In the first game of the weekend, the New Orleans Saints had the unevniable task of heading to Seattle to take on Russel Wilson and the Seahawks. The Seahawks defeated the Saints to advance to their first NFC Championship Game since 2005. The win was the Seahawks' fifth consecutive home playoff win, as they have not lost at home in the playoffs since being defeated by the St. Louis Rams in 2004. The Saints were unable to win a second consecutive playoff game away from home after winning a franchise-first the previous week.
Seattle scored the first sixteen points of the game, all in the first half. Kicker Steven Hauschka hit field goals of 38, 49, and 26 yards and Marshawn Lynch added a 15-yard run. New Orleans did not get on the board until the fourth quarter when running back Khiry Robinson scored on a one-yard run. Fellow back Mark Ingram added a two-point conversion to make it 16–8. Late in the fourth quarter, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson hit wide receiver Doug Baldwin on third down and 3 for a first down at the New Orleans 31-yard line. Saints head coach Sean Payton lost the subsequent challenge and it cost the Saints their final timeout. On the very next play Lynch scored again on the ground, and the extra point gave the Seahawks a 23–8 lead with 2:40 remaining.
On the Saints' drive that followed, quarterback Drew Brees led his team down the field eighty yards in nine plays, the last coming on fourth down and 6 from the Seahawks' nine-yard line when Brees found Marques Colston in the endzone for a touchdown. Kicker Shayne Graham, who had missed two field goals earlier in the game, kicked the extra point to put New Orleans within eight with twenty-six seconds remaining. On the subsequent kickoff, Graham's onside kick traveled to Seattle receiver Golden Tate at the Saints' 42 yard line. Tate bobbled the ball, and Colston fell on the ball at the 41-yard line. On the first play of the drive, Brees found tight end Jimmy Graham for eight yards, then spiked the ball to stop the clock.
On the next play, Brees found Colston along the sideline at the Seattle 38 yard line. Instead of running out of bounds to stop the clock and give the Saints one more chance, Colston turned back toward the field of play and attempted to keep the play going by relaying the ball across the field to teammate Darren Sproles. However, the throw by Colston to Sproles was forward – therefore not qualifying as a lateral – resulting in an illegal-forward-pass penalty which included a game-ending runoff; thus, the Seahawks won, 23–15.
Next up, we renewed an old rivalry as Andrew Luck lead the Colts into Foxbrough to take on Tom Brady and the Patriots. New England intercepted four passes, rushed for 234 yards, and scored 6 rushing touchdowns – the second highest total in postseason history – as they advanced to their eighth conference championship game in the last 13 years.
The Patriots took a 7–0 lead just 1:15 into the game after Alfonzo Dennard intercepted a pass from Colts quarterback Andrew Luck on the third play of the game and returned it 27 yards to the Indianapolis 2-yard line. On the next play, LeGarrette Blount ran the ball into the end zone for a score. Then after an Indianapolis punt, Tom Brady completed a 25-yard pass to Julian Edelman and a 16-yarder to Danny Amendola as the Patriots drove 74 yards to increase their lead to 14–0 on Blount's second 2-yard touchdown run of the first quarter. This time, the Colts managed to respond. Faced with 3rd and 6 on their ensuing drive, Luck converted the down with a 22-yard pass to Griff Whalen, and then threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to receiver LaVon Brazill on the next play, cutting the score to 14–7.
Early in the second quarter, Edelman caught passes for gains of 27 and 13 yards as the team drove 75 yards to up the score to 21–7 with Blount's third 2-yard touchdown run of the half. Luck countered with a 29-yard completion to tight end Coby Fleener that set up Adam Vinatieri's 36-yard field goal. Then the Colts caught a break when a high snap sailed over the head of Patriots punter Ryan Allen. Allen recovered the ball on his own 1-yard line, but fumbled it while being tackled by Kelvin Sheppard. The ball went through the end zone for a safety, making the score 21–12. To make matters worse for New England, Allen was knocked out of the game on the play; placekicker Stephen Gostkowski replaced Allen for the rest of the game. After the free kick, Indianapolis drove to the Patriots' 39-yard line, but linebacker Dont'a Hightower ended the drive by intercepting Luck with 1:14 left in the half.
