Conference Championship Disappointments

Sunday morning arrives, there is no football next week worth watching and only one game after that. Its conference championship weekend, some of the best football should be played.

Lets rewind to last season. The Jets and Colts played a close first half before Manning actually played well in a post season game. Even the end result wasn't a close game, the first half made things interesting, especially when you consider the Jets had a rookie coach and QB. The game was still a good one to watch though, both teams had good games.

Then there is the NFC championship game. Even though the Vikings had a myriad of turnovers and miscues, the game was still close and was still fun to watch. We saw Brett Favre go back into gunslinger mode and try to force a throw. Tracy Porter made what most people thought would end up being the biggest interception of his NFL career(Superbowl XLIV proved to be his biggest). The Vikings didn't need to throw in that situation. They were right on the verge of field goal range, if you recall the Vikings were right on field goal range but got flagged for having too many men on the field. The Vikings needed a few yards to have a realistic chance of making a game winning field goal. Favre made me, and every other Saints fan out there, very, very happy by making a poor decision to throw the ball.

Why do I bring up last years two conference championship games? Because they were good games to watch. Even if one of them finished with a score of 30-17, Colts-Jets, both games still had quality football and both games were fun to watch.

This years edition of championship weekend? Sloppy, bad play calling and just boring football to watch. Unless you are a fan of the Steelers or Packers you went to sleep Sunday night confused, disappointed and scratching your head, wondering why the two games today left you unfulfilled.

The Packers-Bears game was boring after the first drive. Green Bay's offense slowed down to a crawl, Aaron Rodgers looked confused, over matched and out of sync. The Bears looked bad on offense. Their QB, Jay Cutler, simply quit on the team with a knee 'injury' and the offense just looked bad. Cutler looked like he quit on his team. Someone should have come up to him ripped the Captain patch off his jersey. Or better yet, they should have just kicked him off the team. Its the biggest game of his career and he finds the quickest and easiest way to give up and take a pass on a game.

So the first game was a dud. Despite the fact that it was a 'close' game, it never really felt like the Bears had a chance in the game after halftime, and the Packers offense looked flat and out of rhythm. I had a feeling the Packers-Bears would be low scoring, and that's fine, low scoring games can be very exciting, however, when the game is just sloppy and full of missed chances, its almost painful to watch.

But I thought to myself, things will get better, the Jets-Steelers will be a good, tough, physical game. Both teams have strong running games, amazing defenses and QB's that can manage games pretty well. These teams played earlier in the season and it was a close 5 point game. However, I was sorely disappointed.

The Steelers had a very impressive opening drive, they ran the ball perfectly and ended up with a TD and taking 8 minutes off the clock. As the game progressed the Steelers went into 'lets see how many times we can run the ball in a row and still move the chains' mode and the game became very boring. I'm not saying there has to be tons of big passing plays to make a game fun to watch, but when its nothing but run, run, run and bad tackle, bad tackle, bad tackle it makes it boring. So after the Steelers go up 24-0 I stop watching for a moment, just angry by the lack of quality in the game. The Steelers then decided to play some awful football in the second half as the Jets started playing decent football. The game ended up  being a 5 point game, however it never felt that close.

The Jets never seemed to have the killer mentality in the game, they seemed like they knew they had lost, but only cared about making the game not be a total blow out. The Steelers played pretty poor on both sides of the ball, however their offense looked really bad. But the Steelers ended up winning thanks to a big first half lead.

I didn't have very much vested in this weekends games, I'm not a big fan of any of these teams, I hate the Steelers and Jets. I mean, I like the Packers and the Bears are ok, but there wasn't a team I was rooting for hardcore. I was more looking forward to some good football. I did not get that, I got some bad and sloppy football.

Come Superbowl sunday I'll be cheering for the Packers, I like their QB and I hate the Steelers, but more importantly, I'll be cheering for a good game to finish off this disappointing season.