NFL Conference Championship games

[Kreskin]

My favorite day of the NFL year; the games today determine who will play in the Super Bowl.

Green Bay is in Seattle (starts at noon pacific, 3 eastern) followed by Indianapolis at New England.

Storylines:

Packers/Seahawks - Aaron Rodgers won last week playing on one leg. How his body holds out in this one could be key. Century Link field is a tough place for visiting teams at the best of times. The weather could also impact the game. Wind and rain is expected during the game with possible high wind and rain at times. The 12th man will be out in full force no matter what.

Colts/Patriots - Andrew Luck is hoping to beat Tom Brady and become the only QB to beat both Manning and Brady in the same post-season. Will Luck arrive as an NFL elite QB or will the veteran Brady keep him off the list for another day?

 

[Ludlow]

Always been a Green Bay fan . Go Packers.

 

[Kreskin]

The richter scale must have gone off in Seattle. What a finish. Seattle 28-22 OT.

 

[Mowich]

The richter scale must have gone off in Seattle. What a finish. Seattle 28-22 OT.

Truly, that was some comeback by the Sea Hawks - great win for the team and their fans. How tough that must be for the Packer's though - so many TO's in their favor along with the penalties - they must have thought they had it in the bag. Really tenacious effort by Seattle.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Truly, that was some comeback by the Sea Hawks - great win for the team and their fans. How tough that must be for the Packer's though - so many TO's in their favor along with the penalties - they must have thought they had it in the bag. Really tenacious effort by Seattle.

Usually you can see how a team that lost did something wrong. Not in this case. I am a Seahawks fan and I had them pretty well written off. And 99% of the time given same scores and times, I would have been right. Glad I wasn't today.


Now GO INDY. I hate New England.

 

[Kreskin]

I had them written off too. And as you said Green Bay was tough as nails. The Hawks sure have a way of coming on in the second half. It seems they always get outplayed early but in this case it looked to be too big a hill to climb.

 

[gopher]

The richter scale must have gone off in Seattle. What a finish. Seattle 28-22 OT.

You got that right - awesome game. The cold, wet weather may have been a factor as to why there were incompletions on some of those passes. That final pass was unexpected and that is why the safety failed to cover for the DB resulting in the TD pass. Awesome game, indeed.

 

[Kreskin]

The AFC match was no contest. Brady is probably the best QB of all time. Hawks defence will need to pull up their socks to stop him.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

The AFC match was no contest. Brady is probably the best QB of all time. Hawks defence will need to pull up their socks to stop him.

I think it would have helped if some of the Indy players actually showed up.


Brady is overrated. Lives on his hype. He gets into opponents heads. And Belecheat always comes with surprises. You can't learn anything from watching New England tapes.


I hope Seattle wins. I am not sure I can survive another year of Pretty Boy worship. The next 2 weeks will be bad enough.

 

[damngrumpy]

Today was a mixed blessing I don't like the Seattle a bit my second favorite team
the Packers came up short. I like Denver always have. Patriots did do well today
and the Colts I would never cheer for they got hammered Luck's luck ran out
good match up coming hoping for the Patriots

 

[Kreskin]

The Pats running game looks lethal. Together with Brady that's a formidable offense. Seahawks can't afford to only show up in the second for that game.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

The Pats running game looks lethal. Together with Brady that's a formidable offense. Seahawks can't afford to only show up in the second for that game.

Agreed. But Seattle has made other good offences looks pathetic (Denver last year).

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

So looks like the New England Patriots were caught cheating again. Underinflating their balls in order to be easier to handle in the cold. 11/12 balls they supplied were tainted. And yes the NFL has stupid rules. Each team brings 12 balls. Each of the balls is used only by their team on offense. The NFL inspects some randomly. But wide open to abuse and that is what happened. Bellecheat and Brady at it again. I think when all is said and done, one needs to look at the 'legacy' as somewhat tainted. Not sure how much of it is actually legit. And even if it is legit, 2 cheating scandals tarnishes it immensely.

 

[gopher]

So true - you always get the feeling those referees are going to have a hand in determining who is going to win the Super Bowl. Hopefully, the commish will make sure none of this crap happens and that we get a clean win.