After the Patriots punted on the opening drive of the second half, Luck's completions to T. Y. Hilton and Fleener for gains of 40 and 16 yards set up Vinatieri's 21-yard field goal, cutting their deficit to 6 points at 21–15. But this was as close as they would get for the rest of the game. On the Patriots' ensuing drive, Brady's 53-yard completion to Amendola moved the ball to the Colts' 32-yard line, and they eventually scored on a 1-yard touchdown run by Stevan Ridley; he added a two-point conversion, increasing New England's lead to 29–15. Indianapolis struck back quickly with Luck completing a 46-yard pass to Hilton and a 37-yard touchdown pass to Brazill.
However, the Patriots quickly dashed the Colts' comeback hopes early in the fourth quarter. With 13:08 left in the game, Blount broke through the line and took off for a 73-yard touchdown run, putting New England back up by 14 points at 36–22. Then New England linebacker Jamie Collins intercepted a pass from Luck and returned it 20 yards to the Colts' 18-yard line, and they scored another touchdown on a 1-yard rush by Ridley. Indianapolis was forced into a three-and-out on their next drive, enabling New England to get the ball back and run almost 8 minutes off the clock, aided by Blount's 30-yard run. By the time the Colts got the ball back, only 2:34 remained. Then Dennard sealed the win by recording his second interception from Luck on Indianapolis' final play.
Blount tied a franchise playoff record with 166 rushing yards, and set a franchise record with 4 rushing touchdowns. He also returned two kickoffs for 37 yards. Ridley rushed for 52 yards and two touchdowns, while Brady threw for 198 yards. His top target was Edelman, who caught 6 passes for 84 yards. Luck threw for 331 yards and two touchdowns, but completed only 20 of 41 passes and was intercepted 4 times. Hilton caught 4 passes for 103 yards.
There we have all the action from Saturday, First up Sunday we saw the playoff debut of Cam Newton, as he and the Carolina Panthers played host to Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco recovered from a 10–6 first half deficit by intercepting Panthers quarterback Cam Newton twice, sacking him four times, while scoring 17 unanswered points to earn their third consecutive trip to the NFC championship game.
A 23-yard completion from 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to rookie receiver Quinton Patton helped the team advance to the Panthers' 24-yard line on their opening drive. But on third down, Kaepernick was sacked for a 7-yard loss by linebacker Luke Kuechly, forcing the team to settle for Phil Dawson's 49-yard field goal. Then on Carolina's next drive, Newton was intercepted by linebacker Patrick Willis on the Panthers' 46-yard line, and the 49ers converted the turnover into another Dawson field goal to take a 6–0 lead. Carolina took the ball back and drove 65 yards to the 49ers' 1-yard line, only to turn the ball over on downs when Newton was stopped short on the first play of the second quarter. But the Panthers' defense forced the 49ers to punt after three plays, and Ted Ginn, Jr. returned the ball 24 yards to the San Francisco 31-yard line. On the next play, Newton completed a deep pass down the left side of the field for a 31-yard touchdown completion to receiver Steve Smith, giving the Panthers their first lead, 7–6.
San Francisco was forced to punt again on their ensuing possession, and Newton led the Panthers back for more points. After rushing twice for 17 yards, Newton's 35-yard completion to tight end Greg Olsen gave them a first down on the 49ers' 20-yard line. The drive stalled at the 7-yard line, where Graham Gano kicked a 24-yard field goal to give the team a 10–6 lead with 3:41 left in the half. But Kaepernick rallied the 49ers back, completing three passes to Anquan Boldin for 42 yards and a 20-yarder to Michael Crabtree. With just 14 seconds left, he finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Vernon Davis in the right corner of the end zone. Davis was ruled out of bounds when he made the catch, but a replay review showed he had both feet in bounds before stepping out and the call was overturned. With his touchdown, the teams went into their locker rooms at halftime with San Francisco leading 13–10.
