Things I Noticed: Divisional Round

It took us four and a half months to confirm what we already suspected entering the season - that the Seahawks, Broncos, Patriots and 49ers are the league's four best teams.  With the Divisional Round now in the books, we now know that those are the four teams that will battle it out in the Conference Championships for the right to advance to the Super Bowl.

This was actually the first time since the 2004 postseason that the Divisional Round did not feature at least one underdog pulling off an upset win.  Each of the four teams that won this week entered the game considered favorites (based on the game lines set in Vegas).

Here are some things I noticed this week:

New Orleans Saints at Seattle Seahawks

• The Seahawks overcame a quiet performance from Russell Wilson (103 passing yards) to hang on to a victory over the Saints.  Marshawn Lynch did the heavy lifting, setting a franchise postseason record by rushing for 140 yards and a pair of scores.  His second touchdown came on a 31-yard run with under three minutes to go in the 4th quarter to put the game away.
• New Orleans made things interesting in the end when Drew Brees connected with Marques Colston with 26 seconds left make it a one possession game.  The late score proved to be more than just a stat padding effort in garbage time, as the Saints followed it up by recovering an on-side kick to give themselves a chance.  The game would end after Colston caught a 13-yard pass along the side line. Instead of stepping out of bounds to stop the clock to give his team one last shot at the end zone from Seattle's 38 yard line, Colston tried to throw a cross field lateral to an open teammate.  Except the pass went forward, which triggered a penalty for an illegal forward pass.  That penalty came with a 10 second run off, which ended the game.  Poor decision making by Colston and even poorer execution. 
• Percy Harvin took a hard hit from Rafael Bush on the opening drive to draw a penalty for hitting a defenseless receiver in the head.  The flag extended the Seahawks drive on the third down play, leading to a field goal on the drive, but it came at the extent of Harvin heading back to the locker room to be evaluated.  He returned later in the first quarter.
• Wilson overthrew a wide open Harvin in the end zone, leading to Harvin taking another hard hit that knocked him out of the game with a concussion.  The guy just can't catch a break this season.  The play started with the Seahawks faking an end around with Harvin, who ended up slipping past the defense while Wilson scrambled in the backfield waiting for him to get open. Seattle had to settle for another FG on the drive.
• The Saints had a 16-yard punt, fumble and missed field goal, all in the first quarter.  Not a great start for New Orleans.
• Only 1 first target and zero catches in the first half for Jimmy Graham.  He would finish the game with only 1 catch for a meaningless 8 years.  Coach Sean Payton said at halftime he knew how vital it was for them to get Graham involved, so credit Seattle's defense for not letting it happen.
• Could this have been the last game for Graham in a Saints uniform?  He'll be a free agent after the season and the Saints are already projected to be well over next year's salary cap.  They'll need to either gut their roster or get very creative with some restructuring in order to fit him in. They could use the franchise tag to keep him, but if the league sides with Graham in assessing that he should be tagged as a wide receiver instead of a tight end (he played the majority of snaps split out wide this season) then it would be much more expensive to do so.
• Khiry Robinson stumbled in the backfield and his knee hit the ground, but no defender touched him.  After he got back up he was hit and the ball came out for a fumble, but the officials ruled he had already been down by contact.  Except for the part where there was no actual contact while he was down!
• One of the biggest plays of the day happened essentially by accident.  Brees badly under threw a deep pass that should have been intercepted, but two Seattle defenders that both went for the ball inadvertently tipped it to Robert Meachem for a 52-yard completion.  
• After becoming the hero for the Saints last week with is 4 field goal effort, kicker Shane Graham missed on both his attempts, from 45 and 48 yards.  In Graham's defense, his first miss can partially be blamed on a poor hold, where Luke McCown failed to position the ball with the laces out.
• The Seahawks have not lost a home game that they led at halftime since Wilson became the starter last year.
• Final score: Seahawks 23, Saints 15

Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots

• Normally when you see the Patriots put up 43 points in a game, the first thing you do is check to see how many TD passes Tom Brady threw.  None?!  How is that possible?  This time it wasn't necessary for Brady to take over, as the running game for New England carried the offense by plowing through the Colts for 234 yards on the ground.  
• LeGarrette Blount led the way with 166 rushing yards and 4 TDs.  That set franchise records for
  
