My game notes from the AFC and NFC Title games. Matt Bowen
Let’s go back and discuss the AFC and NFC Championship games. My notes, breakdowns and some Xs and Os as we now look forward to Patriots-Giants in Indy at the Super Bowl.
AFC Championship
Patriots 23 Ravens 20
ICONBrady and the Patriots' offense worked the short to intermediate route tree to move the ball vs. the Ravens.
Patriots’ offensive game plan: I look at three schemes that worked for the majority of the game for Brady and this offense: the inside trap in the run game (out of the gun), the option route (Welker, Hernandez) and the intermediate dig route (Gronkowski). New England didn’t get the ball down the field and couldn’t produce TDs in the red zone when the Ravens dropped into their two-deep shell. However, when Brady needed a play in the passing game, he worked Welker (6-53) and Hernandez (7-66) underneath plus found Gronkowski (5-87) matched up against a Cover 1 (man-free) safety playing with outside leverage. And he had that all day.
Sterling Moore’s play vs. Lee Evans: Baltimore’s WR has to make this catch on the Championship stage to punch the Ravens’ ticket to the Super Bowl. We know that. However, don’t let that discount Moore’s ability to get the ball out in the end zone. DB coaches will call this “playing the pocket.” When you are beat (as Moore was), don’t panic at the point of attack. Instead, stick your hand in the pocket, find the ball and get it out. Such a crucial play for a CB that was beat earlier when he missed a tackle in Cover 0 (blitz-man) on Torrey Smith that went for a TD. Bottom line here is simple: Moore finished the play—and Evans didn’t.
Wilfork’s production: The Patriots’ nose tackle was dominant. Look at what New England did from a defensive perspective on third downs: rush three, drop eight and play Cover 2. You can do that when Wilfork wins at the line of scrimmage and walks the center back into the pocket with the bull rush. Next, go to the run front and Wilfork’s ability to penetrate, shut down the trap game and close down rushing lanes for Baltimore’s Ray Rice. On a day when Brady (22-36-239-2 INTs) made some questionable throws and the offense struggled in the red zone, Wilfork’s performance stands out.
Flacco's numbers: The QB was productive, worked the deep inside breaking concepts and put the ball where it needed to be when he targeted Evans in the final minute. He found the matchup he wanted late with Anquan Boldin vs. WR/DB Julian Edelman on the outside breaking routes, got the rookie Smith involved and controlled an offense that didn’t get consistent production from Rice and the run game. There is no question we can go back and find certain game situations to point out the negatives with Flacco, but he played good football today. Finishes with 306-yards, 2 TDs and an INT on 22-36 passing.
Cundiff’s missed FG: Got to have it. I don’t care if the execution was rushed because this is a kick that has to go through the uprights to send this game to OT. Add in the play with Evans in the end zone and we are now talking about two missed opportunities from the Ravens in the final minute. What else can you say here? Baltimore had a chance to go to Indy (or at least send the game into the extra period) and didn’t capitalize. That’s going to sting all offseason.
Continue to page 2 for my NFC Championship game notes…
garbage forward progress non-fumble...refs handed the game to the giants
This is one of few times that we have a team losing a game, more than its opponent winning it. The Ravens has done everything they could to beat the Patriots: Baltimore D played extremely well, and limited Pats offense to just 23 pts and 330yds of total offense; they won the turnover battle 3-1; their offense was sharp with Flacco playing much better than Brady. But at the end two HUGE mistakes by Evans and Cundiff prevent them to win. First if a kicker it's not able to kick a 32yds FG, whatever the situation you're in, you don't deserve to be an NFL kicker; second you can't drop a TD pass to go to the Super Bowl, mostly if you're a veteran like Evans. Kudos once again to Wilfork, after an outstanding game vs. the Broncos, yesterday he was able to play even better: his bull rush was great, his ability to control the line of scrimmage was text book stuff.
