The Superbowl is set and the champions of each Conference have been crowned after the Colts soundly defeated the upstart Jets and the Vikings soundly defeated themselves, leaving us the high fly acts of Indianapolis and New Orleans in the Big Show showdown.

New York 17

at Indianapolis 30

Review: The Jets came out and stuck with the gameplan in the first half, pounding the ball at the Colts undersized defensive line and taking deep shots over the top when Indy started stacking the box.  Mark Sanchez played admirably, hitting a couple of huge bombs to keep the Colts defense honest and actually leading his team to a double digit lead with less than minute to go in the first half before Peyton Manning turned up the heat and put on a show.  With Reggie Wayne shadowed all game by hands-down the best shutdown corner in the league, Manning used the rest of his passing repertoire to exploit the pressure schemes and holes in the zones presented by the Jets.  Overshadowed weapons Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie were the primary benefactors of this attack as they both passed the century mark (151 and 123 yards respectively) and both hit paydirt.  Garcon showcased his elite speed and ballhawking skills, making multiple remarkable over the shoulder catches down the sidelines, while Collie displayed great precision route-running as he worked the middle of the field and made plays in space.  The result was a dominating second half of football turned in by Indianapolis where they forced the Jets to abandon their strengths and play from behind while employing a conservative defensive strategy that kept everything in front of them.  After outdueling the Jets dominating defense, the Colts are now headed to Miami where they’re the odds on favorite to win Super Bowl XLIV.

Minnesota 28

at New Orleans 31

Review: Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.  The Vikings turned in an epic performance of comedic proportions as they put the ball on the ground so often it looked like they decided to play basketball instead of football.  Adrian Peterson muffed a handoff and fumbled two other attempts in a six minute span, three different wide receivers coughed up the ball, and Brett Favre threw two picks (one in the waning moments of regulation) just to drive home the point that you can’t win in January when you turn the ball over.  A game that was actually dominated by the Vikings in terms of plays from scrimmage, time of possession, and actual production, thus turned into an exciting overtime victory for their New Orleans opponents.  Despite their lack of overall production on both sides of the ball, the Saints defense was able to thoroughly knock around the 40 year old Brett Favre (without actually registering a sack) and the offense was able to take advantage of enough of the opportunities presented to them by Minnesota to squeak by with a three point win on the heels of Garrett Hartley’s game winning 40 yard field goal in overtime.  Drew Brees was surprisingly ineffective in the biggest game of his career, putting up less than 200 yards and a completion percentage below 55 percent while being forced to rely on the run after catch ability of his running backs and wide receivers for a majority of his scores and production.  Yet despite all of these shortcomings, the Saints are still Super Bowl bound for the first time in franchise history, and the Vikings are left to wallow in the misery of what could have been as they wait for the faint promise of next year.


Categories: Red Flag Review