So…after the first two rounds, we’re left with teams that weren’t supposed to be here (except for the Patriots). Of course, Manning (of the Peyton flavor) threw for over 400 yards against the Chargers and the Chargers still won.
I’m glad the Pats aren’t playing Indy, but I don’t know how glad. San Diego is a damn good team. Standard operating procedure would dictate that Belichick will attempt to take away their biggest weapon — namely, LDT. After that, force Rivers to throw. And Rivers has a lot of picks and the Pats have, I believe, the fewest turnovers in the league.
Which doesn’t make me feel any better. We have two games to go, and San Diego worries me, and, should the Pats make the Superbowl, well, Green Bay, with a smarter and less mistake-prone Favre — also scares me. At the very least I think both games will be very good ones — or, well, really, bad ones, meaning closer games.
Can’t we just crown the Pats now? The thought of them not completing the perfect season eats away at me. If they lose either the AFC Championship or the Superbowl, that 16-0 regular season won’t be remembered like the ’72 Dolphins were.
Either way, folks, enjoy the ride with the Patriots, because you ain’t seeing anything like this again for a while. Unless, of course, they do it again next year, which is highly doubtful, although they’ll still have talent (a little bit less, Samuel will most likely be gone, and so on) enough to pull it off.
But let’s face it; this is the year. It’s all up to the Pats now. Two more games. 120 minutes of football.
Game on.
Note: I did not expect the Giants to win, but they carried over an enormous amount of momentum from the end of the regular season and made it work. I will freely admit I underestimated the Giants.