Patriots 21, Chargers 12
Laurence Maroney (25 carries, 122 yards, 1 TD) saved this game for the Patriots in the second half, because before he found running room in the third quarter, Tom Brady and the rest of the offense looked rather ordinary. In fact, Brady looked uncharacteristically bad, throwing three interceptions including one in the red zone. Was it just me or did Major Tom look out of it for most of this game? San Diego’s defense did a great job of getting just enough pressure on Brady to get him out of sync and dare I say it, rattled. Unfortunately for them, however, they just couldn’t stop Maroney and Kevin Faulk (he made two spectacular catches in the fourth quarter) in the second half…San Diego’s offense did nothing in the red zone despite having success against NE’s defense. And when they managed to get three points, their ensuing kickoffs were ridiculously short and often gave the Pats solid field position. It didn’t help that Philip Rivers could barely walk, either, but he deserves major credit for gutting it out. In the end, with a gimpy Rivers and no LT, the Chargers just didn’t have enough firepower offensively to keep up. If they did, they might have won because the Pats certainly weren’t at their best.
Giants 23, Packers 20 OT
As much as Lawrence Tynes tried to give the game away, Eli freaking Manning is going to the Super Bowl. Holy crap. Give the Giants credit; not many people gave them a chance to go into Green Bay and beat everybody’s darling, Brett Favre, but that’s exactly what they did. They were physical, didn’t make a ton of mistakes and made plays in crucial situations. This was a well deserved win and football fans everywhere need to give Eli his due, because he’s played very good football over the past month. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is going to have a chance to possibly earn a head coaching (Atlanta?) job if he can contain the Patriots’ high-powered attack in two weeks. His game plan was outstanding and his play calling in the second half is what won this game for the G-Men…As for the Pack, they shot themselves in the foot multiple times in the second half. You just can’t give a team multiple opportunities to sustain drives after you already had them stopped on third down. How many stupid penalties did Green Bay’s defense commit to give the Giants new life? Offensively, what essentially doomed the Packers is what many people worried about in the beginning of the year: The lack of a running game. NY shut Ryan Grant down, took away the deep pass and flustered Brett Favre. Also, why the Pack kept calling screen passes was beyond me; clearly the Giants had those plays sniffed out. It seemed after Favre threw the fourth quarter interception, GB got ultra conservative with the play calling. I know this doesn’t mean much after a loss like this, but Packer fans, you had a great run this season.
