The AFC and NFC championship games are now in the books and the Superbowl is now set. Lets take a look back at the action from this past weekend shall we. First up it's a return trip to the Superbowl for Tom Brady and the Patriots as they just get by the Baltimore Ravens 23-20. With New England clinging to a 23–20 lead near the end of the game, Patriots safety Sterling Moore broke up consecutive passes in and near his own end zone, forcing Baltimore to attempt a 32-yard field goal to send it into overtime. But Billy Cundiff's kick was wide left, earning New England their seventh Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
After the game started with four punts, New England receiver Julian Edelman's 10-yard return gave his team good field position on their 39-yard line. The Patriots then drove to the Baltimore 11-yard line, aided by an illegal contact penalty on Lardarius Webb that wiped out an interception, and scored with Stephen Gostkowski's 29-yard field goal. New England quickly forced a punt, but Webb eventually intercepted a pass – for his third interception in two games – from Tom Brady on his own 30-yard line. On the next play, Joe Flacco's 42-yard completion to Torrey Smith moved the ball to the Patriots 28. However, New England's defense managed to halt the drive at the 3-yard line, where Cundiff kicked a field goal to tie the game.
In the second quarter, New England drove 75 yards to score the first touchdown of the game. The key player on the drive was running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who rushed five times for 33 yards and finished it off with a 7-yard touchdown run. Baltimore struck right back with an 80-yard scoring drive, with Flacco hitting Anquan Boldin for 37 yards and Lee Evans for 20 before finding tight end Dennis Pitta in the end zone to tie the game back up at 10. But New England retook the lead on their next drive, with Brady completing five of seven passes for 60 yards on the way to Gostkowski's second field goal, making the score 13–10 at the end of the half.
New England started off the second half with another long scoring drive, moving the ball 74 yards to the Ravens 6-yard line. But on third and two, Green-Ellis was tackled for no gain, so Gostkowski kicked his third field goal to give them a 6-point lead. Later in the quarter, Baltimore took their first lead of the game, 17–16, on Flacco's 29-yard touchdown pass to Smith. Then Ravens receiver LaQuan Williams – a college teammate of Smith at the University of Maryland – forced a fumble from kick returner Danny Woodhead that Emanuel Cook recovered for Baltimore at the Pats 28-yard line, setting up Cundiff's second field goal to make the score 20–16.
Woodhead returned the ensuing kickoff 41 yards to the 37-yard line, and the Patriots offense took the ball to the end zone from there, featuring a 23-yard reception by tight end Rob Gronkowski. On fourth down on the Ravens 1-yard line, Brady took the snap and dove over a pile of players for touchdown, giving New England a 23–20 lead. Late in the fourth quarter, Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes picked off a pass from Flacco and returned it 19 yards to midfield. Brady tried to capitalize on the next play with a deep pass to the end zone, but Bernard Pollard deflected the ball and Jimmy Smith made a diving interception just before it hit the ground. Then he got back up and returned the ball to the Ravens 39-yard line. Baltimore subsequently drove to the Patriots 30-yard line, but on third and three, Vince Wilfork dropped Ray Rice for a 3-yard loss. Rather then attempt a 50-yard field goal, Baltimore decided to go for it on fourth down, but Flacco's pass was incomplete and the team turned the ball over.
The Ravens defense forced a punt with 1:44 left, giving them one last chance to tie or win the game. Three receptions by Boldin for 41 yards helped move the ball to the Patriots 13-yard line. But Sterling Moore made two critical pass deflections to keep them out of the end zone. First, receiver Evans appeared to haul in a touchdown pass, but Moore knocked the ball out of his arms just before he held it long enough for a reception. Then on third down, he broke up a pass intended for Pitta at the 2-yard line. Then Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal attempt, enabling New England to run out the rest of the clock.
Flacco threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. Boldin caught 8 passes for 101 yards. Brady won his 16th posteason game as the Patriots quarterback, tying the NFL record held by Joe Montana. He is also set to join John Elway as one of the only quarterbacks ever to play in five Super Bowls.
The missed kick – and the fact that the football's laces were not out, as customary during placekicks – drew comparisons to the fictional kicker Ray Finkle from the 1994 film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, who missed a similar short-range last-second kick in their version of Super Bowl XVII.
So now that we know what happened with the AFC title game, lets look at the NFC Title game between the New York Giants and San Fransisco 49ers. This game required overtime but the Giants.......yes I said the Giants pulled out the 20-17 overtime victory.
Game information
For the fifth time in conference championship history, overtime decided the game, and as it was in the 2008 NFC championship game, a field goal by Lawrence Tynes was the winning score as the New York Giants defeated the San Francisco 49ers for their fifth NFC Championship victory.
The 49ers scored the first touchdown of the game as Alex Smith found Vernon Davis deep for a 73-yard touchdown pass midway through the opening quarter. Davis was called for an excessive celebration penalty after he climbed atop the camera tower in the back of the end zone, which forced David Akers to kick off from his own twenty-yard line. San Francisco recovered the ball on downs, as New York missed a fourth-and-1 attempt at their 34-yard line. On the first play of the ensuing drive the 49ers attempted an end-around reverse play where receiver Kyle Williams would be the ball-carrier. Williams, however, could not handle the handoff on the end-around and fumbled the ball but was able to recover when the ball squirted out of the grasp of a Giants defender. The 49ers punted three plays later, but this would not be the first time Williams' ball-handling would cause his team trouble during the game.
