16
Jan
2012
Vernon Davis gives 49ers “The Catch III” to defeat Saints (VIDEO)
(Image via Sportsgrid.com)
We’re obviously a little late to the party on this, but the San Francisco 49ers took down the New Orleans Saints 36-32 in the game of the Divisional Playoff weekend, with Alex Smith delivering the game-winning TD to Vernon Davis on what will undoubtedly forever go down in San Francisco sports history as “The Catch III”.
Both Smith and Davis turned in career-making performances and Smith finally delivered on his #1 pick expectations by out-dueling the NFL’s all-time single season passing leader (Drew Brees) in a game that saw four lead changes in the final 5 minutes! Smith had his NFL bar mitzvah and became a man on Saturday, finishing with 299 yards and 3 TDs passing, 0 INTs and one 28-yard rushing score to pus SF ahead late in the 4th.
For his part, Vernon Davis cemented himself in Niner lore with 7 catches for 180 yards and 2 TDs, including the game winner on a 14-yard strike from Smith with nine seconds remaining. After dominating all day long and when his team needed him most, Davis delivered a huge blow to Saints safety Roman Harper in the endzone and managed to hang onto the ball for the win.
On what was very nearly the 30th anniversary of the original “The Catch” – Dwight Clark‘s infamous touchdown grab in the 1981 NFC Championship game (1/10/82) – Davis’ play more closely resembled “The Catch II” by Terrell Owens in 1999, right down to crying on the shoulder of head coach Jim Harbaugh as he ran to the sideline (pic above).
VIDEO OF ALL THREE 49ERS “CATCHES” AFTER THE JUMP
13
Jan
2012
ReadAndReact’s 2012 NFL Divisional Playoff Picks
John Elway riding a Tebow Centaur ... what? (Image via kissingsuzykolber.com)
While the entire world seems to be gripped by Tebowmania (as evidenced by ESPN’s Tebow Hour and the latest, now-ubiquitous “Tebowie” skit by Jimmy Fallon), there are a few other quarterbacks with super bowl rings who will also be competing in the NFL’s divisional playoffs. Brady, Brees, Rodgers and Manning - you may have heard of them – will each take the field this weekend to try and lead their teams to the conference championships, despite being overshadowed in the media by their Jesus-loving Denver counterpart. And all of them are much better QBs than Tebow, by the way.
After jumping out to an early 3-1 lead with his Wild Card picks, The DarkHorse will try to keep it going for the Divisional round. Here are this weekend’s picks from R&R HQ (CLICK TO EMBIGGEN):
So, it seems our “experts” are split down the middle on the 49ers-Saints and Packers-Giants, while Artie is the only brave soul to ride the Tebow Centaurs to the promised land over New England, and steverodgers is the only one who likes the Texans over Baltimore.
Surprisingly, all of our super bowl picks are still alive, but that’s going to change on Sunday, when either the Packers or Giants will be sent packing. As always, these picks are purely for entertainment purposes … we are mediocre at this on our good days, so feel free to share your picks and mock us in the comments.
13
Jan
2012
Broncos-Steelers Wild Card shocker: mic’d up (VIDEO)
(Photo: Hyoung Chang, DenverPost.com)
When Tim Tebow and the Broncos upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in their wild card playoff match-up last Sunday, most people theorized that divine intervention had a something to do with it. But true football fans understood that it was actually the arrogance of coordinator Dick LeBeau and the Steelers defense – who stacked the box all day and challenged Denver to throw the ball downfield – that allowed Tebow to pass for 316 yards and 2 TDs (including 204 yards to Demaryius Thomas), and knock the defending AFC champs off their throne.
As usual, the NFL Films crew was on hand in Denver to capturing all the sights and sounds from the game for their super-awesome SoundFX program. For this contest, they had Ben Roethlisberger and Elvis Dumervil mic’d up, along with countless parabolic mics roaming the sideline to pick up all the extra-curriculars. So enjoy as we get to watch the action unfold through the eyes of the players and coaches on the field, in what will already go down as a game for the ages:
VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP
8
Jan
2012
Tim Tebow and the Broncos stun Steelers; Demaryius Thomas scores 80-yard OT game-winner (VIDEO)
Who's got two thumbs and is more popular than Jesus? THIS GUY! (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images via Yahoo.com)
Pretty much every “expert” in the media had written off Tim Tebow and the Broncos heading into this weekend’s Wild Card match-up against the the heavily favored Steelers. And for good reason. The magic seemed to have run out for Tebow and Denver, having lost their last three games in ugly fashion and backed their way into the playoffs, with Tebow’s fabled mystique noticeably deteriorating toward the end of the season.
Today, in an ironic role reversal, Tebow and the Broncos found themselves ahead early and having to fight off a furious comeback attempt by Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers. Tebow threw for one 2nd quarter score on a 30 yard bullet to Eddie Royal and ran for another to give Denver a 20-6 halftime lead. But Roethlisberger rallied Pittsburgh in the second half, tying the game on a 31-yard strike to Jericho Cotchery with just under 4 minutes remaining and sending things to overtime.
