Championship Sunday

Patriots 23   Ravens 20

Tom Brady had a streak of 35 games with at least one touchdown pass entering Sunday’s AFC Championship game. That streak was snapped, but the Patriots defense played outstanding as the Patriots outlasted the Ravens at Gillette Stadium.

New England’s victory was sealed by a missed field goal by Billy Cuniff with 11 seconds remaining in the game.

"It's a kick I've kicked probably a thousand times in my career," Cundiff said. "I went out there and didn't convert. That's the way things go."

Unfortunately, Cundiff’s missed field goal will receive most of the attention and blame for the 3-point loss. However, the Ravens had a chance to win the game two plays earlier as Lee Evans caught a Joe Flacco pass in the endzone, but was stripped by Pats cornerback Sterling Moore.

Flacco has been criticized his whole career, even by his own teammates, but he played great on Sunday completing 22/36 passes for 306 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Tom Brady struggled for most of the game, and acknowledged it after in his postgame interview, “Well, I sucked pretty bad today, but our defense saved us.”

This will be Brady’s 5^th Super Bowl, and he’s going for his 4^th championship. Expect big numbers from him on February 5^th.

Giants 20   49ers 17

For the second time in his career, Lawrence Tynes kicked the game winning field goal in overtime of the NFC Championship Game to send his team, the New York Giants, to the Super Bowl.

Eli Manning put his team on his back yet again, like he has done all season, completing 32/58 passes for 316 yards and 2 touchdowns. Manning continues to prove that he belongs in the elite group of quarterbacks in the NFL.

The receiving core for the Giants had a great game, led by Victor Cruz who caught 10 passes for 142 yards. Mario Manningham was held without a reception the entire game, until he made a spectacular 17 yard touchdown catch from Manning to take a 17-14 lead.

Alex Smith had a great season, but he turned back into the Alex Smith of old completing just 12/26 passes, and converting only 1-13 third down chances. He did have two touchdown strikes to Vernon Davis, one for 74 yards and the other for 29 yards, which was basically all the offense for San Francisco.

Smith didn’t get any help from his special teams, in particular Kyle Williams, who botched a punt return in the 4^th quarter that led to the Manningham touchdown, and fumbled a punt return in OT that led to the game winning field goal by Tynes.

Everyone will dogpile on Williams, don’t get me wrong, his mistakes were inexcusable, but don’t forget the 49ers had more than one possession before the Williams fumble to get at least a FG and the offense failed to do so.

Credit Jim Harbaugh for taking a 6-10 team to the NFC Championship in his first year as head coach. He should be the unanimous choice for coach of the year, and the Niners should be contenders for years to come, as long as he’s around.

There will be a rematch of the 2007 Super Bowl between the Giants and Pats. Manning will go after his 2^nd title, one more than his brother Payton, while Brady will try to join Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana with his 4^th Lombardi Trophy.

David Tyree is available…the Giants should re-sign him, just in case.