The Giants tied the score on the next drive, as Eli Manning found tight end Bear Pascoe for a six yard touchdown to complete a 10-play, 69-yard drive. Manning found wide receiver Victor Cruz twice on the drive, one for a large gain that gave New York the ball in San Francisco territory, and two of ten catches that Cruz made during the game. They then gained the lead on the last drive of the half, as Tynes hit his first of two field goals with a 31-yard kick. Cruz was again Manning's key target on the drive, with four receptions including the one that set up Tynes' attempt. With 5:18 remaining in the third quarter, the 49ers regained the lead on Smith's second touchdown pass of the day. San Francisco was able to move the ball 54 yards in six plays and was aided by Kyle Williams' 24-yard return of Steve Weatherford's punt. Frank Gore caught a pass from Smith on the second play of the drive for a 24-yard gain to the New York 28, and Davis caught his second touchdown of the day on the next play to give the home team a 14–10 edge.
On the Giants' first drive of the fourth quarter, they were forced to punt. Williams went to retrieve the punt but at the last second elected to let it continue to bounce past him. Giants receiver Devin Thomas picked up the ball and then began to run toward the end zone, claiming that Williams had touched the ball and the Giants should have had possession and a touchdown. Giants coach Tom Coughlin used one of his replay challenges to see if Williams had in fact touched the ball and, if he had, the Giants would get possession at the spot of the touch. Replays showed that on one of the bounces, the ball bounced up and touched both of Williams' legs as it rolled away. This gave the Giants the ball at the spot where Thomas downed the ball – as players are not permitted to advance muffed kicks – and seven plays later, Manning found Mario Manningham for a 17-yard scoring pass to give them the lead again.
The 49ers responded on their next possession and on the first three plays, they achieved first downs. The first came on a defensive penalty, as Kenny Phillips was called for an illegal use of hands for five yards and an automatic first down, while the following two were earned by Smith and Kendall Hunter on running plays. Three plays later, David Akers was called on to kick the game-tying field goal as the drive stalled at the New York 8-yard line. Akers converted, to tie the score at 17. The rest of the fourth quarter saw the teams trade possessions six times. The Giants punted three times while the 49ers did so twice, and regulation ended on a play where fullback Delanie Walker fumbled the ball.
New York won the toss and elected to receive the kickoff in overtime, but after four plays they were forced to punt. With the new overtime rules in place, this meant that since both teams had possession of the ball at least once, the game was now sudden-death and the first score would win the game. However, San Francisco could not do anything with the ball on their possession and after three plays the 49ers had to punt again. The Giants started their drive on their 36-yard line and advanced near midfield on third down, but Manning was sacked by Justin Smith and Weatherford came out for his twelfth punt of the game. Once again, Williams fielded the kick. After returning the ball five yards Giants linebacker Jacquian Williams reached in and stripped the ball from Williams, with Thomas recovering the ball at the 24-yard line of the 49ers. It was Williams' second official fumble and second lost fumble, and was the last time the 49ers would possess the ball.
On the first play of the drive, Ahmad Bradshaw gained eight yards. He was given the ball on the second play and picked up six more and a first down, and then added four on the third play. On the fourth snap, Manning simply took the ball to the middle of the field and kneeled, which brought up third down. Tynes was called out onto the field for what was a 26-yard field goal, but the Giants were called for a delay-of-game penalty to push it back to a 31-yard attempt. After San Francisco called timeout to attempt to freeze Tynes, he returned to the field and despite a low snap was able to kick the ball through the uprights to give New York the victory.
As had happened in the previous four conference championship games that required overtime to decide them, the winning margin was a field goal. Tynes became the first person to kick the winning field goal in overtime twice and became the first since Garrett Hartley of the New Orleans Saints did so in the 2009 NFC Championship. New York became the second consecutive team to win three playoff games to reach the Super Bowl after the Green Bay Packers did it the year before. San Francisco lost its second consecutive NFC Championship Game where they served as the host team, having lost the 1997 NFC Championship at home to the Packers. The 49ers moved to 1–5 in NFC Championship appearances since their victory over the Los Angeles Rams to advance to Super Bowl XXIV; the Giants handed the 49ers two of those losses and the Dallas Cowboys also defeated them twice. Meanwhile, New York won their fifth NFC Championship in as many tries and won their third conference championship game on the road in the process.
Manning finished the game with 316 yards on 32-for-58 passing and two touchdowns despite taking a beating from the front seven of the 49ers, who sacked him six times. Smith finished with two touchdowns passing – both to Davis – with 196 yards on 12-for-26 passing. Bradshaw and Gore each ran for 74 yards while Cruz led all receivers with 10 catches for 142 yards. Davis caught three passes for a total of 112 yards. Of San Francisco's six sacks, defensive tackle Ray McDonald recorded 2.5 of them to lead the team. Justin Tuck led New York with 1.5 sacks out of the team's three total. San Francisco fumbled four times, with the two fumbles lost by Williams resulting in the only turnovers of the game. There were twenty-two combined punts in the game, as Weatherford and Andy Lee recorded twelve and ten punts, respectively.
So there you have it the Superbowl is now set as the new York Giants will take on the New England Patriots. This is of course a rematch of the 2008 Superbowl which the Giants won. For full preview of the Superbowl check back here in two weeks for the whole story!
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