Then came “Tebow Time”: with the Broncos’ season on the line, Timmy did what he does best and came up with a huge play when it mattered most. On the very first play of overtime, Tebow hit Demaryius Thomas in stride at the 40 yard line for an 80-yard walk-off touchdown, giving Denver a stunning 29-23 victory:
VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP
8
Jan
2012
Hakeem Nicks splits Falcons D en route to 72-yard touchdown (VIDEO)
(Photo: Nick Laham/Getty Images via Yahoo.com)
With second-year sensation Victor Cruz (and his salsa dance) getting all the press for the New York WRs dring the build up to this week’s Giants-Falcons Wild Card match-up, it was Hakeem Nicks who turned in the play of the day in leading the Giants to an impressive 24-2 playoff win.
After a defensive struggle in the first half, New York led 10-2 late in the third quarter when Nicks broke the game wide open with this 72-yard catch and run. Watch as Nicks splits no less than FIVE Falcons defenders at midfield and leaves them in the dust for his second touchdown of the game:
Nicks, who would finish with 115 yards receiving to go with his 2 TDs, added insult to injury for the Falcons by doing “The Dirty Bird” as his endzone celebration:
DIRTY BIRD GIF AFTER THE JUMP
7
Jan
2012
J.J. Watt makes incredible game-changing pick six to help Texans beat Bengals (VIDEO)
(Photo: Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images via Guardian.co.uk)
The first game on today’s playoff slate was probably (let’s be honest) the least-compelling match-up of the weekend, with the Houston Texans making their first-ever playoff appearance against the Bengals in Houston.
The game was tied up with time winding down in the first half when Texans stud rookie DE J.J. Watt came up with this incredible game-changing interception of Andy Dalton‘s pass, which Watt snared out of the air at the line of scrimmage and returned 29 yards for the score:
VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP
7
Jan
2012
ReadAndReact’s 2011-2012 NFL Wild Card Playoff Picks
Arian Foster is sporting a fresh haircut for today's playoff game (Photo: Duane Brown via Twitter)
It’s Wild Card Weekend in the NFL, which means everyone and their mother are making playoff predictions … so we wanted to throw our hats into the ring and get our picks for this weekend’s games on the record, along with our choices to win it all.
As usual, we acknowledge up front that prognostication is not exactly our forte, and these picks are all straight win/loss. We don’t take any point spreads into account, nor do we recommend betting any real money based on our suggestions. This is purely for fun … (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE):
So, we all see these first four games going pretty much this same, with only one dissenting vote for the Texans this afternoon from TheDarkHorse.
For our Super Bowl picks, Artie is fully drinking the Giants kool aid and hoping Eli, Cruz and the pass rush stay hot for a repeat of their 2007 run. Meanwhile, TheDarkHorse and COURTNEY are playing it safe with the Packers and Aaron Rodgers to repeat, and steverodgers is sticking with Belichick, Brady and the Pats to go the distance, despite their suspect defense.
Enjoy the games!
17
Jan
2011
VIDEO: Bart Scott treats Sal Paolantonio like Mean Gene Okerlund
When the Jets stunned the Super Bowl favorite New England Patriots to advance to the AFC Championship yesterday, Jets LB Bart Scott clearly had a lot of emotions to get off his chest. I mean, after all the build-up and trash talk between these two division rivals, you knew that this was more than just your average NFL match-up.
So when the vociferous Scott was approached by ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio after the game, he turned in his best WWE-style interview, with Sal playing the role of straight man:
Not quite up to the level of a Macho Man Savage rant, but not bad. Not bad at all. Best Line: “All we hear is about their defense … they can’t stop a nosebleed!”
UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Scott didn’t stop playing the disrespected card there. Watch his locker room tirade after the jump:
16
Jan
2011
VIDEO: Bears fans borrow Blackhawks’ tradition, cheer through national anthem
The singing of the Star Spangled Banner at a sporting event is generally only noteworthy if the singer forgets the lyrics, or is otherwise particularly crappy. But recently, there has been a string of genuinely heartwarming anthem videos hitting the web. Earlier this week, this video went viral of an AHL hockey crowd helping an 8-year-old girl finish the song after her mic cut out. And even the most cynical among you will smile a little upon watching it.
Today, the Chicago Bears wanted to get a raucous playoff atmosphere going at prior to kickoff of their NFC Divisional Playoff against the Seattle Seahawks. As such, they brought in Jim Cornelison, who normally handles the anthem duties for the Chicago Blackhawks, to do the honors at Soldier Field. And the result was one of the more goosebump-inducing pre-game moments since Whitney Houston 20 years ago (pre-Bobby Brown) at Super Bowl XXV:
For the uninitiated, it’s been a Blackhawks playoff tradition to cheer through the national anthem for over 25 years, with Cornelison doing the singing for the last 15 of those. And after helping to lift the Bears to an impressive 35-24 victory today, you can probably expect it to become a Chicago football tradition as well.
14
Jan
2011
ReadAndReact’s 2011 NFL Divisional Playoff Picks
That’s right folks … we’re back for another round of playoff picks! After the first round, Artie is out to a commanding lead at 3-1 while the rest of the field went a laughable 1-3 last weekend.
This week’s picks are hot off the presses, and are assured to stir up controversy and mirth. Once again, these picks do not take point spreads into consideration. We’re just picking winners here (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE):
The Dark Horse went with all home teams while steverodgers is taking all the underdogs except for the Pats. In what should be a great weekend of games, we’re looking most forward to the Packers-Falcons and Jets-Patriots. And the Ravens-Steelers game is obviously going to be a vicious AFC North clash.
God I love the NFL playoffs.
