2012 Postseason Rewind: Divisional Playoffs

The Divisional round, my favorite round of the postseason, certainly did not disappoint this year. The Ravens and Broncos kicked things off from Denver where the weekend began with a bang, or maybe a different pun would be better. Trindon Holliday took the opening kickoff back for a touchdown.

There would be a lot more scoring, however, as Baltimore’s defense played pretty well for the most part and Denver’s defense did not. All day it was ‘hey diddle-diddle, Ray Rice up the middle’ for a yard on first down and two more on second down. Despite all those third-and-long attempts, Baltimore still scored 28 points on offense to force overtime. Peyton Manning threw an interception late in the first overtime period and Justin Tucker won the game for Baltimore in double overtime.

After beating Minnesota, Green Bay ventured to Candlestick Park to take on the 49ers, who snuck out of the regular season with the NFC’s second seed. The game was very good during the first half, and Green Bay even tied it up early in the third quarter, but Colin Kaepernick and Frank Gore left the Packers in their dust, scoring 21 unanswered.

Atlanta hosted Seattle for the early game on Sunday. The Falcons jumped out to an early lead and poor coaching decisions and even worse clock management kept Seattle out of at least 6 points in the first half, which ended with Atlanta leading, 20-0.

Russell Wilson put up a solid fight in the second half, as Atlanta’s defense went into prevent almost immediately out of the intermission. After concluding their comeback by taking a 28-27 lead, Seattle did the worst thing it possibly could. They went into prevent defense with one of 2012’s best 4^th quarter quarterbacks on the other side. A couple solid throws by Matt Ryan put the Falcons in field goal range and Matt Bryant clinched their first playoff win since Michael Vick was in Atlanta.

The final game of the weekend was also the least exciting. Houston played it fairly close for a while, but they were never really in it. Arian Foster nearly reached 100 yards rushing for the fourth straight time in the postseason, but that’s where the good ended for the Texans. Matt Schaub was shoddy at best and New England dominated Houston’s defense in all aspects.

Tomorrow I will recap the AFC and NFC championships. Saturday I will briefly preview the Pro Bowl because I have nothing better to do. Keep up with new posts by ‘liking’ my blog’s Facebook page and by following me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.