Paul’s Blog

Jim Brown turns 78 today!

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The Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl, routing the Denver Broncos 43-8. The best offense in NFL history could not get going against a ferocious Seahawk defense that did not give them any room to breathe. The Seattle secondary actually played against tendencies, letting the Bronco receivers get off the line without chucking them. However, when the Denver players caught the ball on their short routes, the Seahawk defenders hit them like a ton of bricks. There were very few “yards after the catch”.

Manning was out of sync from the opening snap, which flew over his head for a quick 2-0 Seattle lead. As usual, Peyton had a tough time once the game got out of control. He is the best front running QB in history, but when things get hairy, he has a tough time making the big plays to get his team back in the game.

The Seahawk offense was hardly spectacular. Russell Wilson made a few 3rd-and-long throws to keep drives alive, but the real spark came from Percy Harvin. Since coming over from the Minnesota Vikings, Harvin had played only 37 snaps due to injury for his new team, but on Super Sunday, Harvin was ready to break out. His two jet sweeps netted 45 yards (which actually made him Seattle’s leading rusher for the game) and his 87-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to begin the third quarter essentially put the game away.

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The New Orleans Saints, fresh off their upset win at Philadelphia, travelled to the rainy Pacific Northwest to face the #1 seed Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional Round and ran into a buzzsaw. The Seahawks opportunistic defense and the running of Marshawn Lynch dominated the Saints as the Seahawks won 23-15 in a game not quite as close as the score would indicate.

Lynch battered the Saints defense for 140 yards on 28 bruising carries, including 2 touchdown runs. The clincher was his 31 yard TD scamper with 2:40 remaining in the fourth quarter to ice the game.

Lynch and the Seahawks will now face their rival, the San Francisco 49′ers, in the NFC Championship game for the right to go to the Superbowl.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Detroit Lions staged a seesaw battle at Heinz Field with the Steelers eventually prevailing 37-27. The Steelers raced out to a 17-3 lead, then allowed the Lions to move up and down the field to the tune of 27 points in the second quarter. At the half, the Lions led 27-20 and Calvin Johnson already had 6 catches for 179 yards and 2 TD’s. However, in the second half, Dick LeBeau’s defense made some adjustments and the Steelers held Johnson without a catch and held the Lions without a point.

Behind Big Ben, Pittsburgh scored 17 second half points to take the lead and win going away. For the game, Roethlisberger was 29 of 45 for 367 yards and 4 touchdowns without throwing an interception. He powered the offense as the Steelers only managed 40 yards rushing on the day. Despite the fashion faux pas that are the Steelers’ throwback jerseys, they prevailed to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

The high-flying Oregon Ducks landed with a thud in Palo Alto as they faced off against their PAC-12 rival, the Stanford Cardinal. Just as it did last year, Stanford used tough defense and a grind-it-out offense to ground the Ducks and ruin their chances of a National Championship. For Oregon, it was a heartbreaking loss — the Ducks only had the ball for 17:26 while the Cardinal bled the play clock on every snap playing “keep away” to the tune of 42:34 minutes of possession. Heisman candidate Marcus Mariota was unsettled for the entire game and Stanford took a 26-0 lead, then held on as Oregon made a comeback, but fell short and lost 26-20.

At the nexus of the Cardinal offense was senior tailback Tyler Gaffney, who toted the rock an incredible 45 times for 157 yards and a touchdown. As a team, Stanford had 66 rushing plays for 266 yards. And when the offense got into trouble, QB Kevin Hogan bailed them out with timely completions on third down or quick scrambles to keep drives alive. Oregon could not generate any rhythm or momentum during the brief times they had the ball and now will have to wait another year to try and make it to college football’s ultimate contest.

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