TRG, Championship Weekend Recap

The playoffs this season have been fantastic from week to week. The conference championships delivered two more games that were great until the end. It did seem somewhat ironic that both Harbaugh coaches went down on catastrophic mistakes by their own team, but that's the way it goes. After splitting those two games, I'm sitting at 7-2-1 for the postseason. Not bad! Check back a bit later for my Superbowl pick. Here's the full recap on the last games.

LOSSES


SF -1.5 over NYG
For those that don't already know, I'm actually a born and raised 49er fan, so this loss was particularly devastating. The Niners offensive line and run game was great, the defense played well all around, but Alex Smith did not. The phrase "Quarterback driven league" is out there for a reason. He missed several throws badly, and he also failed to make throws to open receivers, taking incompletions or sacks instead. It'll be an interesting offseason for the Niners, especially with free agent QBs like Manning and Flynn out there.
You have to admire the Giants for hanging in there and getting the win, though. Eli got pummeled for the entire game and OT. Not only was he still standing at the end, but he didn't even seem phased. The Giants can't take comfort in such a poor performance by their o-line, but given the circumstances, Eli looked good. At least he should have a much easier time against the Patriots defense on Sunday.

Baltimore +7 over NE

The Ravens were so close to making it to the Superbowl. Their trip got knocked out of Lee Evans' hands in the endzone. Cundiff's miss was shocking, but Baltimore has to be kicking themselves for not getting the win; statistically, they were a better team. They just couldn't finish off key drives with touchdowns. Flacco had a much better day, but the offense still struggled. You have to wonder if Cam Cameron is going to start getting more of the blame for the offensive trouble. The most surprising thing I saw in this game was New England's defensive line. Wilfork was dominant against the Ravens. The Patriots have lucked out facing two less-than-impressive offenses so far, so it'll be interesting to see how that secondary holds up against New York's passing attack.

photos:  Kyle Terada US Presswire
Elise Amendola Associated Press