John Harbaugh took the field Saturday looking to keep Ray Lewis' career alive with a win at Mile High, but he did not know that it would take two overtimes to do it. Less than two minutes into the second overtime period Justin Tucker did what Billy Cundiff could not do for the Ravens last year, and hit a field goal. Tucker's 47 yard field goal sent the Ravens back to the AFC title game, and gave their leader Ray Lewis another shot at making it to the Super Bowl. Meanwhile in the Bay Area Johns brother Jim was attempting to stop Aaron Rodgers and he Green Bay Packers, and thanks to Colin Kaepernick they did. The 49ers set all sorts of playoff records Saturday night en route to a 45--31 victory over the Pack.
The action continued this afternoon when Matt Ryan got his first playoff win by holding off the Seattle Seahawks. Ryan and the Falcons got out to a 20-0 lead at the half, and led 27-7 before the Seahawks came back to take the lead late in the fourth. Down 28-27 with 31 seconds and two timeouts, Ryan made back to back clutch completions to wide receiver Harry Douglas and tight end Tony Gonzalez to set up Matt Bryant for a game winning 49 yard field goal. The weekend wrapped up with a Texans Patriots rematch at Foxboro where the Patriots took it to Houston putting up 41 points in a home victory.
This sets up a rematch of the AFC title game last year when Billy Cundiff (mentioned before) crushed many Ravens fans by missing a game tying field goal late. It's hard not to root for the Baltimore Ravens at this point as Ray Lewis has already announced that he will retire after this season, so everyone wants to see the future hall of famer end his career on top. However, I don't share this same feeling as a Patriots fan, nor do fans of the 49ers or the Falcons. Now I love Ray Lewis as much as the next football fan don't get me wrong, but at the end of the day I'm a Patriots fan, and I want another Super Bowl.
No matter what I will be enjoying the championship games next Sunday, as should everybody else with a trip to New Orleans on the line.
