NFL: Championship Weekend 2008

With the Superbowl set, I wanted to give a little commentary on the championship games that took place on Sunday. Though for very different reasons, both games were much closer than we all thought they would be.

Patriots (W) vs Chargers

This game was supposed to be a blowout. The Chargers barely squeaked by the Colts, having given Indianapolis every chance to win the game. Now they were playing a much better team, and their three best players (Tomlinson,Gates, and Rivers in that order) were hurt. However, I had given them a chance in my mind because to beat the Patriots you have to run the ball and rush Brady. The Chargers can do both of these things well.

Of course everything changed when LaDanian Tomlinson could not play. Now the Chargers rushing attack lost not only its best running back, but the best back in the entire league. These are hard circumstances to play under. Surprisingly, just as San Diego has climbed through adversity this season, they shrugged off their situation and gave the Patriots a run.

The Charger pass defense was for the most part excellent. Other than Kevin Faulk (would somebody just cover that guy?) getting first downs at will, the Chargers played very good defense in the air. Randy Moss was once again held to just one catch, but I still think he played a very important role. Wes Welker’s touchdown grab was only open because the safety was double-covering Moss in the end zone.

MVP defense aside, the Bolts also picked Brady three times. If you told the Chargers they would get tres interceptiones on the golden boy last week, they would have told you they would have the game in the bag. Unfortunately they got surprised by the powerful running of Maroney. Though the Patriots did not even think about running the ball during the regular season, they now have a legitimate running attack should they need it (they will not in the Superbowl).

I think the Chargers could have won this game with either one of two things happening. One, if LaDanian Tomlinson played. Rather than getting four field goals, the Chargers would have converted at least two of them into scores with LT in the backfield. The other thing that could have pushed them to victory? If the benched LT did not go into timeout. The childish depression of Tomlinson dragged the spirits of the team down. Even if he was not able to play, he should have been standing up cheering on his team. He should have made up for his inability to play with a little morale boost to everyone who could play.

LT always comes up into the conversation of one of the classiest guys in the league, but in some ways I think that is undeserved. He might be charitable, he might be respectful, and he certainly can run: but he is not a leader. That was sadly evident during the game. Rather than pout under his helmet for three hours, he could have stepped up and rallied the troops. Nice.

Packers vs Giants (W)

In one of the most disappointing games of the year (for me anyway), another great player made a mistake, but more on that later. The Giants, out of nowhere, are headed to the Superbowl. In a comparison I really just do not want to make, the last time the sixth seed made it to the Superbowl was when the Pittsburgh Steelers became the first team to ever make it from the final seed and win. (Correction: I do not have to make that comparison. As learned from a below comment, the Giants entered as the fifth seed. I apologize both to the Steelers and readers.)

As much as I might not enjoy the comparison, it is fitting. Just like the Steelers flew under the radar and were supposed to lose every one of their games, the Giants entered the playoffs under the same conditions. Beating the Bucs was not really impressive, other than the fact that Eli did not throw any INTs against a stingy Tampa Bay defense. No, what is impressive is the fact that he still has not thrown one.

Eli has done more than just avoid picks. He has been able to distribute the ball to Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer very effectively. The Packers defense, which was great for most of the year, was getting torched by Plax. I am still puzzled at the decision to play man defense and set up one on one coverage between him and Al Harris. Harris is a great player, but he does not have the height to cover Plaxico one on one. The towering Burress was making highlight catch after catch, seemingly consecutive at one point.

The other story of the game was Favre, the second big name player to make a costly error on Sunday. It was very sad, because he has had a great year. Playing the way he did this year, his team won 13 games. So why in the world did he go back to playing like the Favre of a few years ago for this game? The gunslinger was in full force for almost the whole game. Favre was forcing throws into areas that were poorly chosen, which eventually cost his team the game in overtime.

Besides a monster run by Driver, Favre’s numbers were less than stellar. A factor was certainly the Giants pass rush, but they were stellar against the run. The Giants front was excellent, but I have to question the Green Bay abandonment of Ryan Grant who only had 29 yards. Ok, he did not start out running that well. Do you remember the last time that happened? Only seven days ago he single-handedly spotted the Seahawks 14 points…and then proceeded to rack up 201 yards and 3 touchdowns! Definitely do not give that guy the rock down the stretch.

On both sides of the ball the Packers’ game plan was suspect, and the G-Men capitalized. A year ago Tom Coughlin was inches away from getting fired. Brian Billick has probably left a few voicemails at Raven headquarters regarding that one.

So that wraps up my thoughts about yesterday’s game. Though I would have preferred a different outcome in the NFC Championship, it was a great game to watch. I will have more thoughts on the Superbowl in the near future, but one thing I will say is I think it is going to be a great game. The last time these two met it was surprisingly one of the best games of the regular season. We will see if a rematch in Arizona will be as entertaining. Any thoughts on the championship games? Let me know in the comments.

Images in this post were obtained from the teams’ respective websites.