It was simply an outstanding day for the National Football League on Saturday as the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens won playoff classics.
In San Francisco’s 45-31 win over the Green Bay Packers last night, Colin Kaepernick set a NFL record for most rushing yards in a playoff game by a quarterback. In rushing for 181 yards, Kaepernick set a record set by Michael Vick, who rushed for 119 yards in an Atlanta playoff win over St. Louis in 2005.
Frank Gore had 119 yards rushing and Michael Crabtree had 119 yards receiving.
However, the Ravens victory over the Broncos was remarkable, with Baltimore winning 38-35 in double overtime. In what should be considered one of the greatest games of all-time, five times the game was tied before Justin Tucker kicked a game winning field goal of 47 yards in double overtime.
Some call this weekend the best weekend during the NFL season. Others call it the elite eight. There are great expectations for excellent football this weekend after last week produced anti-climactic contests.
In the AFC, the Denver Broncos (13-3) will host the Baltimore Ravens (10-6) in a divisional playoff game (Saturday, CBS, 2:30 p.m.). The Broncos had no problems beating the Ravens in the regular season, beating them 34-17 in Baltimore on December 16. Eric Decker had 133 yards receiving and Knowshon Moreno had 115 yards rushing in a game the Broncos once led 31-3 after three quarters. The Broncos have won 11 straight, while the Ravens beat Indianapolis 24-9 last week.
Sunday’s AFC game could see another blowout as the New England Patriots (12-4) face the Houston Texans (12-4) (CBS, 2:30 p.m.). In the regular season, the Patriots hammered the Texans 42-14 on December 10 as Tom Brady had four touchdown passes. Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski led the NFL with 153 points and Texans defensive end J.J. Watt led the NFL with 20.5 sacks. The Patriots had a NFL best +226 this season, while the Texans beat the Bengals 19-13 last week in the AFC Wildcard.
The Seattle Seahawks, Baltimore Ravens, Green Bay Packers and Houston Texans have all advanced to the NFL’s Divisional Playoff next weekend.
On Saturday, the Texans defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 19-13, and the Packers defeated the Minnesota Vikings 24-10. On Sunday, the Ravens defeated the Indianapolis Colts 24-9 and the Seahawks beat the Redskins 24-14.
The Seattle/Washington game was the most intriguing matchup with two of the most exciting rookie NFL quarterbacks battling each other in Seattle’s Russell Wilson battling Washington’s Robert Griffin III.
The Redskins had a 14-0 first quarter lead, but during the opening 15 minutes, Griffin injured his knee, and only had 84 total yards passing throughout the game. The Seahawks dominated from the second quarter on, scoring 24 unanswered points, and 132 yards rushing from Marshawn Lynch.
All games were much more low scoring than what they were projected to be. The Texans secondary deserve significant credit as a unit for making Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton’s day complicated. Minnesota quarterback Joe Webb only completed 11 passes, and the Ravens’ defense looked like the defense from the past few seasons, rather than the one from 2012.
The Minnesota Vikings and the Washington Redskins are the last two teams to qualify for the NFL postseason.
On Sunday, Adrian Peterson ran for 199 yards as the Vikings upset the Green Bay Packers 37-34 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, in what was quite possibly the very best NFL regular season game in 2012.
The ebb and flow of the game was fantastic throughout and guess what? The two NFC North foes will battle again next Saturday night at Lambeau.
Meanwhile, the Redskins qualified for the postseason with stellar running attack of their own. Alfred Morris had 200 yards rushing in Washington’s 28-18 win over Dallas. With the win, the Redskins won the NFC East and will host the surging Seattle Seahawks next weekend in the NFC Wildcard. This will be a great battle of rookie mobile quarterbacks. with Robert Griffin III playing Russell Wilson.
Robert Griffin III (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
There are four games that matter immensely in the National Football League this weekend–the two NFC East matchups and the NFC North matchups.
The winner of Washington-Dallas (Sunday, NBC, 6 p.m.) wins the NFC East. Despite winning six straight games, the Redskins (9-6) may have to win a seventh to qualify for the postseason. In their first game on American Thanksgiving Day, Robert Griffin III had four touchdown passes, and 311 passing yards in a 38-31 Washington win. The Dallas Cowboys (8-7) are eliminated from the playoffs with a loss.
If Washington loses, they can still qualify for the postseason with a Minnesota loss to Green Bay (Sunday, FOX, 2 p.m.) and a Chicago loss to Detroit (Sunday, TSN2, 11 a.m.).
The Vikings (9-6) are in a difficult spot as they have to host the Packers (11-4), who are battling San Francisco for the number two seed. Minnesota clinches a playoff spot with a win and could also get into the playoffs with a Washington win, Detroit win and Philadelphia win over the New York Giants (Sunday, FOX, 11 a.m.).
Well folks. We are now in the down time of the sports calendar a little bit. My apologies for not writing with a high frequency this past week. I am currently doing a massive project for Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame which has taken up every ounce of energy I have had.
But I’m watching football today because I’m in the quarterfinals of my fantasy football playoffs, the premier fantasy football pool in Calgary. Here are the games I’ll be watching:
Sunday–NFL–San Diego Chargers @ Pittsburgh Steelers–CBS–11am–Big Ben is back in the lineup for the Steelers after a shoulder and a rib injury. At 7-5, the Steelers delivered an impressive road win last week in Baltimore. As for the Chargers, there were reports this week that Norv Turner would be fired with the team currently at 4-8.
