Breaking down the Conference Championship Round
James Mason
Issue date: 1/20/06 Section: Sports
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For the first time since 1976, the Colts, Patriots and Eagles won't be in the conference championship games in the NFL. OK, it hasn't quite been since '76, but the NFL has a surprising quartet of teams left to contend for the title.
The Patriots' dynasty may have finally come to an end last weekend, but I won't make it official until next year. If they come back and win next year, four out of six still counts in my book. Anyway, they were my preseason pick to win it all. My NFC pick to advance to the Super Bowl was the Vikings, of all teams, and we all know how bizarre their season was. Fortunately for me, I did get invited to Fred Smoot's next cruise, where I'm positive nobody's going to be purified on the waters of Lake Minnetonka. All jokes aside, I'm sure nobody expected this final four coming into championship weekend. Hell, I even made a $20 bet that the Colts would beat the Steelers by 20 points. Since I've lost my lunch money for this week, I'm writing this column on an empty stomach.
While these match-ups were unexpected, that doesn't mean they'll suck. In fact, these two games should be the best games by far of a mostly boring postseason. The hardest part about these match-ups for guys like me, is trying to figure out who I think is going to win. While there were many analysts pegging Carolina as a Super Bowl team in the preseason, their inconsistency during most of the regular season has the Panthers as almost a surprise team in this situation. The Seahawks and Panthers are fairly even teams that like to run the ball and play defense. The Broncos and Steelers are fairly even teams that like to run the ball and play defense. Even though I used the exact same sentence to describe both games, all four teams go about their games in a different manner. Also, all four teams have their best players in different positions. With everything so even, the coaching match-ups are often the key to the game.
Like everything else on paper for these two games, however, the caliber of the coaches is a virtual wash. Both games feature a pair of respected head coaches. Each game will have a coach with at least one ring versus a coach with at least one previous championship game appearance. While you would normally pick the coach with the rings, Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan had yet to win post season games without Brett Favre or John Elway until this year. So you have the two Mikes with the pressure of trying to win without Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Bill Cowher trying to make it to the Super Bowl for the first time and John Fox mostly playing with the house money.
The Patriots' dynasty may have finally come to an end last weekend, but I won't make it official until next year. If they come back and win next year, four out of six still counts in my book. Anyway, they were my preseason pick to win it all. My NFC pick to advance to the Super Bowl was the Vikings, of all teams, and we all know how bizarre their season was. Fortunately for me, I did get invited to Fred Smoot's next cruise, where I'm positive nobody's going to be purified on the waters of Lake Minnetonka. All jokes aside, I'm sure nobody expected this final four coming into championship weekend. Hell, I even made a $20 bet that the Colts would beat the Steelers by 20 points. Since I've lost my lunch money for this week, I'm writing this column on an empty stomach.
While these match-ups were unexpected, that doesn't mean they'll suck. In fact, these two games should be the best games by far of a mostly boring postseason. The hardest part about these match-ups for guys like me, is trying to figure out who I think is going to win. While there were many analysts pegging Carolina as a Super Bowl team in the preseason, their inconsistency during most of the regular season has the Panthers as almost a surprise team in this situation. The Seahawks and Panthers are fairly even teams that like to run the ball and play defense. The Broncos and Steelers are fairly even teams that like to run the ball and play defense. Even though I used the exact same sentence to describe both games, all four teams go about their games in a different manner. Also, all four teams have their best players in different positions. With everything so even, the coaching match-ups are often the key to the game.
Like everything else on paper for these two games, however, the caliber of the coaches is a virtual wash. Both games feature a pair of respected head coaches. Each game will have a coach with at least one ring versus a coach with at least one previous championship game appearance. While you would normally pick the coach with the rings, Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan had yet to win post season games without Brett Favre or John Elway until this year. So you have the two Mikes with the pressure of trying to win without Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Bill Cowher trying to make it to the Super Bowl for the first time and John Fox mostly playing with the house money.
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