Form held in the NFC divisional playoffs over the weekend, leaving the top two teams in the conference, San Francisco & Green Bay, franchises with 10 Super Bowl titles between them, to meet on January 19 at Levi's Stadium..
The 49ers' win on Saturday over Minnesota was a sort of coming out party for QB Jimmy Garoppolo, who has two rings from his time as Tom Brady's caddy in New England. Garoppolo only had 139 yards passing, with a TD and an interception, as the running game carried the Niners past a Minnesota defense that might've still be on an emotional high from upsetting New Orleans six days earlier.
It was, however, the last game for Vikings defensive coordinator George Edwards, whose contract expired after the game, and offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski, who reportedly is headed to Cleveland as their next head coach, replacing Freddie Kitchens.
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On Sunday, Aaron Rodgers threw a pair of touchdown passes to Davante Adams, Aaron Jones rushed for two more, and Green Bay continued its dominance over Seattle at Lambeau Field.
Some will say that Seattle coach Pete Carroll blundered again by going for two with his team down five in the fourth quarter. Russell Wilson was sacked on the ensuing play, and, for all intents & purposes, the game was over at that point. The idea was sound, to try to cut the deficit to three, and hope for another drive for either a game tying field goal or a winning touchdown. Seattle got neither.
Now, Seahawks fans have to wonder if Marshawn Lynch's comeback is over, or will he return next season, either to Seattle or with another team. Stay tuned.
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Former Giants coach Pat Shurmur reportedly is headed to Denver to be their new offensive coordinator. Maybe these last two seasons have shown he was in over his head as head coach, or maybe John Elway sees something that Giants management didn't. Hmm.
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After a couple of seasons in the CBS booth, Tony Romo has caught the attention of ESPN, which may be looking to Romo to replace Anthony "Booger" McFarland as Joe Tessitore's partner on Monday Night Football. We wouldn't mind, as long as the contract stipulates that he also terminate his association with Corona Extra. Like that really did anything for Jon Gruden's career, did it now?
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All Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel has to do to motivate his team is show them his three Super Bowl rings from his Patriots days.
It's safe to say the Titans have peaked at the right time, having upset New England and Baltimore in back-to-back weeks.
To be honest, no one saw it coming on Saturday. Baltimore was completely outplayed in a 28-12 loss to Tennessee. Lamar Jackson, for all his talent, now is 0-2 in the postseason, and on Saturday night was clearly frustrated.
But, now, the task at hand for Vrabel and the Titans is to duplicate Saturday's performance, this time against another quarterback with a similar skill set to Jackson in Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes.
On Sunday, Mahomes and the Chiefs were down 24-0 in the first quarter vs. Houston. Then, everything just went the Chiefs' way, and they were going bananas in Kansas City.
The Chiefs scored seven unanswered touchdowns in the 2nd & 3rd quarters en route to a 51-31 win over Houston, avenging a loss to the Texans on the same field three months ago. The downside, though, is that they may not have tight end Travis Kelce, who caught three TD passes from Mahomes in the 2nd quarter, due to a hamstring injury. They won't know for sure until the end of the week about Kelce, but they'll have had time to study the Titans-Ravens films to figure out an answer to Dean Pees' defensive schemes.
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On back-to-back nights, reps from the Football Hall of Fame made surprise appearances in the CBS & Fox studios. Coaches-turned-analysts Bill Cowher (CBS) & Jimmy Johnson (Fox) have been selected to the Hall of Fame Class of 2020, and the shocking announcements came right out of the Ralph Edwards This is Your Life playbook.
In Johnson's case, his former QB, Fox game analyst Troy Aikman, was watching on the monitor in Green Bay, and he and his former coach both were emotional. Johnson has cut back on his Fox NFL Sunday duties this season, which is why Tony Gonzalez and Peter Schrager have gotten more time of late on Sundays & Thursdays, and the golden Hall of Fame jacket may be his golden ticket to full retirement.
Congratulations to both Cowher & Johnson.
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