Sunday–NFL–Dallas Cowboys @ Cincinnati Bengals–FOX–11am–The Cowboys received a tragedy this week as linebacker Jerry Brown died in a car accident. Defensive lineman Josh Brent was charged with intoxicated manslaughter. The Cowboys are 6-6, while the Bengals are 7-5.
Watch out world. I’m smokin’ hot! Last week I went 13-1 with my only loss coming in the Carolina and Tampa Bay game and went 3-0 on American Thanksgiving. That mean I’m 101-61-1 on the season.
Here are my Sunday Week 12 picks:
11am
Chicago over Minnesota–Jay Cutler is the difference for the Bears. Their offense drastically improves from last week.
Cincinnati over Oakland–The Bengals defense has been excellent the last two weeks. Last week Geno Atkins had two forced fumbles and a sack in limiting Kansas City to six points.
Pittsburgh over Cleveland–The Steelers aren’t that bad without Big Ben. Byron Leftwich showed some positive signs against the Ravens last week.
Indianapolis over Buffalo–Andrew Luck is really coming into his own as the Colts win a high scoring affair.
Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Andrew Luck is now in the record books. Sunday, Luck broke the NFL record for most passing yards by a rookie quarterback in a single game as the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Miami Dolphins 23-20.
Luck threw for 433 yards and broke Cam Newton’s record for most passing yards in a game. Newton set the NFL rookie record last year by throwing 432 yards in a 30-23 Carolina loss to Green Bay last season. Indianapolis improves to 5-3, while Miami drops to 4-4.
In other NFL action, Isaac Redman ran for 147 yards as the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the New York Giants 24-20. The Giants had a short week of practice because of Hurricane Sandy and the storm was strong enough to cause severe flooding in Eli Manning’s New Jersey home. The Steelers improve to 5-3, while the Giants drop to 6-3.
Meanwhile, Doug Martin is starting to become quite possibly the best running back in the NFL. He was outstanding Sunday as he set Buccaneers records for most rushing yards in a game (251) and most rushing touchdowns in a game (four) as Tampa Bay beat Oakland 42-32.
The most dominant football team in Alberta is not in the Canadian Football League, but in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. On Saturday night at McMahon Stadium, the University of Calgary Dinos (7-1) will host the University of Manitoba in the Hardy Cup semi-final (Saturday, SHAW TV, 5pm).
Quarterback Eric Dzwilewski of Boise, Idaho set a Canada West Conference record with a 70.6 completion percentage, and helped set team records for most points, touchdowns, first downs, passing yards, completions and total yards of offense in 2012.
There will be a sixth game in the National League Championship Series. Last night in St. Louis, the San Francisco Giants stayed alive with a brilliant pitching performance from Barry Zito in a 5-0 win over the Cardinals.
Now the series shifts back to Northern California for Game 6 (Sunday, FOX, 5pm). In order for the Cardinals to win and advance to the World Series, they’ll need to win on the road. Ironically, the Cardinals (38-43) and the Tigers (38-43), were the only two teams this season with losing records on the road to make the playoffs and they are the clubs that are in the best position at the moment to win the World Series.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame we dive right into the abyss that is the NHL lockout, we take a look at an important day for the Edmonton arena project, salute the Edmonton Eskimos for a big win and dish the latest NFL bounty news. Don’t worry – we’re talking a little baseball too!
In the GABBYs: Justin Verlander, Michael Vick, Dominik Hasek, the Lingerie Football League, the Green Bay Packers and the NCAA. The Punchline this week is Saturday night programming!
The Edmonton Eskimos will face a difficult challenge Saturday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Commonwealth Stadium (Saturday, TSN, 2pm).
Luckily, they will have linebacker J.C. Sherritt, maybe the best defensive player in all of football back in the lineup.
This is a monumental game for Edmonton (6-8), who will not only want to expand their lead on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (5-10) in a possible crossover, but will want to win the season series against the Roughriders (8-6), because with a victory, they will only be two points back of Saskatchewan in the Western Division. Saskatchewan meanwhile is playing great football lately. They have now won three in a row after beating the Toronto Argonauts 36-10 on Thanksgiving.
This is currently one of the most exciting times in Canadian tennis. Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ontario achieved greatness again Friday night when he defeated U.S. Open and Olympic champion Andy Murray of Great Britain in three sets, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 at the Japan Open in Tokyo.
Raonic saved off two match points in the third set and was able to break Murray back after being down 4-1 in the final set.
Raonic also performed admirably while not serving in the third set, something he has struggled with in his career. He will now face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in tonight’s final (11pm, Sportsnet One). Raonic is also seeking his third title of the season, having won in Chennai and San Jose earlier in the year.
The 39th Ryder Cup is currently taking place just outside of Chicago. On Day 1, the Americans took an early 5-3 lead on Europe thanks to some brilliant shot making by Keegan Bradley, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Jason Dufner.
On day two (Saturday, NBC, 7am), there will be four foursome matches in the morning, followed by four fourball matches in the afternoon. The best morning matchup will be Bradley and Mickelson against England’s Lee Westwood and Luke Donald. An interesting morning omission by Davis Love III is Tiger Woods, who played much better in the afternoon on Friday in four ball action than he did in the foursome with partner Steve Stricker in the morning.
Another golfer to watch out for on Saturday is Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, who will be teamed with Spain’s Sergio Garcia against Americans Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner. Colsaerts had eight birdies and an eagle on Friday afternoon.
The Ryder Cup will then conclude Sunday with singles play (NBC, 10am).
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