NFL: Holy crap, what a day! Two Championship games coming down to the wire (and then some!) for the right to play in Superbowl XLVI. Neither one of them disappointed.
PATRIOTS: Unlike some of the AFC Championship games involving New England in the prior decade, today's affair in Foxborough was a taut, down-to-the wire affair.
For the first half, both teams seemed by be fostering a 'bend but don't break' mindset. However, for every score that New England managed to put up, Baltimore seemed to come right back. Stephen Gostkowski got the Pats on the board first with a chip-shot FG to make it 3-0. Baltimore would then tie the contest up at 3-3 early in the 2nd.
New England got the ball back on their own 25 and move the ball down the field in less than four minutes, with RB Ben Jarvus Green Ellis punching it in from the Ravens 7 before pointing to the MHK patch on his jersey.
The Ravens, however, would answer right back with some deep passes from QB Joe Flacco and passing the ball to Dennis Pitta for the TD to tie the contest up at 10-10.
New England would get another Gostkowski FG before the half to make it 13-10. However, in the second half, after the Patriots had to settle for another Gostkowski FG, Baltimore took the lead for the first time on the day late in the 3rd when Flacco found WR Torrey Smith on 3rd down and Smith scrambled for 29 yards to hit paydirt and the 17-16 lead.
New England managed to re-take the lead early in the 4th after Baltimore thwarted two previous attempts to punch the ball into the end zone from inside the Ravens 1-yard line. Finally, Tom Brady managed to break the plane to put New England up 23-17.
With just over 7 minutes to go in regulation, it appeared as though the Patriots could put the game away once and for all when LB Brandon Spikes picked off Joe Flacco and returned the ball to mid-field. However, on New England's first play after the INT, Brady went deep and after an impressive tip drill by Bernie Pollard in the end zone to keep the ball aloft, CB Jimmy Smith came up with the ball for Baltimore and returned it to the Ravens own 39, giving Baltimore excellent field position with 7:07 to go in the 4th. However, while the Ravens managed to get the ball as far as the Patriots 33 yard line, they turned it over thanks to an incompletion on 4th and 6 with 2:33 to go.
While the turnover on downs gave New England great field position, the Patriots weren't able to do anything more than go 3 and out, giving the Ravens the ball back on their own 21 with 1:44 in regulation while trailing 23-20.
In that short timeframe, Flacco and the Baltimore offense seemed to be able to move the ball at will, at times carefully painting the sideline to preserve the clock. This was accomplished with such apparent ease on the part of the Ravens that it looked as though they would score the go-ahead TD inside of a minute, let alone notch the game tying FG. This was made abundantly clear when the Ravens advanced as far as the Patriots 14 yard line with less than 30 seconds to go.
On 2nd and 1, Flacco found WR Lee Evans open in the end zone, only to have Patriots CB Sterling Moore rip the ball out of Evans' grip to bring up 3rd and 1 (also incomplete, but well short of the end zone) so with 15 seconds remaining, the Ravens went for the tie with what was considered a chip shot FG from the 32 yard line. Baltimore Kicker Billy Cundiff had already hit a pair from the 20 and 39 earlier on the game.
With all eyes fully expecting the contest to OT, Cundiff's kick inexplicably sailed wide left of the uprights, giving New England the ball back with 11 seconds. Brady simply took a knee and that was the ballgame.
Patriots survive a late scare from the Ravens to win 23-20 and the more superstitious among us think that the late Myra Kraft might've sent an opportune gust of wind to aid her husband's team in the final seconds of the 4th.
By his own admission in the postgame comments, Tom Brady 'sucked'- going 22 for 36 with 239 yards, two interceptions, one sack and that quarterback sneak on 4th an goal form the Ravens 1 yard line [is it REALLY a sneak when the whole world knows what's going to happen?- NANESB!]. Eerily enough, Joe Flacco also went 22 for 36 but had 306 yards, two TDs three sacks and an interception on Sunday. RB Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had 15 carries for 68 yards and the TD on Sunday.
On the defensive side of the ball, Nose Tackle Vince Wilfork came up huge [come on now- you think that dude does ANYTHING small?- NANESB!], pressuring Flacco and coming away with 6 tackles- including a sack- on the day. No interceptions run back on Sunday, but hey! There's still one more game for New England.
Ten years after making his final playoff appearence for the New England Patriots [coming in for injured then-rookie Tom Brady of the 2nd Quarter of the 2001-02 AFC CHampionship game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to lead New England to a 24-17 win over the Steelers- NANESB!] for Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe was on hand to award the Lamar Hunt trophy to New England owner Robert Kraft.
OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS: Of some concern to the Patriots are apparent injuries to TE Rob Gronkowski and CB Kyle Arrington. Arrington left Sunday's game in the 2nd quarter with an apparent eye injury while Gronkowski departed in the 3rd to have an ankle injury examined, although he would later return to the sidelines.
Reports are circulating that Gronkowski will be cleared to play in time for the Superbowl.
NFC CHAMPIONSHIP: While the Patriots were celebrating after dodging OT and winning the AFC title, the game to determine who would face New England in Superbowl XLVI got underway from a rainy Candlestick Park in San Francisco between the NY Giants and the host 49ers.
After a first half in which Giants QB Eli Manning was starting to pick apart the 49ers defense, San Francisco would come out in the 2nd half and take the 14-10 lead on a 29 yard pass play from QB Alex Smith to WR Vernon Davis.
The Giants would then take a 17-14 lead after WR Kyle Williams had the Giants punt graze his leg, resulting in a live ball that the Giants return team pounced on- giving Manning and the offense a short field to work with at the 49ers 29 yard line. It appread as though San Francisco was set to dodge a bullet when when Eli Manning found WR Mario Manningham on 3rd and 15 and Manningham was able to run it in for the go ahead TD.
Williams would then return the subsequent Giants kickoff to mid-field, and the 49ers would get tantilizingly close to the Giants end zone before settling for a FG on 4th and 2 from the Giants 7 yard line.
That tied the contest up and unlike the earlier contest in Foxborough, MA, sent the NFC Championship game into OT. After each team had the ball and was seemingly unable to do anything with it, the Giants once again punted and once again, Kyle Williams turned it over, this time LB Jacquain Williams managed to punch the ball out and Giants reciever Devin Thomas fell on it at the 49ers 24 yard line. Although the 49ers stopped them on 3rd and goal from their own 8 (and the Giants got a 5 yard penalty afterwards), unlike earlier in the day, this crucial FG attempt was good, sending the Giants to Superbowl XLVI in Indianapolis and setting up a rematch of Superbowl XLII against the Patriots where the Giants last-minute drive put them on top 17-14.
Interestingly, this is the second consecutive NFC Championship game the Giants have appeared in that went to OT and the third NFC Title game in the last 5 years to go to OT.
NCAA FOOBALL: Former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno passed away from complications from lung cancer at the Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College, PA over the weekend. The 85 year old Paterno played collegiate football at Brown University in the early 1950s and had been the Nittany Lions head coach from 1966 until November 2011 when he was forced to step down amid a child sex-abuse scandal involving his former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. While Paterno was accused of no wrongdoing himself, many accused the head coach of attempting to protect the Nittany Lions reputation by ignoring the more serious allegations against Sandusky.
On the field, Paterno is college football's all-time winningest coach, with a career record of 409-136-3 and going 24-12-1 in Bowl games. Joe Paterno is also the only coach to have won each of the 'major' Bowls- Rose, Orange, Fiesta and Sugar. In 2006, Paterno was named to the College Football Hall of Fame as a head coach.
In November, amid the media coverage of Penn State when the Sandusky scandal was breaking, Paterno's family reported that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. His health had been deteriorating in recent days and friends and family were called to his bedside.
Paterno leaves behind his wife Susan, five children and seventeen grandchildren.
RED SOX: The Boston Red Sox have dealt SS Marco Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies for pitcher Clayton Mortenson. Mortenson alternated between duty in the bullpen and as a starter for Colorado, going 2-4 with a 3.86 ERA last season.
The move gives the Rockies a veteran player in the middle infielder and frees up some money for Boston to pursue free agent starting pitcher Roy Oswalt or Outfielder Cody Ross, both of whom the organization has reportedly been aggressively courting in the past couple of days.
OTHER RED SOX NEWS: The Red Sox and Reliever Daniel Bard have avoided arbitration and reached an agreement to terms on a 1-year contract over the weekend.
ELSEWHERE IN MLB: The Texas Rangers have signed highly sought-after Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish to a 6 year contract thats worth a guaranteed $56 million.
Darvish has played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters since 2005 and has also appeared in the World Baseball Classic twice for Team Japan, closing out the final inning of the 2009 Championship game against South Korea to help Japan win it's second WBC tournament.
Last season, Darvish went 18-6 with an ERA of 1.44 for the Ham-Fighters of the Japanese Pacific League.
