The divisional round of the 2009 playoffs featured four games. Three of which were blowouts. The Saints crushed the Cardinals 45-14, the Colts won 20-3, and the Vikings won 34-3. Only the New York Jets, who faced the San Diego Chargers, were challenged winning 17-14, and securing their spot as the only wildcard team to make it to the conference championship games this weekend. How does this happen? These are supposed to be good match-ups between two good teams, but somehow three out of four ended in blowouts. Maybe the higher seeds really are the better teams, with exception to the Chargers of course.
On Saturday, the high-flying Cardinals faced off against the high-scoring Saints. Tim Hightower, running back of the Arizona Cardinals, scored on the first play from scrimmage to put the Cardinals up 7-0. But this was the end of Arizona's good fortunes for this game. Their defense showed just how bad they were, giving up 45 points for the second week in a row. I don't care how good your offense is when your defense plays as crappy as it did this postseason. It's hard for any team to win when they give up 45 points to the opposing offense, as the Cardinals really gave themselves no chance to win this game.
The other game on Saturday was between the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens were coming off a whooping of the New England Patriots the previous week, and were looking for their second straight trip to the AFC Championship game. But the Colts had other plans. Colts quarterback, Peyton Manning, showed why he is one of the best in the league scoring 14 points in little over a minute before halftime. This pretty much put the game away, because the Ravens offense was terrible in this game and stud running back, Ray Rice, was pretty much a non-factor. I'll be the first to admit that I really like this Ravens team. They have a second year quarterback in Joe Flacco, a young running back in Ray Rice, and a good defense. I think they have the components to be back here in contention almost every year. But the Colts showed us why they are the number one seed in the AFC, and how they were 14-0 before pulling their starters against the Jets.
The game on Sunday between the New York Jets and the San Diego Chargers was by far the closest game of the weekend. Coming into the game, people didn't know if the Jets had enough firepower to slow down the Charger offense. And, man they showed they did. Derelle Revis, cornerback for the Jets, shut down his side of the field, and forced the Charger offense into uncomfortable situations. Kicker, Nate Kaeding, of the Chargers missed three field goals which would have been the difference in the game. On offense for the Jets, rookie running back, Shonn Greene, and rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez, showed us just how bright the future is for the New York Jets. Greene played lights out and Sanchez didn't make mistakes. That's just what the Jets needed to pull of this upset.
With the cruddy teams out of the way this playoff season, I am excited to see both the NFC and AFC Championships with a Minnesota Vikings Super Bowl victory a couple weeks from now.
"Above: Jets running back, Shonn Greene, http://nj.com"
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