So, we now know what teams are going to play next week in the championship games. The NFL is now down to it's final four, and the winners of next week's games will meet in Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.
These games lacked the drama that three of the four games last weekend provided. All four games were mostly the dominance of one team over the other, with the exception perhaps of the last game, when the Chargers rallied enough that they began to catch up to the sizable lead that the Broncos had built up.
Let's take a look at yesterday's games:
San Francisco 49ers- 23, Carolina Panthers - 10
The 49ers gained control early, but were unable to capitalize fully. They moved the ball well very early, but after two strong drives, only held a 6-0 advantage, having had to settle for field goals both times.
When the Panthers came roaring to life a little later on, it looked for a while like that might cost San Francisco. Carolina scored a touchdown when Newton hit Steve Smith in the end zone in absolutely spectacular fashion, placing the ball perfectly with a very accurate throw.
Unfortunately for Newton and the Panthers, it would be the only time all afternoon that they would manage it, and that came shortly after the 49ers defense had earned a goal line stand. But Carolina took advantage of good field position and earned the touchdown not much later anyway.
They tacked on a field goal, and had a 10-6 lead for much of the rest of the half, but the Niners were able to get a touchdown seconds before halftime.
From that point on, they never looked back, and completely dominated the game, scoring yet another touchdown early in the second half to take a 10-point lead.
The Niners simply wore out the Panthers, who also showed their inexperience with a lot of stupid penalties. They were overly aggressive in all the wrong ways, getting into fights and, thus, provoking a lot of unnecessary penalties, even allowing the 49ers to retain possessions after failing to convert on a 3rd down very late in the game, because of a stupid penalty which came at a time when Carolina desperately needed the ball back to try and get some scoring going, to create something in the way of an opportunity.
By virtue of the win, the 49ers advanced to their third straight NFC Championship Game. They lost two years ago to the Giants, but won last season at Atlanta. They will travel to Seattle to take on their division rivals, the Seattle Seahawks, next Sunday.
Denver Broncos - 24, San Diego Chargers - 17
Denver looked very dominant through three quarters, although they probably did not capitalize quite as much as they should have done by that point. They were winning big, but the score was still only 17-0 in the final quarter, when San Diego really came alive, and gave Denver a fright.
Suddenly, the Broncos were in a dog fight, and had to hang on with everything that they had to pull this one out.
The Chargers stormed back, steadily chipping away at Denver's big lead, until it was a one possession game.
At that point, it was difficult not to remember the Broncos collapse against the Baltimore Ravens a year ago, when Denver essentially seemed to have wrapped up the win, only to be shocked in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter, and ultimately, to lose the game.
Obviously, they wanted to avoid that fate this time around, and they managed to keep the ball in their final drive the last few minutes, as San Diego's defense was unable to stop the steady running of the Broncos.
With no timeouts left, and no way to stop the clock, the Chargers had to watch helplessly as Denver celebrated, anticipating a huge match up next week, in what will be another installment of the Brady versus Manning rivalry. This might just be the last time these two meet in the playoffs, although you never know. In the postseason, Brady holds a 2-1 lead, although all of the prior meetings were back in the days when Manning wore the Colts uniform.
The game will be played at Denver.
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