Best weekend in football

Division champions weekend is well known for being the best weekend in the football, this year it lived up to the billing. This comes after the wild card weekend last weekend and the national championship where Alabama played some of the most near perfect football you could witness.

I could write 5 blogs on my thoughts from the weekend and that would just about cover the Ravens Broncos game. I have decided to just put all my thoughts from the weekend in this blog. I'm sure more will be discussed in the week and even elaborate on some of these, lets start in Denver and work our way through chronologically.

The weather was cold in Denver which does not suit Manning as past results show. With this loss more media attention is being aimed towards this fact and it will no doubt in future playoff games be a monkey on his shoulder. Manning needs to win a playoff game in cold conditions.

The O-Line of Baltimore does not get a lot of credit in fact it gets very little. In over 5 quarters of football they gave up just 1 sack to a defensive unit including Vom Miller who has been getting after the QB all year.

Special teams ace Holliday maybe a fact next week in New England as well. Holliday set an NFL record while he returned both a kick off and punt to the house being the first player to do so in a playoff game. I feel Baltimore may need to steal a possession or two next week and a special teams touchdown is one way to do that.

Torrey Smith v Champ Bailey. I have had the opinion all season Smith is one of the best vertical deep threats in the NFL and he proved it in this game. Although I did think he was going to get a working over from future hall of fame inductee Champ Bailey. Smith was able to get separation a couple of times from the 12 pro bowler showing maybe this is the drop off from the ageing cornerback. Smith keeps impressing me as he adds to his game and is more than just a deep threat his possession of the ball is getting much better.

Last key point from this game is are the Ravens heating up. Two big wins in a row and they appear to have a purpose to their game, that purpose being no one wants to see Ray Lewis retire without that Lombardi trophy in his hands.

More records were broken in the evening when Kaepernick went to town on the Packers. I think Harbaugh is a genius in selecting Kaepernick just as the NFL is going crazy in read option offences I suggest he is the best at it. A quarterback in this style offence can not be afraid to keep the ball and run and probably needs to a good portion of time if that's what you read. Kaepernick is not afraid to do this evidence of his record breaking night.

One positive to come out of the game and perhaps the season is the emergence of some new wide receivers for Green Bay. Jennings and Finley could be departing from them this off season but they could have found two handy replacements in Cobb and James Jones. Jones looks a complete receiver who gets good separation and can run the full route tree while Cobb is an explosive receiver, a big play waiting to happen. Rogers and the offence look fully equipped to have another go next season.

Green Bays defence needs more talent all around. They have good players across the defence but they could do with strengthening in all areas to take them back to the Super Bowl. Matthews could do with some help getting the quarter back, they let too many big plays go to vertical receivers and Raji plays hot and cold in the middle.

On Sunday came even more stunning football starting in Atlanta were the 16 year pro Gonzalez finally won his first playoff game. The tight end is another lock for the hall of fame holding so many tight end records but this is his first playoff win. He to like Lewis is looking to bow out holding that famous trophy, the dream is still alive.

The monkey is of the back for Atlanta and in particular Mike Smith and Matt Ryan as at the fourth time of trying they achieve in winning a playoff game. This will release so much pressure and make life so much easier for them I expect them to up it another notch next week and play much more relaxed and not as tight as they did at times in the second half.

Seahawks stuck to the game plan to ridged it was like reading a book. Everyone know they wanted to get Lynch going early so they gave him plenty of opportunities but he could not get it going. I would have liked to have seen Wilson in the first quarter gone through his option read a bit better and tucked the ball instead of handing it off. Let the Falcons know how quick and dangers you are early and then maybe things may have opened up for Lynch.

A new clutch quarterback was born on Sunday evening. I thought it was just Manning or Brady who could lead their team down the field with only a minute in the clock to kick a winning field goal in the playoffs. You can now add Ryan to that list as he made a couple of really clutch throws making good decisions and then having the poise to deliver the most accurate throws when it counted the most.

The final game was up in Foxborough and that New England defence did what it does best. Nothing spectacular or flashy but takes the main part of their opponents offence away. On Sunday it was Foster and the running game, the defence filled holes and and stayed disciplined during the stretch plays.

Talib is a real difference maker on the Patriots defence, their was a lot of discussion about how he has about a needed swagger to the team which I can not argue. However more importantly he has brought an ability to cover the outside receiver something that had been missing in New England for a number of years. The match up between him and Smith is going to be an interesting one this forthcoming weekend.

Injuries killed the Texans, they have had so many people on the defence out injured this season. Early on in the season I was crediting Wade Phillips on producing another stellar defence that could stop anyone but injuries to key players have hindered them down the line. I would like to see how Brady fairs against a health Texans defence but maybe we will save that to next year.

Teams talk about the speed of the New England offence and watching it on Sunday you can really pick up how quick Brady moves through the gears. When he finds a look he likes he makes all the calls at the line of scrimmage preventing the defence from making any substitutions and goes after the match up he likes. This is the advantage of having an offensive coordinator as your quarterback, ravens defenders this Sunday will need all of Lewis experience to help diagnose plays and get them in the right position quickly.