LtD sports wrap: NFL Divisional Round weekend

By DT

Wow... What a stunning weekend in the NFL. I had a feeling that one of the Packers or Saints would lose this weekend, but not both... Bottom line - when you are a team that's supposed to win, it's just a whole different beast. Add in a bye week to sit around and think;  it can prove to be a recipe for disaster  ...


Let's take a quick glance at what happen.


Saturday: 

The 49ers stunned the Saints 36-32 in San Francisco proving the theory that a dome team struggles mightily outdoors especially in the playoffs. This game was the best of the weekend. It was insane and unexpected to watch the 49ers match scoring drive after scoring drive late in the 4th quarter with the Saints. Side bar - holy Vernon Davis...

Speaking of holy; not even god, jesus christ or the entire holy trinity for that matter could help the Denver Tebow's stop Tom Brady and the Pats on Saturday night. The Pats completely demolished (old testament style...) the Broncos 45-10 and only needed 2.5 quarters to do so... Brady had 6 TD passes in 3 quarters I believe; the game was over before halftime...


Sunday:

The Ravens took out the playoff-virgin Texans 20-13 in Baltimore. The Ravens spent roughly 5 minutes (if that) on the wrong side of the score; they led the rest of the way. The Texans definitely gave the Ravens a good go but in the end the crafty veterans of the Ravens defense forced Texans rookie QB CJ Yates to make critical, drive killing mistakes that did in the Texans season.

In the final game of the weekend, the heavily favored #1 seeded Packers suffered a stunning defeat on their home field at the hands of the surging NY Giants 37-20. The Packers found out what it's like to defend a title, have a bulls-eye on your back (straight from a Dr Carr text of wisdom) in the post-season, etc. Not sure what I'm getting at; go back and read the first paragraph of this post, can't say it any clearer...

I'm just a little bitter because myself and Dr Carr while enjoying some delicious Pei-wei more-or-less called the Giants victory over the Packers. I should have put my money where my mouth is... As Drewman - the other third of LtD mentioned to me tonight; the Packers had everything to lose (they did), the Giants had nothing to lose. All to often that fact determines big games...


So next week, the NFL's final four will play Sunday to determine who moves on to Super Bowl XLVI.

AFC Title Game:   Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots on CBS at 3pm est.

NFC Title Game:   NY Giants at San Francisco 49ers on Fox at 6:30pm est.