NFL Conference Championship Game Winners

With one dud and one exciting finish the NFL Conference Championship Game Winners were decided.  I never liked that they start the games at an odd time for the NFL Conference championship games.    All season long the NFL has trained us that the games start around 1:00 PM and then around 4:15 PM.  So for the two game that will decide the teams going to the Super Bowl they give us 3:05 PM and 6:40 PM start times.  Probably the only person that annoys is me so I just thought I would get that out there first.

Ok so it really did not matter what time the games started.  We were all going to watch anyway.  Well at least watch till the games were decided.  In the first game it was not decided till there was 14 seconds left in the game.  In the second one I quit watching at half time.  What I did get from these games it if the Broncos play in the Super Bowl the way they played in this game it will be over by half time.  The Panthers will put the beat down on them.  Yes I know the Broncos defense played very well but really the Patriots offensive line was well… offensive.

The first game on Sunday between the Broncos and Patriots was a very exciting game.  It seem that this game was decided on two things.  The Patriot offensive line could not block the defensive front for the Broncos.  This game Brady very little time to get set and find open receivers.  The second thing was the missed extra point attempt on the Patriots first touchdown.  This is something that seemed unfortunate for a kicker who had not missed an extra point in 9 years but turned into something that dictated what the Patriots were going to do in the late stages of the game. Being down by 8 they had no choice but to go for it on 4th downs.  They could not settle for a field goal attempt and when they finally scored a touchdown to get within two they had to go for the two point conversion.  The Broncos stopped that attempt and held on to a two point lead with 14 seconds left to go in the game.   If that extra point in the first quarter had not been missed more than likely this game would have at the least go to overtime.

Broncos 20 Patriots 18 (0-1)

The second game of the NFL Championship games was the Cardinals against the Panthers.  While I thought that the Panthers were going to win this game.  I thought that the Cardinals would put up a fight.  It looked like the Cardinals expended all of their football energy in overtime a week earlier in their win over the Packers.  The Panthers started scoring quick and they scored often.  This game was over before half time.  For most of the game it looked like the Panthers were playing a really bad collage team.  Carson Palmer missed open targets and the Cardinals defense that had  a pretty good season just completely forgot that they actually had to play in this game.   Cam Newton was able to do what ever he wanted pretty much when ever he wanted in this game.  Newton threw for two touchdowns and ran for two touchdowns.  The Panthers did not need anything else but just for fun they threw in two more touchdowns and a couple of field goals.    If anyone had any doubts about the Panthers this game should have closed the door on those thoughts.

Panthers 49 Cardinals 15 (1-1)

In my picks only two teams in the playoffs let me down.  The Patriots and the Chiefs gave me my two loses.   So going into the Super Bowl I have an 8 – 2 record.  There were a few blow outs in the playoffs so far but most of the games were very exciting and game down to the last few plays of the game.  I will be posting my pick for the Super Bowl sometime in the next week.  Hard to believe that there is only one game left in the season.