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Conference championships: But for the grace of mistakes...
Last week: 3-1. Season: 235-129.
One is here because the best team in the regular season made some horrendous mistakes.
One is here because a run defense that had missing in action all season finally showed up.
One is here because its quarterback's flickering light switch happened to be on last weekend.
One is here because the gods decided a certain low-lying city had suffered enough.
There are many stories on Conference Championship Day...these are just four. We've beaten Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Colts' playoff woes, to death - just play the damned game. The angles in the NFC are a little fresher, but won;t stop the winner from being a 7- to 10-point underdog in Super Bowl XLI.
NEW ENGLAND AT INDIANAPOLIS (6:30 p.m., CBS): Finally, they meet in the playoffs at Indy's place. The irresistible force (Tom Brady's 12-1 lifetime record in domes, with his nest game of 2006 coming in the Minneapolis Baggie) meets the immoveable object (Adam Vinatieri, who's just another...that polite name Al Swearingen has for the county commissioners from Yankton, has never missed a kick in the RCA Dome).
Yeah, the Colts are due. Actually, the past two seasons, they've come to Foxboro for two reasons, but ran out of bubble gum, so they just kicked ass instead. Indy was still undefeated back then, and the Pats were still struggling. Colts - yet to hit valley that night. Pats - still in valley.
Sure, Ron Sanders came off the injury report, sold a few programs and belted out a few show tunes. But the Indy run defense turned itself around because guys remembered how to tackle. (just ask Larry Johnson). Offensively, it's hard to guage where the Colts are. Manning threw five interceptions over the two playoff wins and only put his team in the end zone twice, but their final drive in Baltimore, killing about seven minutes before Vinatieri's fifth field goal, was everything you could want out of playoff offense.
And the Pats...sure, they've been vilified in the aftermath of the postgame hijinks in San Diego. All I'll say is, Ellis Hobbs should've pantomimed an injection into his ass when he was riffing the Shawne Merriman dance at midfield after the game. Now stay classy, LT. And you Philip Rivers, if Hobbs is such a lousy corner, you should've abused him for more than 21 points.
Brady was not good Sunday (first three-interception playoff game), but the great ones aren't great 24-7. They're great when they have to be. Our Tommy was, with a little help from dumb penalties, bad coaching decisions and a secondary that helped Reche Caldwell and Kabar Gaffney look like Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne.
How great were the Pats? They won on a day they managed only 51 rushing yards (abandoning the run after falling behind 14-3 late in the sceond quarter) and allowed LT more than five yards a carry. If they don't self-destruct with turnovers as they did last year in Denver, they find a way.
And they will find a way tonight. They will slow Manning down with a lyrical mix of schemes. If they can keep LT from busting the big one, they can control Joseph Addai. On offense, Brady will distribute the ball widely enough to give the running game some room it didn't have last week. There will be anxious moments. Somebody may have to step up and make a big play on defense (as Willie McGinest did on Edgerrin James in the goal line stand that ended the Pats' last visit to Indy).
A few weeks ago, after the bitchslapping from the Dolphins, I did not believe the Pats would be making a return trip to Miami. The way they responded won me back.
PATRIOTS 24, COLTS 23.
NEW ORLEANS AT CHICAGO (3 p.m., Fox): It just seems too storybook, doesn't it? A team that went 3-13 and was driven from its home by America's greatest-ever natural disaster coming back a year later and having the greatest season of its 40-year history?
Well, five years ago, a team named after the quality Americans rallied around after ourhome soil was attacked bounced back from mediocrity to win it all. I will be parked at the TV in my Andre Tippett jersey...and a Saints cap (somewhere in my house in a circa '78 Archie Manning jersey - hope it still fits).
If there was ever a dome or warm-weather team equipped for Chicago cold, it's the Saints. With Deuce and the Bush, they have the inside-outside angle covered. Drew Brees played some bad-weather games at Purdue - a soft QB doesn't go to New Orleans as a free agent. The defense isn't great, but it's not meeting a great offense, either.
Sure, Rex Grossman made a couple of nice throws against Seattle, but not enough to sell me on the Bears. The defense really stumbled down the stretch, and I just don't see this team as Super Bowl-quality. It's no '85 squad on either side of the ball.
Bon temps, NOLA (but spare me Tom Benson's damned umbrella!).
SAINTS 24, BEARS 16.
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11/22/07 9:17 AM