Super Bowl Matchup

          The NFC and AFC championship games lived up to the hype and were great football games. The Patriots and Giants are headed to the Super Bowl based off of some major mistakes by 49ers and Ravens.

In the AFC Championship game, the Patriots had a 23-20 lead with just under two minutes left. The Ravens had the ball and had to go approximately 70 yards to go for the score. Joe Flacco calmly led them down the field against the Patriots 31^st ranked defense. He threw a pass into the end zone that Lee Evans (former Badger great) had in his hands before Sterling Moore stripped it out of his hands. If he would have caught it, the Ravens would have won. Instead, the Ravens were forced to kick a field goal to plays later to send it into overtime. Billy Cundiff, last year’s AFC Pro Bowl kicker, promptly shanked a 32 yard field goal. All that was left was a kneel down by Tom Brady, and the Patriots were in the Super Bowl. It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch.

          Now, all that was left to see is who they would play. The NFC Championship game was an even better game. The 49ers had a 14-10 lead before they muffed a punt. The Giants got the ball and went 30 yards for a touchdown pass. The 49ers kicked a field goal late in the fourth quarter to knot it up at 17. Each team then had multiple opportunities to score, but it went to overtime.

The Giants won the toss. According to the playoff overtime rules, a touchdown wins the game (Tim Tebow’s 80 yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas when the Broncos beat the Steelers). If a field goal is made, the other team gets one possession to try and tie it. This never happened as both teams turned up the heat on the quarterback in the overtime. It came down to another special teams problem for the 49ers. This time the punt returner, Kyle Williams, had the ball stripped as he turned up field. The Giants fell on it and were in position to win it immediately. Lawrence Tynes kicked a 31 yard field a few plays later, and the Giants were in the Super Bowl.

This game is a rematch of Super Bowl 42 from four years ago. The Patriots came into the game undefeated and looked to become the second team in NFL history to go undefeated and win the Super Bowl. In a play forever known as “The Catch”, Eli Manning escapes pressure and chucks it deep to David Tyree who pins it against his helmet as he out-jumps Patriots safety Rodney Harrison. That play set up the Plaxico Burress touchdown which won them the Super Bowl.

Many already see this game as redemption for the Patriots. I personally hope that does not happen. I was rooting for the 49ers and Ravens to go to the Super Bowl, but obviously that did not happen. I hate picking the team that beat the Packers, but I just cannot give the Patriots my Super Bowl pick. Hopefully the Giants win the rematch.