 

[Mowich]

So looks like the New England Patriots were caught cheating again. Underinflating their balls in order to be easier to handle in the cold. 11/12 balls they supplied were tainted. And yes the NFL has stupid rules. Each team brings 12 balls. Each of the balls is used only by their team on offense. The NFL inspects some randomly. But wide open to abuse and that is what happened. Bellecheat and Brady at it again. I think when all is said and done, one needs to look at the 'legacy' as somewhat tainted. Not sure how much of it is actually legit. And even if it is legit, 2 cheating scandals tarnishes it immensely.

When I first read your post, IRBS I thought, 'talk about taking the bloom off the rose'. Then, as no link to the story was provided, I decided to do a search. I came up with this article.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/deflat...lYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1lIUzAwMV8x

Once I read that there was really no advantage to using under-inflated balls if indeed they were, I had a slightly different take on the story. Still, as the author notes, it is just one more public scandal for the team, true or not. Sheesh.

So true - you always get the feeling those referees are going to have a hand in determining who is going to win the Super Bowl. Hopefully, the commish will make sure none of this crap happens and that we get a clean win.

Really? Truly, gopher? In my wildest nightmares, I can't imagine anything like that happening in our league. But then, we had Mark Cohon at the helm, Gaia bless him. Frankly, there is very little I have seen to either like or believe when it comes to the NFL's head honcho.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

When I first read your post, IRBS I thought, 'talk about taking the bloom off the rose'. Then, as no link to the story was provided, I decided to do a search. I came up with this article.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/deflat...lYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1lIUzAwMV8x

Once I read that there was really no advantage to using under-inflated balls if indeed they were, I had a slightly different take on the story. Still, as the author notes, it is just one more public scandal for the team, true or not. Sheesh.

From what I have read (on NFL.com) it is an advantage for the QB's grip if the ball is underinflated particularly in cold weather.

 

[Mowich]

This is pretty cool. Rock on Jon Ryan! A good ole Regina boy to boot.

More and more players from Canadian universities are winding up in the NFL these days, but there are still chances for CIS players to make NFL firsts, and it looks like one happened Sunday. That's thanks to Seattle Seahawks' punter Jon Ryan, who threw what's probably the first touchdown pass in NFL playoff history from a Canadian university-trained player. Down 16-0 in the third quarter to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game, the Seahawks lined up for a field goal, but it proved to be a fake, with Ryan (the holder) taking the ball and throwing a pass to offensive tackle Garry Gilliam.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/c...throw-an-nfl-playoff-touchdown-230614927.html

 

[EagleSmack]

From what I have read (on NFL.com) it is an advantage for the QB's grip if the ball is underinflated particularly in cold weather.

Unless you're Aaron Rogers who recently said he over inflates his balls whenever he can and if he gets away with it great.

And Brad Johnson the Tampa Bay QB who paid some guy $7,500.00 to get a hold of the Bucs balls prior to the super bowl and scuff them up so they would be to his liken.

But Patriots...

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Unless you're Aaron Rogers who recently said he over inflates his balls whenever he can and if he gets away with it great.

And Brad Johnson the Tampa Bay QB who paid some guy $7,500.00 to get a hold of the Bucs balls prior to the super bowl and scuff them up so they would be to his liken.

But Patriots...

Each team alters the balls to the liking of their QB including the Patriots. This incudes the finish and probably the inflation. However, these teams have kept the alterations within the legal limits of the alteration of the ball. The fact is the Patriots altered 11/12 balls on the Championship game and now I am reading that they have done the same on a game against Indy in November. Cheaters cheat. Sometimes that is partly why they win.

The NFL has really stupid rules like teams provide their own balls. So it seems like they have some blame for not properly securing the process.

 

[coldstream]

I listened to former Vikings QB Fran Tarkenton on CNN this morning saying that the deflated balls were a trivial distraction from the real cheating scandal in NFL which is the virtually unrestricted use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in the sport. The use steroids, HGH, EPO, amphetamines is epidemic. No team can win a Super Bowl without them.