Geaux Saints!

My NFL rooting interests run Cowboys, Saints, Raiders. The Raiders are on an extended tear of mediocrity and seem doomed so until Al Davis is no longer in charge of football operations. Dallas is out of the playoffs, so that leaves everything on the backs of New Orleans. Happily that team looks to be more than capable of bearing my extra weight.

This is typically the best weekend of football, but overall it didn’t really match up to last week’s games.  The New Orleans Saints steamrolled the Arizona Cardinals 45-14 and the Indianapolis Colts took care of business against the Baltimore Ravens 20-3 yesterday.

Today the Minnesota Vikings dominated the Dallas Cowboys 34-3 and the New York Jets shocked the San Diego Chargers 17-24.

So heading into divisional weekend my battle cry will be, “geaux Saints!”

Wildcard number two — Bolts over Colts

Overtime thriller and the San Diego Chargers beat the Indianapolis Colts 23-17. Affirming last year’s playoff win and an amazing story given how San Diego’s season played out

The Stars at night …

… are big and bright, and in the Western Conference finals!

Ducks

Sharks

and now the Red Wings.

NFL — the Chargers and Giants advance

San Diego 28, Indianapolis 24

The Chargers take the Colts twice this season — at home in the regular season and on the road in the playoffs. This time ending Indy’s chance for a repeat as NFL champs.

A back and forth game that saw both San Diego’s starting quarterback Philip Rivers and starting running back LaDainian Tomlinson leave with injury came down to inspired play on both sides of the ball by the Chargers.

First a touchdown drive after River’s injury to take the lead and second a tough fourth down stand near the goal line to keep the Colts out of the end zone. The AFC road to the Super Bowl now goes through Foxborough.

New York 21, Dallas 17

Sadly the Cowboys lose this game. I didn’t like the officiating either way for three quarters, but the Giants earned the win.

NFL — the Pack and Pats advance

Green Bay 42, Seattle 20

You couldn’t ask for more. A super fun snowy Lambeau Field, Favre doing his Favre things and a goat turned hero.

Well a Packers loss might be better from my perspective as a Dallas fan since I think the Seahawks would be a weaker conference championship game opponent if the Cowboys win tomorrow, but what a job by Green Bay.

Ryan Grant fumbles twice in the first handful of minutes. These miscues lead to a 14-0 Seahawk lead. The other three and a half quarters he does nothing more than chalk up 201 yards on the ground and three touchdowns.

New England 31, Jacksonville 20

In a hard fought game, the Pats were ruthlessly efficient. Both teams looked good. New England looked better. And the faked RB direct snap was a thing a beauty. The call was great, the execution was great and Tom Brady couldn’t have done a better job selling the play. 

I still think the Pats are playing pretty jacked up (read: multiple personal fouls), but it is the playoffs so now’s the time to do it.