Super Bowl XLIX will feature a duel between the No. 1 seeds. The New England Patriots will face the defending Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks, in two weeks in Arizona.
Earlier on Sunday, the Seahawks found a more dramatic way to win, pulling off a 28-22 overtime comeback against the Green Bay Packers in Seattle for the NFC Championship. The Packers let a 12-point lead with five minutes to go slip through their fingers.
“The toughness of this team surprises me every week,” defensive tackle Tony McDaniel told the Seattle Times. “I’m still in shock. It’s like some of those things were happening in a dream.”
The gutsy play of the entire day came when Seattle finally got their first points on the board. During a fake field goal attempt, punter Jon Ryan tossed the ball to backup tackle Garry Gilliam, who caught it for the touchdown. From that point on, momentum shifted and suddenly, the crowd was back in the game.
The Patriots finished off the Indianapolis Colts in a very different way in the AFC Championship game in rain-soaked Foxborough, Massachusetts. They dominated the Colts in every facet of the game, winning 45-7.
Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady are now going to their sixth Super Bowl together. It is the franchise’s eighth overall appearance, tying Dallas and Pittsburgh for the most, notes the Associated Press.
“I know we've had some ups and downs this year,” Brady said, referring to the team’s 2-2 start. “But right now we're up, baby, and we're going to try to stay up for one more game.”
Of course, this would not be a Patriots win without a controversy. WTHR’s Bob Kravitz reported that a source told him that the NFL plans to investigate the possibility that the Patriots deflated a ball. The source said that an official took a ball out of play once to weight it during the game. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport confirmed the report, citing an NFL spokesman.
That means, in addition to talk about what could happen on the field, there will be plenty of talk about deflated footballs before Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com