seattle lead. The Packers now wait until the results of tomorrow's NYG-Dallas game to see where they will be playing next week. If the Giants win, they come to Lambeau. If the Cowboys win, the Pack travels to Dallas where Favre is 0-9 all time in his career. The best thing about this Packer team is it looks like Brett is finally having fun again. Looking more like a 25-year old than the 38-year old veteran that he is, Favre's most memorable play was an off-balance underhand toss to Donald Lee right before halftime. By the end of the game Favre and longtime wideout Donald Driver were having so much fun on the sidelines that they were throwing snowballs at each other. As a sports fan in general, you have to love seeing that.
The second game featured the more hyped matchup between New England and Jacksonville. I myself though that if there was one team other than the Colts that had a shot at beating the Patriots, it was the Jaguars. With a two-headed monster at running back with Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor and a mistake-free quarterback in David Garrard, things were looking good early on as the Jags drove 9 plays for 80 yards resulting in a touchdown pass from Garrard to Matt Jones. But back came the Patriots led by regular season MVP and offensive player of the year Tom Brady. In one of the most spectacular passing performances that I have ever seen, Brady completed an amazing 26 of 28 passes for 262 yards and 3 TDs. The Patriots went on to win the game 31-20 and advance to the AFC Championship for the fifth time since 2001. Even with all-pro wideout Randy Moss being covered most of the night (he only had one catch for 14 yards), Brady found other weapons completing passes to 8 different receivers. The defense was able to hold the potent Jaguar rushing offense to only 80 total yards and got them to turn the ball over twice, one on a Garrard interception. I'm going to say it now that if San Diego somehow beats Indianapolis tomorrow which I don't think will happen, I'm predicting the Patriots to run away with their final 2 games and finish the season 19-0 and the title as "the greatest team in NFL history" bar none. Sure you can point at "Spygate" and put an asterisk next to their records just like we do with Barry Bonds, but the fact of the matter is this team continues to win week after week and if they go all the way, will have the type of season that we've never seen before. One that will set all sorts of records. And I for one, can't wait to see it.
Picture courtesy of: http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/photos?photoId=1778713&gameId=280112009
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