John’s Blog - Coast To Coast

My two favorite AFC Teams are playing tomorrow and I really have no clue who I want to root for… last year, it was pretty easy for me to root for the Indianapolis Colts all through the playoffs, especially after the New England Patriots beat the San Diego Chargers to set up a Patriots/Colts AFC Championship game. Thankfully, the Colts won that matchup and went on to beat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.

Most of you are probably pretty familiar with both teams. The Chargers have both the NFL’s best running back in LaDainian Tomlinson and the NFL’s best tight-end in Antonio Gates, while the Colts feature the highest profile player in quarterback Peyton Manning. The Colts are looking to avenge a 23-21 loss in San Diego during the season in which the Charger defense intercepted Manning a career-high six times. The Colts have the #3 ranked defense in the NFL and also allowed the fewest points during the regular season. The Chargers led the league in turnover margin and also interceptions with 30 on the year. Tomlinson himself was perfect in that area, not even as much as fumbing even once in his 315 carries or 60 pass receptions this year… Colts running back Joseph Addai was equally proficient at holding onto the ball, not fumbling once in his 261 rushing attempts nor his 41 receptions. No other NFL players with even as many as 200 total touches (let alone 300, as both Tomlinson and Addai each had), were able to say that they didn’t fumble at least once this year.

Yes, I think the key to tomorrow’s game will again be the turnovers. I look for Manning to have a big game tomorrow, and for Addai to be a big reason for his success. The Chargers will keep it close early, but I think the Colts will pull away late, winning by about 10 points (barely covering that 9 1/2 point spread)… It should a fun game to watch, and I’ll look forward to cheering on whichever team wins against the Patriots next week!

As for the other game, Peyton’s brother Eli and the New York Giants take on the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants are a team that is playing pretty well at the moment. Their defense took over a close game on the road in Buffalo, where the younger Manning was ineffective for a 38-21 win. The Giants almost beat the Patriots to ruin their perfect season as Manning had one of his best games ever, going 22-for-32 for 252 yards, four touchdowns and an interception… Last week, Manning was a very efficient 20-for-27 for 185 yards and two scores as the Giants dominated Tampa Bay by a 24-14 score.

The Cowboys are a team that has played very unspired ball of late. After beating Brett Favre (quite literally) and the Packers 37-27 on November 29th, they have looked anything but good. A come from behind 28-27 win against the Detroit Lions followed the next week, followed by a 10-6 loss at home to the Philadelphia Eagles where the offense looked COMPLETELY out of sync. All kidding aside, I don’t think Jessica Simpson could be blamed for Tony Romo or the rest of the team’s poor performance that week. A 20-13 win against a poor Carolina team followed… and then in the final game of the regular season, the Washington Redskins just manhandled them in a 27-6 game which had all the meaning in the world for the Redskins and none at all for the Cowboys. That said, the Cowboys did play most of their starters (including Romo and tight end Jason Witten) well into the third quarter.

So, you have a classic case of a “hot” team playing against a “cold” team. The Cowboys are seven point favorites tomorrow, but should they be? Eli Manning has grown up a lot the past couple of weeks, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Giants pull off the HUGE upset. Actually, I’m going to say this will be a close game throughout and that the Giants will win on a Lawrence Tynes field goal. Regardless of what happens in that game, I’ll be pulling for Favre and the Packers in the NFC Championship game next weekend…

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… to move within two games of perfection with a 31-20 defeat of the Jacksonville Jaguars… and as I predicted they once again didn’t cover the spread.  So, I got both games right today!

As in many games of late, the Patriots opponent kept things close early, and then collapsed late.  The Jaguars scored on their first possession to take a 7-0 lead, but the Patriots answered right back.  The game went into halftime tied at 14-14. From there, Tom Brady and the Patriots offense took over as the 2007 NFL MVP led them to third quarter scores on touchdown passes to Wes Welker and Benjamin Watson.  Brady had numbers more like you’d expect in playing a video game: 26-for-28 (a crazy 93.3% completion percentage) for 262 yards to go along with three touchdowns and no interceptions.  The Jaguars offense couldn’t get things going in the second half, settling for two Josh Scobee field goals.

The Patriots await the winner of tomorrow’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers for the AFC Championship and their continued persuit of the 19-0 perfect season…

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It’s a little early for me to get REALLY involved in following college basketball, but my UCLA Bruins are looking like they’re going to be strong contenders for a third consecutive final four appearance in the NCAA Tournament in March. The Bruins dominated today’s matchup with the Washington Cougars at Pauley Pavilion in Westwood from the start, taking a 26-8 lead, crusing to an 81-74 win to hand the Cougars their first loss of the year. Kevin Love led the Bruin attack with a career high 27 points and 14 rebounds. For the now 16-1 Bruins, it was their ninth straight win.

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If you were lucky like me and happened to miss the first four minutes or so of today’s NFC playoff game between the Seattle Seahwaks and Green Bay Packers, then you pretty much missed the entire set of highlights from the Lambeau Field visitors. The Packers spotted the Seahawks a 14-0 lead thanks to two early fumbles by running back Ryan Grant in a fairly and driving snowstorm. Grant more than atoned for those early miscues, rushing for 201 yards and three touchdowns, while Brett Favre was nearly perfect, going 18-for-23 for 173 yards and three touchdowns. After the initial Seattle onslaught, the Packers scored touchdowns on an incredible six straight possessions! The final score was 42-20, meaning if you happened to take my Thursday prediction to heart and bet on it, you won!

The Packers now will take on the winner of the game tomorrow between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys for the NFC Championship at a time to be determined next weekend.

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