In the second half, San Francisco completely took over; after Carolina punted on the opening drive, Kaepernick completed passes to Boldin for gains of 16 and 45 yards as the 49ers drove 77 yards and got into the end zone on Kaepernick's 4-yard run. Then after a long Panthers drive ended on the 49ers' 37-yard line with a punt, San Francisco running back Frank Gore's 39-yard burst set up a 34-yard field goal by Dawson, giving the 49ers a 23–10 lead with 7:35 left in the fourth quarter. Carolina responded with a drive to the San Francisco 28-yard line, but safety Donte Whitner intercepted a pass from Newton to prevent any scoring. After the turnover, the 49ers put the game away with a possession that ran the clock down to 12 seconds.
Kaepernick completed 15 of 28 passes for 196 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 15 yards and a score. Nearly all of his passing production came from Boldin, who caught 8 passes for 136 yards. Gore added 84 rushing yards, while linebacker Ahmad Brooks had six tackles and 2.5 sacks. Willis had 11 tackles – 5 of which were solo tackles – and an interception. Newton finished his first playoff game 16-for-25 for 267 yards and a touchdown, with 2 interceptions. He also had 10 carries for 54 yards. Ginn caught 4 passes for 104 yards, returned two punts for 26 yards, and had 80 yards returning kickoffs.
Finally we had the Denver Broncos playing host to the San Diego Chargers. Heading into the weekend, there were a lot of question marks about Peyton Manning and this Broncos team? Where they for real? Was last year a fluke or not? All those questions were answered and then some on Sunday, as the Broncos beat the Chargers 24-17. This was the first time Denver has won in this round since 2006. Manning welcomed Wes Welker, one of his favorite targets who had been out with a concussion, back into the lineup with a touchdown toss Sunday and the Denver Broncos narrowly avoided a repeat of their playoff slip from last year.
Last year it was the bomb pass from Flacco to Jacoby Jones that spelled the end for Denver. This year, Manning rescued the Broncos from the brink of another crushing collapse and sent them into the title game for the first time in eight seasons. Manning completed 25 of 36 passes for 230 yards and two TDs, numbers not quite close to what he put up during the regular season, but still ve5ry good for considering what Manning has done in past playoff performances.
But it was windy and the Broncos were intent on establishing the run and controlling the clock, and they converted 9 of 13 third downs while holding the ball for 35½ minutes. After gaining just 18 yards on the ground against San Diego last month, the Broncos ran for 133 yards, including 82 by Moreno, whose 3-yard TD run put them ahead 24-7 with 8:12 left. After that, things got interesting. Keenan Allen hauled in a 49-yard catch with Quentin Jammer in coverage on fourth-and-5 from the San Diego 25 with seven minutes left. That led to his second TD -- both from 16 yards -- that pulled the Chargers to 24-14 with 5:43 left.
Decker then made his third big blunder of the day, flubbing the onside kick, which San Diego recovered, leading to Nick Novak's 30-yard field goal with 3:53 remaining that pulled the Chargers (10-8) to within a touchdown. Novak followed with a pooch kick, and Trindon Holliday secured the ball at the Denver 27 with 3:51 left. Manning's third-down brilliance kept the Chargers' offense on the sideline.
In this ball game controlling the ball and the clock was going to be key for the Broncos if they wanted to have success, and that's exactly what they did.
So Championship Sunday is all set for next week as the San Francisco 49ers head north to take on the Seattle Seahawks, while the New England Patriots have to travel to take on the Denver Broncos. We will have full predictions and previews of the game later on this week!
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