Both #1 seeds are now gone, and the field is wide open. I was shocked to see the Patriots lose today. Brady looked a little off, which was especially interesting in light of Aaron Rodgers' dominating performance in Atlanta the night before. The times they are a-changing.

It's never happened. The Steelers won it as a #6 a few years ago, and the Giants won it as a #5. But two #6s facing each other? Never.

I don't believe that's ever happened either.

I personally believe the league heaved a great sigh of relief that they won't have to worry about having a Super Bowl featuring two No. 1 seeds. As I pointed out in another thread, such Super Bowls have historically made for bad television.

By contrast, the NFL has to be delighted to have the Packers/Bears NFC championship. Tickets for this game will be outlandishly expensive, and the game may well have the highest TV ratings of any NFL playoff game ever. The league also has to be pleased the Packers are still in it, since they're the only one of the remaining NFC teams to have shown the potential to beat the Jets or Patriots.

I think a Super Bowl featuring two No. 6 seeds could make for a compelling storyline. In some ways it would be a bit embarrassing for the league, but on the other hand, it would reinforce the league's "any given Sunday" motif and demonstrate the degree of parity that exists right now. They'll be able to point out that any team can have hope of making it to the big dance.

This year's #6 seeds were right in the mix all along, so the league would have nothing to be embarrassed about if they played each other in the Super Bowl. The Seahawks, on the other hand, would've made some people uncomfortable. It's really best that they got blown out today rather than in a later round.

I'm pretty sure that we've never had two wild card teams in the Super Bowl. But here is the list of wild card teams that have won it:

1980 Oakland Raiders-Super Bowl XV (played in 1981)
1997 Denver Broncos-Super Bowl XXXII (played in 1998)
2000 Baltimore Ravens-Super Bowl XXXV (played in 2001)
2005 Pittsburgh Steelers-Super Bowl XL (played in 2006)
2007 New York Giants-Super Bowl XLII (played in 2008)

Packers will be the 2nd NFC wildcard team to win! :icon_smile:

Here's a good quote about the game, from Don Banks' article on the Sports Illustrated web site:

"We were given basically no chance,'' Jets linebacker Bart Scott said of New York's heavy-underdog status. "But we also knew that [Brady's] quarterback rating over the last four or five playoff games was about 66. The TD-to-INT ratio was high. And we knew when we looked on [both] rosters that we had all the playoff experience, and that they're a relatively young team. We've been in the pressure. Some of their guys were there last year and had been part of the ass-kicking by the Baltimore Ravens.

"We knew we actually had gone on the road and knew what a playoff atmosphere was all about," Scott said. "We could still perform and not get overhyped, and not be underhyped. We can handle the emotional moment and settle into a tough football game.''

Read more: http://sportsillustrated...index.html#ixzz1BIHk3sSR

Was anyone else of hte mindset that the 4th Q was really weird? Why did the Pats keep running it and why did they do that 7 minute drive. Why not hurry it up when your down two scores. At one point, BB was yelling at the O because they did a run play. Was Brady checking out of pass plays???

The whole strategy in the 4th really confused me for a BB coached team.

2007 Super Bowl--lost
2008--injured
2009--lost in first round to Ravens
2010--lost in first round to Jets

That's three in a row for the best clutch QB of our era. So either Brady is not as clutch as people think he is, or he hasn't had as much support from his teammates. I tend to side more with the latter theory. Just look at the changes in personnel for the Patriots in recent years. Only a handful of players besides Brady are left from their last Super Bowl winning team (2004), and Deion Branch is a retread.

I guess that great QB's performances usually decline in the playoffs because, in part, of the old adage that "defenses win championships." The teams with the best defenses tend to make the playoffs and advance the farthest. It is much less likely that a QB will come up against a very soft defense that will allow him to roll up big numbers. This is even more true of QBs on teams that earn first round byes, as the softies tend to fall by the wayside in round one.

That clock-eating fourth quarter drive was indeed very strange. If they had hurried, the Jets would've kept faking injuries, stopping the clock. It does show how well the Jets defended the pass, completely throwing the Patriots off their game. If the Packers make it to the Super Bowl, I would rather have them face the Steelers than the Jets.