  postseason rushing yards and TDs.  His first three TDs all were all from only 2 yards out, but early in the 4th quarter he would show how capable he is of making big plays with a 73-yard run that put the game away.  Blount set a new career high with 7 rushing TDs this season, then had 4 just in this game!
• Best Facebook meme of the week: You don't smoke the Blount, the Blount smokes you.
• Blount is the first player in history to have 125+ yards and 4 TDs in a postseason game.
• Blount's big day highlighted a major difference between the two teams.  New England traded a rarely used kick returner (Jeff Demps) and a 7th-round pick to acquire him before the season and are paying him only the veteran's minimum.  Indianapolis traded a 1st-round pick early in the season to acquire Trent Richardson, the former #3 overall pick, who quickly established himself as a bust.  Richardson managed only 1 yard on 3 carries in the game.
• Both teams knew going in that winning the turnover battle was essential to victory, so the blowout score comes as no surprise when you consider how convincingly the Patriots won that battle.  New England didn't turn the ball over at all, while Andrew Luck threw 4 INTs.  After throwing only 9 picks all season, Luck threw the ball away 7 times in two playoff games this year.  He now has 8 INTs in his playoff career, which ties him for the most of any QB through their first three career playoff games in the Super Bowl era.  While it's still early in his career, Luck is off to a 1-2 start in the postseason, which may remind Colts fans of another former QB of theirs that took some time to prove himself in the postseason.
• The game plan for the Patriots defense was to key in on limiting T.Y. Hilton.  While Aqib Talib doesn't have Hilton's blazing speed, the physical corner focused on jamming Hilton at the line of scrimmage to take him off his game.  The plan worked accordingly for most of the game, but Hilton was able to make a play after Talib whiffed on his attempt to jam him, allowing Hilton to blaze past him for a 46-yard gain.  Hilton would finish with 4 catches for 103 yards.
• LaVon Brazil only managed to reel in two of his seven targets, but both of them went for long scores.  His first catch went for a 38-yard TD and the next was a 35-yard score.  
• New England caught a break in the third quarter after Danny Aiken's snap sailed over the head of punter Ryan Allen and bounced toward the Patriots end zone.  The wise move would be for the punter to knock the ball out of the back of the end zone to concede a safety, rather than risk the Colts recovering the ball either in the end zone or a few yards shy of it to set up an easy touchdown.  Allen appeared not to realize this, but luckily for him, Jeris Pendelton of the Colts accidentally slapped the ball out of the end zone, forcing the safety.  
• Allen was injured on the play, forcing the Patriots to rely on kicker Stephen Gostkowski to punt the rest of the game.  It will be interesting to see what happens going forward.  Will the Patriots use Gostkowski again in the role if Allen can't play?  Will they sign another punter?  If so, will they put Allen on season ending IR or leave him on the roster so that he could potentially return if the Patriots make it to the Super Bowl?
• The Patriots made a curious move late in the game by punting from the Colts 26 yard line.  Did Bill Belichick think that a 43-yard field goal on a windy New England night was too risky?  Gostkowski's punt bounced into the end zone for a touchback, so the difference between punting and going for it on 4th down was likely a difference of no more than six yards.  Did they assume a 21 point lead was more than enough with under three minutes remaining?  It turned out to be plenty, but considering we saw two other teams this weekend make things interesting with multiple late scores thanks to an onside-kick recovery, why not take the points to be safe?
• NBA Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley, was a guest of owner Robert Kraft at the game and made an appearance in the Patriots locker room to talk to the players.  Was Chuck good luck?  Let's hope so for New England, because Sir Charles says he plans to attend next week's AFC Championship game as well.
• Tom Brady has been a starting QB for 13 seasons (not counting his missed 2008 season) and has reached the AFC Championship 8 times!  Brady extended his record for playoff wins by a QB to 18 with the victory.  While he only threw for 198 yards in the game, it was enough to make him the first QB ever to surpass 6,000 career passing yards in the postseason.  
• Final score: Patriots 43, Colts 22

San Francisco 49ers at Carolina Panthers

• Colin Kaepernick capped a 4-yard TD run by mocking Cam Newton's "Superman" celebration by
  
