Well, here I was all teed up and ready to crow about a 4-for-4 weekend, when the New York Jets spoiled my plans. My distaste for Rex Ryan's public persona notwithstanding, I have to give him credit for a terrific gameplan, and credit for backing up the talk with action on the field. I haven't seen Tom Brady that befuddled since...well, ever, and I have to go way back to 1987 to remember a game where the clear Super Bowl favorite lost so convincingly (and believe me, that game was nowhere near as close as the score indicated). That year, the 49ers were destroying everything in their path, and ran into an unheralded Minnesota Vikings team who proceeded to tear them apart, limb by limb. Joe Montana - you've heard of him, greatest quarterback of all time, and all that? Well, in that game Joe got benched at halftime. Of course, at that time the 49ers had another Hall of Famer on their bench, guy by the name of Steve Young. Last night, the Patriots had no such option; not that it would have done any good.
Bears-Seahawks? Pretty much what I expected.
So now we have two conference championship games that, on paper at least, look like they could be classics for the ages. I'm not prepared to predict scores yet, although I can definitely say that I'll be going with the Packers. But that other game? I don't know how to call Steelers-Jets. It's hard to imagine the Jets being intimidated by Ben Roethlisberger, after having shut down the two greatest quarterbacks of this era on successive weekends. But then, I keep thinking about that gutty win on Saturday, and the way Pittsburgh just always seems to find a way to win this sort of game. So...stay tuned.
No matter what happens, it's looking like a great matchup for the Super Bowl. By the way, did I mention I was going?
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