Jim Rogash/Getty ImagesQ: What's the difference between Tim Tebow and Barack Obama?
A: One is a charlatan and a phony Messiah who had a bunch of people fooled after some convincing performances in Denver. The other plays football for the Broncos.
PATRIOTS: As it turned out, the rematch of the regular season game between Denver and New England wasn't even close.
After a week of buildup in which many who had previously had a hard time taking the Broncos and QB Tim Tebow had since jumped on the Tebowmania and seriously predicted Denver's miracle run to continue.
For the opening posesson of the game, the Patriots started out on their own 20 and drove down the field thanks to a 43 yard run by TE Aaron Hernandez followed by a short 7 yard Brady to Welker TD pass to take the early 7-0 lead.
The Broncos were able to get a pretty good drive going on their next posession, starting out on their own 24 and advancing as far as the Patriots 37 yard line before LB Rod Ninkovitch sacked Tim Tebow, forcing a fumble that Pats LB Brandon Spikes recovered.
The Patriots were able to capitalize on the turnover as Brady capped the drive off with a 10 yard TD Pass to TE Rob Gronkowski to make it 14-0 in favor of New England.
When Denver got the ball back, they managed to get the ball as far as mid-field before being stopped on 3rd and 5 and punting. However, after pinning New England inside their own 15 yard line, Broncos free safety Quentin Carter picked off a Brady pass attempt and returned the ball to the Patriots 24 yard line, giving Denver an extremely short field to work with. Denver's short drive was capped off with a 5 yard TD run from RB Willis McGahee to cut the Patriots' lead in half, making it a 14-7 game.
However, that's as close as it would get for the Broncos as New England would score 21 unanswered points in the remainder in the first half (including a 61 yard catch and run from WR Deion Branch and two TDs from Brady to Gronkowski).
In the 3rd quarter, Brady completed a 17 yard TD pass to Aaron Hernandez to make it a 42-7 game and tie an NFL postseaon record with Steve Young for most TDs in an NFL postseason game (the 49ers Steve Young accomplished this in Super Bowl XXXIX against the San Diego Chargers). For the remainder of the game, the Broncos and Patriots would swap Field goals, making it a 45-10 game.
Brady even got a decent punt off late in the 4th, but that was overshadowed by the donnybrook that took place immediately after the kick. However, Tebow-mania is done for the season and the New England Patriots will now host the Baltimore Ravens at Gilette Stadium next weekend. New England wins this one by a 45-10 final with Brady going 26 of 34, 363 yards, 6 TDs and one interception. Rob Gronkowski accounted for half of those TDs, with 10 catches on the day and 145 yards.
The following day, the Baltimore Ravens held on late to win against the Houston Texans at home to advance to the AFC Champtionship game against New England which will take place at 3:00 PM ET at Foxborough, MA and be televised on CBS.
OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS: Patriots owner Robert Kraft invited the family of Peabody, MA fireman James Rice to Saturday's game. Rice, an 11 year veteran of the Peabody FD, was killed in a December 23rd apartment fire and was laid to rest on December 30th.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: Even if you weren't a fan of the 49ers or Saints, the game that preceeded Saturday's Broncos/Patriots game was worth tuning in for.
The 49ers got off to an early and seemingly commanding 17-0 lead, but the Saints and Drew Brees was able to chip away at it heading into halftime trailing by just a field goal, with the score at 17-14. A fairly quiet 3rd quarter set up an absolutely chaotic 4th that saw no fewer than three lead changes in the final 4:02.
After the Saints took a 32-39 lead with 1:37 to go in regulation, it appeared as though the 49ers were attemtping to play for the tie and set up overtime. With 1:12 to go and starting from the own 15, 49ers QB Alex Smith managed to drive the team as far down as the Saints 14 yard line, setting up this play to TE Vernon Davis:
San Francisco goes on to win by a final of 36-32. This sets up an NFC Championship game at home against the New York Giants, who stunned the defending Superbowl Champion Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Sunday by a 37-20 final.
Joel Auerbach/Getty ImagesNHL: After a lackluster start to their most recent road trip this weekend [namely a 4-2 loss in Raliegh, NC to the Carolina Hurricanes that few people saw because it was taking place concurrently with the Patriots taking Denver to the woodshed- NANESB!], the Bruins continued their swing through the Southeastern Division on Monday night, facing the division-leading Florida Panthers in Sunrise, FL.
Despite getting outshot 9-1 to start off the first period, Patrice Bergeron got Boston on the board less than 90 seconds after the puck dropped for the opening stanza. Despite being outshot by a total of 12-6, the Bruins carried that slender 1-0 lead into the 1st intermission. Panthers defenseman Jason Garrison would tie things up at 1-1 after getting the puck past Tukka Rask in the 2nd.
The Bruins would then re-take the lead with a power-play goal from from Bergeron with about 5 minutes to go in the 2nd. However, with just a few seconds remaining in the 2nd, Panthers C Shawn Matthias knotted up things at 2-2 with an even-strength goal.
After a scoreless 3rd period and OT, the game went to a shootout, with the first two shooters from each team missing on their opportunities. Stephen Weiss made his opportunuty count and Patrice Bergeron got the Bruins first goal of the shootout. However, Mikael Samuelsson missed his shootout opportunity for the Patherns and David Krejci was able to ice the win with his shootout goal against Scott Clemmensen.
Tukka Rask turned aside 38 of the 40 shots he faced in regulation and OT while Clemmensen stopped 32 of 35 faced. Boston was able to convert on their only power play opportunity of the night while the Panthers went 0-2 with the man advantage.
Although the Bruins remain atop the Northeast Division as far as the standings go, they're a point behind two other teams in the NHL at the moment- neither one of them having faced Boston; the NY Rangers and St Louis Blues.
On Tuesday night, the Bruins will face the hard-luck Tampa Bay Lightning who have lost 7 in a row. Puck will drop at 7:30 PM ET and the game will be televised on NESN.
NBA: The Celtics woes continue as they have now dropped five striaght, losing to the Chicago Bulls on Firday night, on the road to the Pacers on Saturday and then getting dropped by an 88-97 final by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday.
The C's will try and snap their skid on Wednesday night, when they face the 4-10 Toronto Raptors at the Graden. The game will be televised on CSNE and tips off at 7:30 PM ET
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