Divisional Round Afterword, Part I

Tom Brady broke Joe Montana's record for postseason touchdown
passes with the 46th of his career Saturday evening against Baltimore.

Cory Puffett

Baltimore at New England

Joe Flacco continued his playoff hot streak by throwing two touchdown passes in the first quarter Saturday evening. After the Patriots erased the 14-point deficit, Flacco hooked up with Owen Daniels for his third touchdown pass of the game with ten seconds left in the first half.

The Patriots would not lose a home playoff game to the Ravens for the third time in the last five years, though. They let the Ravens build their lead back to 14 early in the second half but again erased that deficit.

Flacco had played a mostly perfect game, but with less than two minutes to play and trailing by four, he made a very poor throw and Duron Harmon made the interception.

The Ravens did get one last shot at the end zone with four seconds left, but Flacco’s Hail Mary was not answered.

The Patriots are the first team in NFL history to twice trail by 14 points and still win a playoff game.

With a win to clinch a Super Bowl birth next week, Bill Belichick would break Tom Landry’s record for postseason wins by a head coach. He’ll be watching tomorrow’s Denver/Indianapolis game to prepare for that opportunity.

Doug Baldwin was the first of four Seahawks to reach the end zone
Sunday night in a 31-17 divisional round win over the Carolina Panthers.

Carolina at Seattle

The late game was an endurance race for the ages. A great defensive battle took center stage in the first quarter half as Carolina’s defense did an excellent job of conserving their energy by getting off the field quickly by the Seahawks, as usual, used their home crowd to help them do the same.

The Seahawks got on the scoreboard first and the two teams exchanged blows on the way to a 14-10 Seattle lead at halftime.

Both defenses used the break to rest again and the third quarter brought no scoring as neither team could break through until a 12-play drive by the Seahawks at the end of the quarter led to a field goal at the start of the fourth.

Seattle won the enduring race as Carolina’s defense finally wore down. A 90-yard interception return by Kam Chancellor with six minutes left put the nail in the Panthers’ coffin.

Kelvin Benjamin had a very impressive day against the legion of boom, catching 7 passes for 75 yards and two scores. Overall, Carolina played a very good game. Despite the margin of victory, they were not an easy team to put away for the defending Super Bowl champions.

Seattle will host the winner of Sunday’s game between the Cowboys and Packers next Sunday.