The NFL Playoffs gave fans three out of four great games last weekend. Throw out New England’s blowout win over Denver and the other three games were close till the end or late into the fourth quarter.

Best game of the weekend was the San Francisco 49ers upsetting the New Orleans Saints. The final five minutes of that game was back and forth the whole way.

Baltimore survived against the upstart Houston Texans. The Ravens used their familiar formula of defense to carry the day.

Green Bay was off on offense and defense and the New York Giants took advantage of the miscues to knock off the defending Super Bowl Champions.

Tom Brady played lights out against the Denver Broncos in a game that was over by halftime. The Patriots offense was unstoppable against the Denver defense.

The top favorites (preseason) in the NFC, New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers, are gone. One of the top favorites in the AFC, Pittsburgh Steelers, didn’t survive past Wild Card weekend.

Left in the NFC is the 49ers who are having a resurgent season under Jim Harbaugh in his first year. Harbaugh has revived the career of quarterback Alex Smith and got tight end Vernon Davis to play up to his talent.

In the 49ers way is a Giants team everyone left for dead after a four game losing streak in mid-November till early December. New York got healthy and got on a roll late to make the playoffs and have looked good against the Atlanta Falcons and the Packers.

The AFC has two of the top three teams left. New England finished the season winning their final eight games and is on a nine game winning streak.

The Patriots haven’t lost since a 24-20 defeat to the Giants, which came after a loss to the Steelers. New England wouldn’t lose again on their way to the number one seed in the AFC.

Baltimore wanted to get past the Steelers to win the AFC North. The Ravens defeated Pittsburgh twice in the regular season to own the tie breaker.

No question the Ravens have some head scratching loses this season. Baltimore showed up flat against Tennessee, Seattle, Jacksonville, and San Diego.

The great part of NFL Playoffs is each game is: win or go home. In the divisional round of the playoffs winning teams only had four turnovers combined and losing teams had 14 turnovers combined.

Only one team has lost the turnover battle and won a playoff game this year: New England. The rest either tied in turnovers or outright won.

Five teams that won the rush battle won the game. Only teams that won rushing battle was Pittsburgh (wild card), Green Bay (divisional) and Houston (divisional) all lost, mainly due to the turnovers that set the winners up for easy points.

The eight that teams that won playoffs games averaged 33.4 points and eight losing teams averaged 17.3 points. Old school football says, run the ball and force turnovers to win games.

In this pass happy NFL season, the post season is showing that no matter how much things change they stay the same. Championship Sunday could bring defense back into vogue as the Ravens and 49ers will try to defense to beat Patriots and Giants offense.

The road to Indianapolis is nearing the end. Could it be that in the house Peyton Manning built his brother Eli or his biggest contemporary Brady playing for a trophy he has only won once?

John and Jim Harbaugh be vying for the first Super Bowl title that one brother can hold over the other brother. After this weekend we will find out.

Read the preview and prediction on JFPSPorts.com.

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