Kelsey Tucker
Sports Editor
With the regular season, playoffs, and the Pro Bowl over, only the Super Bowl remains. The New York Giants, representing the NFC, and the New England Patriots, representing the AFC, will face off at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl XLVI title. However, getting to the Super Bowl was no simple feat. It took a lot of hard work in some close games.
Recapping the road to the Super Bowl, Week 15 included many surprising wins. The Indianapolis Colts won their first game all season, defeating the Titans 27-13 at home. The Baltimore Ravens took on the Chargers in San Diego, with the Chargers pulling off the upset 34-14. The undefeated Green Bay Packers played the Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City, with the Chiefs upsetting the Packers 19-14. The Patriots played the Broncos in Denver, beating them unsurprisingly 41-23. This was the Broncos’ first loss since winning six straight games. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was hurt with a high ankle sprain, which contributed to their loss to the San Francisco 49ers, 20-3.
In Week 16, The Colts won their second game in a row, this one against the Houston Texans, winning 19-16. The Broncos lost again against the Buffalo Bills, 40-14. A surprisingly close game between the Patriots and the Miami Dolphins ended in a Patriots win, 27-24. The St. Louis Rams didn’t score any points against the Steelers this week, losing 27-0.
The last week of the regular season was exciting. A rematch of the Buffalo Bills vs. Patriots game earlier in the season that ended with a Bills upset took place this week, except this time the Patriots won 49-21. The Broncos lost again in a very low-scoring game against the Chiefs, 7-3. After the disappointment of losing to the Chargers last week, the Ravens came back this week ready to win, and that’s just what they did. They beat the Cincinnati Bengals 24-16 in Cincinnati. The Packers, with their spot in the playoffs already confirmed, rested their starters this week, including quarterback Aaron Rodgers, in the game against the Detroit Lions. The Packers barely won, 45-41. Despite the close win, Packers backup quarterback Matt Flynn threw for more touchdowns in a single game than any other Packers quarterback in history. The Dallas Cowboys traveled to New York to face the Giants for a winner-takes-all rematch of an earlier regular season game in which the Giants pulled off a close win. The winner of this game would go to the playoffs, and the loser would go home. It was far easier for the Giants to win this game than the last game, the score being 31-14.
Finally, the playoffs were here. The first week of the playoffs was Wild Card Sunday. The first wild card game was the Bengals against the Texans in Houston, with the Texans winning 31-10. Next was the Lions vs. the Saints in New Orleans, with the Saints winning unsurprisingly 45-28. The Atlanta Falcons came to New York to face off against the Giants, with the Giants winning 24-2. Finally, in what was a very exciting and surprising game, the Broncos won over the Steelers in overtime, 29-23. This was the first game for the new NFL overtime rules to be implemented, in which both teams would be given a chance to score unless the first team with possession of the ball first scored a touchdown. The Broncos had possession of the ball first, and score a touchdown is just what they did. On the very first play of overtime, Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow threw a 80-yard touchdown pass to win the game. “I felt we had a great game. We were playing a very good Pittsburgh Steelers team. They came out and they played hard, we played hard, and it was a great game,” observes Tebow in a post-game press conference. “I’m very thankful we were able to get the win.” Tebow also describes his reaction after the game-winning touchdown: “I jumped in the stands, first time I’ve done that. That was fun. And then I just celebrated with my teammates and fans.” Tebow has always been very open about his faith in God, and when he was the quarterback for the Florida Gators he even wrote the Bible verse “John 3:16” on his eye black for the national championship that Florida ended up winning. Knowing this, some statistics of the game were very interesting. Tebow passed for a total of 316 yards in the game. He averaged 31.6 yards per pass. Finally, the television rating for the final minutes of the game was 31.6. Call it what you will, these are interesting facts nonetheless.
The divisional round of the playoffs included mostly expected wins. However, one was surprising. The Saints traveled to San Francisco to take on the 49ers, with the 49ers winning 36-32. This came just after Saints quarterback Drew Brees broke the record for most passing yards in a season, previously held by quarterback Dan Marino. The Broncos took on the Patriots in New England, with the Patriots winning expectedly, 45-10. The Ravens played the Texans at home, winning 20-13. The Giants went to Green Bay to play the Packers in a showdown game. The Giants ended up winning 37-20.
The winners from the divisional round came together to play two crucial games: the AFC conference championship and the NFC conference championship. These two games would decide who would go to the Super Bowl. The AFC conference championship was between the Ravens and the Patriots. In what was a close game throughout, the Patriots were ahead by 3, the score 23-20, in the final seconds of the 4th quarter. It all came down to a last-second field goal to tie the game, and.... Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff misses the 32-yard attempt, what would normally be an easy feat. “It’s a kick I’ve kicked probably a thousand times out there. There’s really no excuse for it.” Cundiff states. Following that game, the Giants took on the 49ers in San Francisco for the NFC conference championship title. This game was also close, going into overtime tied at 17 after a 49ers fumble and Giants recovery. In this game, however, Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes made his 31-yard attempt to win the game, sending the Giants to the Super Bowl to face the Patriots. Interestingly, this Super Bowl will be a rematch of Super Bowl XLII, which the Giants won.
Due to publication deadlines, the Pro Bowl on January 29 will not be covered in this issue. Be sure to tune in to the Super Bowl on February 5 at 5:30 PM on NBC.
