The top four teams in football squared off on Sunday with the chance to punch their ticket to the Super Bowl. The AFC Championship game featured Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos versus his nemesis Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Meanwhile Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers traveled to take on Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks, in matchups that lived up to all of the hype. Now with the Seahawks and Broncos set to square off in the Super Bowl, here are the top five stars from the memorable Sunday of football.
5.) Knight-Night Patriots
Every time the Patriots or Brady were looking for a big play, Terrance Knighton burst into the backfield and made huge stops. He stepped up when his team needed him most, especially late in the third quarter when the Patriots decided to go for it on fourth and two, down 17 inside Broncos’ territory. Knighton blew past Logan Mankins to bring down Brady and force a turnover on downs, giving the ball back to Manning who put three more points on the board to put the Broncos up 20. Knighton made numerous stops against the run, not letting Stevan Ridley or LeGarrette Blount find any room as the pair combined for 10 carries for just 23 yards. Manning deserves a lot of credit for this win, but Knighton stepped up in a big way to help beat the Patriots.
4.) Tom Not So Terrific
Leading up to the AFC Championship Game and the 15th time Brady and Manning have squared off, the talk was about Manning’s struggles in the playoffs and how great Brady has been throughout his career, but Manning looked like the superior cornerback on Sunday.
While you can obviously point to Brady playing without Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez and an offensive line that is in shambles, there is no excuse for some of his throws. While he may not have thrown an interception on Sunday, there were several occasions where the Patriots had a big play setup with a wide receiver open and Brady just overthrew it.
The ball wasn’t even within reach of his wide receiver, it sailed over their head and the opportunity for a touchdown was missed. The Broncos’ defense stepped up without Von Miller and Manning did an excellent job keeping Brady on the sidelines.
But Brady just didn’t play well on Sunday and while there was a late surge at the end, you just can’t ignore three points in the first three quarters.
3.) 49ers’ Offensive Struggles Continue
The 49ers took on the best defense in football in the toughest place to play on the road, but their offense has just been inexcusable. Kaepernick dazzled in the first half with his legs including a 58-yard run that helped him finish with 130 rushing yards on the night. But the 49ers’ passing attack was pitiful and offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s inability to make smart decisions finally caught up to him.
Roman was heavily rumored during the season to be a potential head-coaching candidate and when there wasn’t serious interest as more coaching vacancies were filled, people were amazed and how San Francisco was able to keep their coaching staff. But just watch the playcalling on Sunday, or during the season or last year or even when Alex Smith was the 49ers’ quarterback. On Sunday, Kaepernick had 24 passing attempts and 11 carries. 35 total plays in which Kaepernick was directly involved. Meanwhile Frank Gore saw just 11 carries and while he was limited to 14 yards, he isn’t notorious for starting fast. But if you keep feeding him and balance him with Kaepernick, it opens up the offense.
Instead, Gore, Kendall Hunter were cast into the shadows and the game was put onto Kaepernick’s shoulders. With Sherman shutting down Crabtree, Kam Chancellor silencing Vernon Davis and making him invisible. Boldin was the leading wide receiver with five receptions for 53 yards and a touchdown on a beautiful throw by Kaepernick, but this was just a poor game plan.
San Francisco struggled all year on third down and in the red zone and it was the big question heading into this game, could they fix their red zone problems? The answer is no, even after Wilson fumbled to begin the game and the 49ers got the ball in the red-zone, the 49ers had to settle for a field goal. They finished the game converting just once in the red zone and were three for 11 on third down conversions.
There is blame to go around, you can look at Kaepernick’s three turnovers in the fourth quarter, one of which occurred after a third and one was turned into a third and six thanks to a delay of game. The truth is for as much talent as this team has on the offensive line, at running back and even at wide receiver and tight end, the play-calling has been mediocre at best.
2.) Sherman Backs up the Talk
Even before the NFC Championship Game kicked off, everyone knew two things about Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman. He liked to talk a lot to his opponents, and he was one of the best cornerbacks in the league. You can go back to him versus Brady last year when he ran up to him after the loss and got in Brady’s face or you could find other occasions where he talked before, during and after the game about how great he was.
Even after Sunday’s game, we saw that boastful side of Sherman in an interview with FOX’s Erin Andrews when he talked about how he is the best cornerback in the league and you don’t put a sub-par wide receiver on him. This was all the result of Kaepernick’s final attempt of the game on an underthrown ball in the end zone that Sherman tipped away and Malcolm Smith caught it to seal the victory. Sherman immediately got in Michael Crabtree’s face.
Immediately after the game, the talk moved away from the Seahawks punching their ticket to the Super Bowl and talk was focused on Sherman’s antics. Twitter went crazy and generalizations about Sherman were made. But ignored in of all of this was that final interception with seconds remaining in the game showed us all that Sherman can back up the talk.
The ball was thrown his way just twice all game, with one resulting in a penalty that was questionable and finally the interception. He shut down Crabtree and every other wide receiver San Francisco put on his side. We may not like how Sherman acts, but the truth is he backs it up. He is a Stanford graduate, the best cornerback in the NFL and he is headed to the Super Bowl.
1.) Manning Saves his Best for the Playoffs
As soon as Manning’s historic regular season ended, many started to wonder how long it would take for him to turn into playoff-Peyton, where he would struggle in the playoffs and the Broncos would be eliminated. But instead Manning stormed through the San Diego Chargers' defense and squared off against his nemesis and came out ahead. While Brady struggled throughout the game with overthrows and just missing open wide receivers, Manning took advantage of the Patriots' secondary. While you might only see two touchdown passes, Manning also threw for over 400 yards and numerous trips to the red zone. Now he has punched his ticket to the Super Bowl, with a great chance to win his second Lombardi Trophy and silence the critics.