BRUINS: After a 3-2 loss in the dying sceonds of OT at home against the NY Rangers, braking a 7-game drought where the blueshirts went scoreless on the power play. Less than 24 hours later, the Bruins were heading for Philly for a Sunday afternoon game that was taking plast the same time as the AFC Championship match.
So while all eyes were seeminlgy elsewhere, there was plenty of this going on early in Philadelphia:
When all was said and done, 66 penalty minutes were assesed in Sunday's game [altho' some of them for more mundane infractions like too many men on the ice- NANESB!]/ The Bruins got out to the quick 1-0 lead 50 seconds in on a Patrice Bergeron goal while Maxime Talbot tied things up at 1 not quite 90 seconds later.
Tyler Seguin would get a PP goal at the 9 minute mark while Milan Lucic would get the puck past Bryzgalov some three and a half minutes later to make it 3-1 Boston.
Unlike the last time these two teams met at Philly, The Flyers weren't content to just roll over and die. The second period was all Philly, with them outshooting the Bruins 15-6 and Scott Hartnell getting the natural hat trick to put Philly up 4-3.
David Krejci would knot the contest up at 4-4 early in the 3rd while Greg Campbell would put the Bruins back on top a few minutes later to make it 5-4. However, Maxime Talbot would strike again and once again knot things up, this time at 5-5.
After a scoreless OT in which the B's were unable to take advantage of a holding penalty assessed to Kimmo Timonenen 3:20 in, the game went to a shootout where Tyler Seguin would tally the winning goal and Tim Thomas made the save on Wayne Simmonds to give Boston the 6-5 shootout win while everybody else was watching the Pats and Ravens, apparently [guilty!- NANESB!].
So once again, Boston is credited with 6 goals on the Flyers, but unlike their last meeting at the Wells Fargo Center, the Bruins needed every last one of them. Tim Thomas stopped 33 of 38 shots faced in regulation and OT while Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 32 of 37 faced.
From there, the Bruins will travel to Washington D.C. where they will face the Capitals in their final game before the All-Star Break. This will actually be the first meeting between the two teams this season. The puck will drop at 7PM ET and the game will be televised on NESN.
OTHER BRUINS NEWS: With the Bruins in Washington D.C., the team was scheduled to visit the White House and meet with President Obama on Monday, as is customary for championship teams to do.
However, Tim Thomas has declined to join the team on the visit citing political differences with President Obama. Thomas is staunchly conservative and has donated to conservative candidates and political action committees in 2010 and wears a variation of the Gadsden Flag [an unofficial symbol of the Tea Party] on his mask.
Thomas is not the first outspoken conservative to have played for a championship team in Boston. Shortly after winning the 2004 World Series, starting pitcher Curt Schilling threw his support behind President George W Bush who was running for re-election against Massachusetts Senator John Kerry at the time. Other players for the Bruins, Red Sox or Patriots have hinted at more conservative or libertarian political views, but otherwise held their political leanings pretty close to the vest while playing in dark-blue Massachusetts.
Thomas is one of two Americans on the current Bruins roster (Joe Corvo being the other). The overwhelming majority of players hail from Canada.
On a side note, knowing Bay State liberals like I do, I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before somebody starts digging up some dirt about Thomas [allegations of cheating on his wife, taking steroids, puppy-drowning and so on- NANESB!] now that he's dared to slight their god with the 44% approval rating.
OTHER NHL NEWS: Edmonton Oilers LW Taylor hall is back on the ice after suffering a rather gruesome injury where his face was acceidentally stepped on by the skate of teammate Corey Potter during warm-ups before a game agaist the Columbus Blue Jackets last week.
The gash required 30 stitches and a specially insulated helmet that wouldn't rub against or aggravate the stitches as well as a tinted visor, since one of his eyes is almost swolen shut.
Hall has 15 goals and 16 assists in 37 games played this season. Both Hall and the Bruins' Tyler Segiun were the top two picks in the 2010 NHL Entry draft.
NBA: After being held to their lowest total all season in Firday night's 71-79 home loss against the Phoenix Suns, the Boston Celtics hit the road for a quick 1-game trip down to Washington D.C. to take on the woeful Wizards on Sunday in a contest that got even LESS attention than the Bruins and Flyers.
Paul Pierce carried the C's with 34 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists for the Celtics in their 100-94 win over the Wizards, who are now 2-14.
Boston will next take on Orlando Monday and Thursday night in a home and away series. Monday Night's game will tip off at the Garden and be televised on Comcast sports New England and NBA-TV. Thursday night's road game will get underway at 8PM ET and be televised nationally on TNT.
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