The 49ers - Giants game proved once again that Eli is an elite QB. He was hit, sacked and batted own many times, but he kept fighting and played an outstanding game. The 49ers D is legit, has the best front seven in football, but when games are on the line, Eli seems to be unstoppable. It was a great game, hard fought and special teams played a huge factor. Once we used to say that "offense sell tickets, but defense win games", now we have to add something related to special teams...and by the way, both teams that lost yesterday had the best D...
If you are going to mention Davis, please do not forget to point out what a selfish asshole he is.
Silly to blame the refs. And davis selfish? I dont know, but damn he can play. I think the Ravens actually played a bit better, on the whole, all day. That kick is gonna haunt them. But then Evans should have made plays he didnt. The defense was solid.....they had a good scheme....nice game from the interior D, which doesnt get much praise. Brady looked a bit shaken after a couple hits. Ive noticed this all year. If Im the NYG i have to feel good about getting to Brady. And by extension, good about winning. Who on NE is gonna cover Nicks, Cruz and Manningham? Manning has the mojo right now.
Hey Jason - you must notiknow anything about football if you think that was a fumble. Easy to see why refs made the right call - you can't fumble going in reverse. Giants won fair and square - because they're the better team. Any club that goes 1 for 13 on 3rd down and has 1 catch by a WR doesn't belong in the Super Bowl. Now go sulk.
The Giants earned this game. Eli showed his toughness and resilience, the team stuck to their game plan and the Giants defense showed how much it has improved from the front four to the back line. Davis is a monster, but give credit to J. Williams and Chase Blackburn who made two big coverage plays on Vernon Davis over the middle in the 4th quarter.
Kudos to the Giants special teams for outplaying the niners specials. The coverage was consistently there, the punts were excellent and weatherford's hold was a game saver. The Giants went on the road again and beat a team that had a loud and intense crowd.
As far as the non-fumble, read the rule book, the ref made the right call. Harbaugh whined after the game, but he benefited from a similar play last week when the wrong call was made.
Harbaugh did not show much class after the game, but that his rep going back to Stanford.
Go Big Blue
Davis can play, no doubt.
But the 2, 15 yard penalties are 100% being selfish.
I believe he also planned the Davis Victory Party last week .....
Two very disappointing games. Not in terms of who won or loss, but neither game was very entertaining and both were decided by slap-your-head mistakes.
The Pats were vey lucky to move on, and Flacco showed me something. I read that Evans was blaming himself for dropping that ball in the endzone, but really the corner just made a great play. Cundiff is a great kicker, but this one wil be tough to let go.
The Niners had a poor offensive game plan. They totally abandoned the run in the second half and Alex Smith showed us why people thought he would never be a franchise QB. Other than the two passes to Davis, they had basically zero offense. Manning showed up and hung in there even though he took a beating in the second half. You had the feeling the Giants would eventually prevail, if only because SF had no offense at all. Still, take away two muffed punts and SF wins easily.
The Giants earned this game. Eli showed his toughness and resilience, the team stuck to their game plan and the Giants defense showed how much it has improved from the front four to the back line. Davis is a monster, but give credit to J. Williams and Chase Blackburn who made two big coverage plays on Vernon Davis over the middle in the 4th quarter.
Kudos to the Giants special teams for outplaying the niners specials. The coverage was consistently there, the punts were excellent and weatherford's hold was a game saver. The Giants went on the road again and beat a team that had a loud and intense crowd.
As far as the non-fumble, read the rule book, the ref made the right call. Harbaugh whined after the game, but he benefited from a similar play last week when the wrong call was made.
Harbaugh did not show much class after the game, but that his rep going back to Stanford.
Go Big Blue
@jason. Giants always get the lucky breaks... Can picture Eli pulling another few plays out of his backside in two weeks! You dont deserve to be in the SB if you are only a 9-7 team!
@jason. Giants always get the lucky breaks... Can picture Eli pulling another few plays out of his backside in two weeks! You dont deserve to be in the SB if you are only a 9-7 team!
Oh crap. The only thing I can say about Sunday's games is how absolutely, idiotic and DUNCE the NFL and it's RULES Committee is.
The Overtime 'rules' showed in bright lights how the RC hasn't a clue. Mind you, it's not just overtime rules that are ridiculous - the RC has kept farting around with the game for years. Does anyone have an idea how to get a copy of the rukes book?
