WE NOW KNOW the two teams that will contest Super Bowl XLV. Steven O’Rourke takes a look at how they got there.
AFC Championship Game
New York Jets (19) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (24)
A week after benefiting from the Baltimore Ravens throwing away a game they should have won, the Pittsburgh Steelers very nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory themselves. Having raced into a 24-0 lead, the Jets scored 19 unanswered points but came up just short against a Steelers defence determined to make the Super Bowl.
It may be a cliché but this AFC Championship match-up really was a game of two halves. Ben Roethlisberger and company started like a runaway train, scoring on their very first drive; Rashard Mendenhall scoring from one yard on the 17th play of a drive that took more than nine minutes off the clock.
The Jets just couldn’t get anything going on offence with QB Mark Sanchez at his inconsistent worst.
Pittsburgh capitalised with Roethlisberger running in for a touchdown of his own before Steelers CB William Gay recovered a Mark Sanchez fumble to give the black and gold a 24-0 lead.
The Jets managed a field goal before half time but it really looked as if there was no way back for New York. However, the Jets bounced back in the third quarter, on the back of what must have been a paint-stripping speech from Coach Rex Ryan, scoring a 45-yard touchdown just three minutes into the second half, bringing the score to 24-10.
However, despite their defence securing a two-point safety, the Jets failed to score again until there was just three minutes remaining in the game.
What killed the game for the Jets was an eight-minute, 17-play drive that saw New York fail to punch the ball in from the Steelers one-yard line. To come away with no points after such a clock-eating drive took the wind out of the Jets’ sails. It was a derailment from which they couldn’t recover.
NFC Championship Game
Green Bay Packers (21) @ Chicago Bears (14)
The story of this game is undoubtedly the mysterious injury to Bears QB Jay Cutler. When asked at half-time how he hurt his knee, Cutler claimed he didn’t know how or when the injury happened.
He did know, however, that the home fans weren’t very impressed, booing both the QB and his replacement Todd Collins.
It was, in truth, a poor game, littered with mistakes and no fewer than four interceptions, three fumbles and three sacks. However, it also included one of my all-time favourite touchdowns with B.J. Raji proving once again that just because you’re big, doesn’t mean you can’t dance:
I previewed this game by talking about Aaron Rodgers’ attempts to establish himself as the best QB in the NFL. He wasn’t even close to his best in this game but still managed to have too much for the Bears’ first, second and third string quarterbacks.
He also put in a really important tackle to stop an almost certain touchdown after he threw an interception to the Bears’ Brian Urlacher.
The Packers led 14-0 at half-time and it was only when third string QB Caleb Hanie came on for the Bears towards the end of the third quarter that Chicago came in to this game. However, despite leading drives to bring the game back within a score at 14-7 and again at 21-14, Hanie had been left with too much to do by Cutler and Collins.
While the Packers march on to Super Bowl XLV on February 6, it’s difficult to see how Culter can repair what is now a seriously-damaged relationship with Bears fans.
