The Super Bowl is set, and fittingly after a wild and unpredictable year like this one, it's a Pick 'em at most sportsbooks. This is a strange feeling for those of us who grew up at a time when "NFC" was favored over "AFC" by double digits from basically the moment each Super Bowl ended. These more unpredictable games are a recent and welcome development; few will be out there saying this team will blow the other one out. We can all agree the Patriots looked a whole lot better yesterday than Seattle, but they weren't facing the Seahawks defense. OK, on to the games.
Green Bay at Seattle: Allow me to start this with a brief history of recent Green Bay playoff heartbreakers. We'll start with, oh, 1998, when Terrell Owens caught that touchdown just two plays after Jerry Rice fumbled away the game but the officiating crew missed it. Since then the Packers have lost four playoff games in overtime: 2003, when the Eagles completed a 4th and 26 to force the extra session; 2007, when Brett Favre threw an overtime interception at home in the NFC Championship against the Giants; 2009, 51-45 at Arizona; and yesterday.
Kind of a lot of OT games for one team to lose. And none really competes with yesterday's loss, which required, oh, 6-7 different things in the space of about half an hour to occur. Start with the Packers intercepting Russell Wilson with under 5 minutes left and a 19-7 lead, and the defender going to the turf as if it was the final minute and the game was over. Cue slow-motion footage of Packers players embracing and the Tweets about "Dagger!" and "Ballgame." Skip ahead to Seattle's onside kick, where Brandon Bostick just needed to block and Jordy Nelson, standing right behind him, would catch it. Then move to the most ridiculous 2-point conversion ever, Seattle winning the coin toss, and Russell Wilson throwing back to back perfect passes.
How does all that stuff happen in a game? How do all those overtime playoff defeats happen to one team? I mean, the last two happened because they traded away Brett Favre, we all understand that, but otherwise. Just kind of incredible.
Anyway, all that is what it took for Seattle to come back from the dead and win the NFC, going to their second straight Super Bowl. Their receiving corps is basically awful. There wasn't nearly enough urgency on offense for much of the second half (I disagreed with a punt from midfield with 7 minutes left, down 19-7). But it worked out, and it doesn't matter, because Seattle made all the plays late and won.
Can they now beat the Patriots? Well, we've already seen New England lose two Super Bowls against a mediocre offensive team and great defense the seven years, so why not. Marshawn Lynch, clearly, can run the ball on anyone; that was one of the all-time great rushing performances yesterday, just dragging guys downfield on carry after carry. Russell Wilson can play terrible for 56 minutes, then make every throw (and even get ridiculously lucky) the rest of the way. Seattle's defense has enough playmakers to make the important plays. I won't bet against them.
Indianapolis at New England: You know, the less said about this game the better. I think it was over around the time Joshua Cribbs let a punt clang off his helmet in a 0-0 game, the kind of bizarre, careless turnover that ensures you lose a road playoff game. But there were plenty of other endings after that, and most of them involved LeGarrette Blount looking like Earl Campbell while pummelling the Colts defense again and again.
I'm not in the habit of linking other articles, but this one from the Indianapolis Star pretty much spells out the ugliness. New England did the same things they did against the Colts during the season, and the Colts couldn't stop it this time, either.
Andrew Luck looked mortal, and it became clear that he's a superstar on a very ordinary NFL offense that needs to do a lot of things a lot better for the Colts to get to that next level. Maybe next year.
So, on to the Super Bowl. The way things have broken for the Patriots this year, it's hard to pick against them. The Seahawks pulled a miracle out of their collective tail feathers yesterday, and New England having seen that will know not to do what Green Bay did -- settling for field goals, abandoning the run at times, believing the game was over. Then again, Seattle has already played its lousy offensive game, so maybe the Super Bowl will be this offense at its best -- Russell Wilson making great throws from the start, Marshawn Lynch and Seattle's offensive line just blowing New England's defense off the ball.
But we've got two weeks to talk about that. Time to go read more about how on earth the Packers lost a heartbreaking overtime playoff game, again.