In the playoff games on Saturday, two teams emerged victorious. One team had 3 interceptions thrown and was down 28 points in the second half. The other team had 2 interceptions and was told they couldn’t win outside in the cold.
The Saints played a smash mouth game in Philadelphia, struggling at first against a Philadelphia team that looked at ease in the winter chill of a Saturday night in January. It wasn’t until the Saints put their game plan on the ground that they started to take over the game. The running game of the Saints was old style, with Mark Ingram, Darren Sproles and rookie Khiry Robinson all making contributions to help take the Saints down the field to get scores when they needed them. Final score: Saints win 26-24
On Thursday I said that the numbers pointed to a Kansas City win in Indianapolis. But I didn’t take into consideration the Luck factor. Even though the Colts seemed to be at a disadvantage early on, the Chiefs quickly began losing players to concussions – a team that is used to playing on a grassy field taking hard hits on the turf of Indy took out Jamaal Charles after his third carry. Even as they lost 5 players to injuries, the Chiefs still seemed to be in the drivers seat in the 2nd half, leading 38-10. But Andrew Luck was calm on the sidelines with his teammates. He had come from behind before, and he delivered that calming influence over his fellow Colts. In one fateful goal line stand, the Colts handed the ball to Donald Brown who was stripped of the ball inside the 5 yard line. The ball bounced on the ground and careened into the helmet of the center and into Luck’s waiting hands. Luck, without missing a beat, ran up and over his running back and dunked the ball into the end zone! That seemed to take the wind out of the Chiefs and validate that Luck was in control. Final score: Colts win 45-44.
