NFL Divisional Games Recap

      The NFL Divisional Games Weekend was full of wackiness, craziness, zaniness, action packed, foolishness and just plain ole stupidness as well.  All 4 Home teams won this weekend in stark contrast to the Wild card weekend where as all 4 road teams won.
     In the first game on Saturday, the New England Patriots downed the KC Chiefs. It was a game in which the Chiefs had questionable play calling and time management issues that left them with little time on the clock in their attempted comeback. The Patriots who everyone knew were pretty much a one dimensional team as passing is their main offense, were brilliant in the short passing game and stretched out the Chiefs defense and the Chiefs had no answer for QB Tom Brady and its passing game. Outside of a few drops by Patriots receivers, the offense did as it wanted and scored as it needed. The downside to this game occurred on a punt play where the Patriots Danny Amendola's blatant illegal hit to a defenseless player head was uncalled for and He should be suspended for the rest of the year. We will see if the NFL does the right thing in suspending Amendola or caves in as it usually does in cases like this. The Patriots now travel to Denver for a rematch of week 12 where in a blizzard the Broncos beat the Patriots. This time they are playing for a return trip to Super Bowl 50.
     In the Saturday night game between the Cardinals and Packers, the Packers played perhaps their best game of the year defensively in shutting down the high powered Cardinals and stymied the Cardinals defense with quick passes and a good hard running game to compliment the passing attack. For the second time this year, the Packers pulled of a Hail Mary play on the last play of the game and this time it forced OT. In OT, on the first play from scrimmage, Cardinal QB Palmer scrambled and found a wide open WR Larry Fitzgerald for 74 yards and a couple of plays later they Cardinals found the end zone to defeat the Packers and advance to this weekends NFC Championship game against the Carolina Panthers. Palmer who didn't have a good game as QB, stepped up at the right time and guided his team to the win.
     In the Sunday matinee game in which the Carolina Panthers hosted the Seattle Seahawks, it was a tale of 2 different halves of football. The first half was totally dominated by the Panthers in a very impressive half of running and passing and having their way with the Seahawks in running out to a 31-0 lead at halftime. The second half was all Seattle, as they held the Panthers scoreless and made a game out of it but fell short and lost 31-24. As in other games over the weekend, questionable play calling and time management issues cost the Seahawks any chance of completing this incredible comeback.  The #1 seeded Panthers now will face the #2 seeded Cardinals in Carolina this Sunday for the NFC Championship with the winner heading to Super Bowl 50.
      The final game of the weekend saw the Denver Broncos behind Peyton Manning hold on and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers to advance to the AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots.  The Broncos who had early chances to put the Steelers on the ropes only settled for FG's and didn't score a TD until late in the game. The Broncos receivers dropped numerous passes in this game as they have throughout the year but QB Peyton Manning dissected the Steelers defense with quick short passes and the running game also scorched the Steelers defense. The Steelers had chances to pull this game out but a fumble by RB Toussaint as the Steelers were driving in the 4th quarter ultimately cost the Steelers the game.  Not many gave the Steelers a chance in this game with QB Big Ben's bad shoulder and missing RB Bell and WR Brown both out, but the Steelers played hard and determined and showed how good of a team they are in just falling short. The Broncos will now host the Patriots this Sunday with the winner advancing to Super Bowl 50.
     The NFL Divisional Games games were very entertaining to say the least, great defensive battles and also explosive offesne shows as well. But now we are onto the Championship Games where teams will have to play great on both sides of the ball and as anyone knows, any team can beat any other team on any given day. The winners will be onto Super Bowl 50 on February 7th in Santa Clara, CA.   
     Cooper the NFL Analyst was 3-1 in picking the Divisional Games and is 6-2 so far in the Playoffs, after going 188-58 during the season, check back later this week to see his picks for the NFC and AFC Championship Games.   @cupofjoeinthed