The New England Patriots are going to the Super Bowl.
Baltimore Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal in the closing seconds of the AFC title game. It went wide left. If Cundiff had made it, the game would have gone to OT. The Ravens sideline looked on with wide mouthed disbelief. The Patriots won 23-20.
It was a hell of a game that went back and forth. Patriots QB Tom Brady had a subpar game. After completing six touchdown passes last week against Denver, Brady did not have a single touchdown pass against the Ravens. But the Pats defense picked up the slack especially defensive tackle Vince Wilfork who had six tackles and one sack of Ravens QB Joe Flacco. As Brady just said himself, “I sucked pretty bad but our defense saved us.” Nonetheless, Brady will start his fifth Super Bowl which ties him with John Elway. This is also Brady’s 16th post-season win tying him with Joe Montana.
It was a nice touch to see Drew Bledsoe present Patriots owner Bob Kraft with the AFC Conference trophy.
The Pats will find out later tonight who they face in Super Bowl XLVI. The NFC title game between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers gets underway in a matter of minutes. I wonder who Vice-President Biden is rooting for in this game. He got lustily booed earlier this week when he said the Giants were going to the Super Bowl. The only problem was that he said it in San Francisco apparently confusing the New York Giants with the San Francisco Giants.
UPDATE: The Giants beat the 49ers 20-17 on a Lawrence Tynes field goal in OT. So it’s Pats-Giants redux. It was four years ago when the Giants upset the Pats in Super Bowl XLII on a pass from Eli Manning to David Tyree with a just over a minute in the game which could only be described as an act of God. So it’s payback time for the Pats. Super Bowl XLVI takes place in a fortnight on February 5th.