Probably through the NFL office? Because I think it's time to check it out 'The book of rules' to see how crazy it is. In the mean-time, we'll have more of "The team with a black shoe on the right foot and a white shoe on the right foot, can kick off, IF the other team is wearing all white shoes, unless, the other team has all black shoes on, then it changes and the rules are different...?????" What a crock of crap.
The biggest problem problem with blowing Bradshaw's "fumble" dead was just how quick the whistle was. We've already seen a couple of instances of legit fumbles killed by hasty officials this postseason, and that could easily have been another significant blunder at a critical moment. Let the plays go and verify or overturn them with replay. There's no excuse for rushing in and stopping the action if there's even a small chance that a ball came loose.
Thanks Meateater, my sentiments exactly...
I thought both games were well played, and as usual, any mistakes are magnified during the playoffs.
No one seems to be talking about what I believe was atrocious coaching/game plan by Baltimore.
What makes New England so good, is they are contantly adjusting during the game.
Cam Cameron (and John Harbaugh) did not adjust quick enough. Cam kept plowing into line with run on 1st down. NE was selling out to stop run all game. He wasted the whole first Quarter doing this. Every football fan in the country knew NE's weakness was in the secondary. Cam ran 6 times on 1st play of drive and netted a whopping 5 yards. They play action passed on 1st play of drive 5 times and netted 84 yards. Why Cam is not being called out, I can't figue. His conservative and predictable play calling doomed the Chargers a few years ago. He was even worse in Miami as head coach for one year. Don't be on the Ravens in future if he's still calling plays.
We can all look to the end of the game for some crucial plays, but the reality is that the Patriots won the battle of the trenches. They dominated vs. the run, and they kept Brady protected, and actually ran the ball much better than the Ravens(discounting QB's). To say the better team lost is disingenuous. Yes, the Ravens played very well, and put themselves in a position, to win or tie late, but if they were the better team they wouldn' t have allowed the Pats to drive down and take the lead in the 4th quarter. The Pats came back from being down in the 4th, the Ravens couldn't do it.
wow..eli had an awesome game? dropped back to pass 64 times and managed 316 yards? i'm trying to think of a second string qb who wouldn't pass for 300 on 60 pass attempts..but can't think of any. he was soooooo lucky not to get picked twice when he threw it straight to niner defenders. and how many times did HE get the them across midfield in the second half. a bunch of dump offs and check downs and 2 incredibly bad plays by a 2nd string punt returner and eli was magnificent. give me a break. btw smith had 192 on 26 throws..so based on avg. he would have had 443 yard in that game plus he rushed for 42 and had no close picks. so what. kobe scores 40 on 45 shots while nowitzki gets 28 off 12.. (3's) so who had the better game?
Jan 23, 2012
01:19 AM
Flacco proved he belongs, did what he could to take them there. Some amazing plays of his were simple incompletions getting rushed where he took care of the ball. Didn't agree with them going shotgun on second and one, or draw from the gun, Leach led the way to yards all game and they decide to go away from it when they could smell blood. Downs that they should of had Flacco under center and doing the play pass. Guess Wilfork's push up the middle made them hesitant to use those looks. Never thought I'd see Vince run down the outside runs like he did.
The Niners outside wideouts were really lacking, the only time someone on the outside did anything it was Davis split out from tight end. Smith had no confidence in Crabtree and wouldn't look his way on comeback patterns that had the yardage during the game. They tried using Hunter more than Gore early as well, a move that seemed to take some of their timing out. At times they ran guys in late and missed getting plays or sets off on time enough to check and be effective. No passer could have done too well if you faced four rush pressure like the Giants showed and were able to cover behind it with any grouping.
The Niners big second half score was on a Run & Shoot concept, the Switch. Also was kind of taken by how easily a defense that faces a Gilbride offense didn't switch well on that look.
Shocked at the Eli no time out mistake and the Tynes delay of game on the field goal as well. Sharpen that up against the Pats, they finally won ugly so you can't let them stay in a game no matter what style is played.