  pretending to rip open his shirt.  The pose may have irked some of the Panther's players, but they should have been more concerned about falling behind by double-digits.
• Michael Crabtree had a quiet game (3 catches for 26 yards), but his presence drew a lot of double teams, which opened up space for Anquan Boldin (8 catches, 136 yards) to operate in.  Since Crabtree made his season debute in Week 13, Kaepernick has the 3rd highest Total QBR in the league.
• The 49ers defense limited Newton by intercepting two of his passes and sacking him 5 times, but their stingy defense in short yardage situations is where they really shined.  Carolina had the ball at the Niners 1-yard line twice in the second quarter and managed to come away with only a total of 3 points.  One of those drives ended with Newton getting stuffed on a 4th and goal sneak.
• Despite playing at what he estimated himself at about 57%, Steve Smith looked healthy enough in producing 4 catches for 74 yards and a TD.  Smith now has 8 receiving TDs in 9 career postseason games.  
• San Francisco benefited from several missed calls by the officials.  On their opening drive, Carolina safety Mike Mitchell was flagged for unnecessary roughness for a late hit against Boldin.  The ball had been tipped on it's way toward Boldin, so pass interference couldn't be called, but the hit by Mitchell came before the ball ever hit the ground.  There was nothing late about that hit.  An incomplete pass would have brought up a 4th down, but the penalty extended the drive, which ended with a 49ers field goal.  Later, Panthers corner Captain Munnerlyn was penalized 15-yards for "head-butting"a player. Munnerlyn had gotten in the face of a Niners player and their heads inadvertently bumped while the players exchanged a bit of trash talk.  It was a weak call to begin with, but what Carolina really took issue with is that the officials failed to penalize Boldin for doing the exact same thing later in the game. The officials also neglected to call the 49ers for having 12 men in the huddle prior to the play that resulted in a 1-yard TD pass to Vernon Davis that gave the Niners a lead seconds before halftime. Officials attempted to justify the lack of a call because the extra player was off the field before the ball was snapped, but you can't have 12 men in the huddle because it prevents the defense from having time to adjust and substitute based on the players that will remain in for that play.  So essentially, a missed or blown call aided drives that led to all 13 of the 49ers first half points in a game that they ended up winning by 13.
• The 49ers picked up five first downs from penalties committed by the Carolina defense.  Three of those came on 3rd down plays.  At least a couple of those shouldn't have even been called.
• Carolina was 0-4 this season when allowing 21+ points.
• The 49ers are heading back to the NFC Championship game for the third straight year.  Jim Harbaugh is the first coach in NFL history to take his team to the Conference Championship game in each of his first three seasons.
• Final score: 49ers 23, Panthers 10

San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos

• Peyton Manning ended a personal three game losing streak in the postseason, giving him his first
  
  playoff victory since the AFC Championship game in January 2010.  Denver raced out to a 17-0 lead through three quarters before the Chargers were able to mount a comeback that must have had Broncos fans having flashbacks to last year's playoff defeat against Baltimore.  Their season ended last year when they failed to run out the clock by calling five straight rushing plays, which left the Ravens time for a miracle TD pass from Joe Flacco to Jacoby Jones to force overtime.  This time when Denver got the ball back for their final possession, they mixed up the play calling and were able to pick up a trio of first downs that allowed them to run out the clock for the victory.  Two of those first downs came on Manning passes.
• Manning completed a 21-yard pass to Julius Thomas to convert a 3rd and 17 on that final drive of the game.  Had they not converted there, San Diego would have gotten the ball back with over three minutes left and at least one time out.
• San Diego's late comeback attempt included two TD passes from Philip Rivers to Keenan Allen. Rivers (217 yards, 2 TDs) played ultra-conservatively in the first half by rarely throwing anything other than screen passes and short dump offs.  He finished the half with only 20 passing yards, without a single completion to a wide receiver.  In the second half, Allen finally got involved, finishing with 6 catches for 142 yards and 2 scores.
• Rivers did not complete a deep pass of 15+ yards through the first three quarters, but was 6 for 7 on such passes in the 4th quarter.  All five of Allen's catches in the 4th quarter were for 15+ yards.  That accounted for 123 yards in the 4th quarter alone, which is the most receiving yards by a player in any postseason quarter since 2001.
• After Allen's second TD, the Chargers succeeded in recovering an on-side kick.  Denver's Eric Decker was unable to hold on to the ball as it bounced toward him.  It deflected off his hands and bounced back toward the Chargers, who managed to pounce on it to regain possession.  That led to a quick field goal drive that pulled San Diego within one score.  Surprisingly, San Diego didn't try for another on-side kick after that, which turned out to be a mistake when they never touched the ball again.
• The botched on-side kick recovery wasn't Decker's only blunder of the game.  Decker looked like he was going to score on a punt return, but he tripped at the 30-yard line without getting touched.  That drive would end with the ball bouncing off Decker's chest in the end zone and being intercepted by Donald Butler right before halftime.
• Wes Welker returned to action after missing the last few regular season games with a concussion.  He caught 6 passes for 38 yards and a score.
• In each of their two regular season match-ups, San Diego dominated the time of possession by holding the ball for over 38 minutes.  This time it was Denver controlling the clock, holding possession for over 35 minutes.
• Manning threw two TD passes in the game, giving him 57 for the season.  That sets a new record for TD passes in the regular and postseason combined.  Dan Marino and Tom Brady each held the previous record with 56.
• Final score:  Broncos 24, Chargers 17