Weekend in review

Leftover thoughts from the conference championship games:

The key to the AFC game was giving up that second TD right before halftime. Okay, the real key was the unstoppable Ben Roethlisberger, but in terms of momentum, that was what the Phantom calls the point of no return. The game got off to a tough start for Denver, but a 17-3 or 20-3 halftime lead is far from insurmountable-and had the Broncos capitalized on any of their opportunities, we could be talking about their awesome comeback right now.

Broncos history. The Broncos went into the game with six wins all-time in seven AFC Championship appearances (and the one loss came when Gary Kubiak replaced Elway because of injury-or, in other words, you can blame that AFC title game loss on Kubiak, too!). While that’s a nice stat, there’s no reason to think it would have anything to do with our chances yesterday.

What is indisputable, of course, is the curse of the 13-3 record, which has never been good for the Broncos. Most famously, the ’96 Broncos lost to Jacksonville after a thirteen-win regular season that clinched home-field advantage. Less recalled is the 13-3 team in 1984, which lost its first playoff game at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

As for recent Broncos squads and their performances in big games-which looks like the fluke now, the win over New England, or the loss to Pittsburgh in which we were as flat as the last two playoff losses to Indianapolis?

On another note, did yesterday’s game remind anyone else of the 1999 AFC Championship? In Elway’s last season, we hosted the New York Jets on a very windy day. Vinny Testaverde started out 13 for 13 while seemingly all of Elway’s passes were tipped or off-target. But thanks largely to the weather, New York had only a 3-0 halftime lead that swelled to 10-0 early in the second half. Behind Elway and an awesome defensive effort, the Broncos bounced back for a 23-10 win. (Jason Elam memorably remarked after the game that he was aiming his second-half field goals outside of the uprights.) All right, so the second half didn’t remind anyone of our last conference championship game, but you see what I’m getting at, right?

Gary Kubiak is going to Texas. It was no surprise when Kubiak immediately took over as head coach of the Houston Texans after the game. Normally, I’d be upset, but after the 4th-and-goal fade to Ashley Lelie against the Patriots and the two passes to Mike Anderson in our own end zone yesterday, I’m okay if some of our offensive braintrust skips town. (And we do still have Shanahan, who come to think of it was probably calling the plays yesterday.)

Seriously, though, I think it’s jacked that Kubiak could be interviewed during the playoffs, even if the interviews had to take place in Denver. A lot of things baffle me here, actually. I know the NFL is pretty much a year-round league, but the Texans seriously can’t wait a couple of weeks to conduct their interviews? And why do NFL teams even conduct interviews? OK, obviously you want to get to know the guy a little, but teams already know if a guy’s a good coach or not, don’t they?

It seemed like Kubiak was waiting so long to become a head coach so he’d get a great opportunity, but I don’t think he has that with Houston. Either they don’t take Vince Young, and the fans turn against the team from day one, or they do, and pressure and expectations soon become unrealistic. Can’t you see Kubes getting fired in the next three years? I wish the guy well, but the Texans suck.

Ben Roethlisberger. I have such mixed feelings now. I’ve been a big Roethlisberger fan since his senior year, when it was his strong and accurate arm made him, in my mind, the clear No. 1 pick. (Eli Manning? Please. I’d take Ben over Peyton at this point.) I told that to anyone who would listen, which was mostly just John, who seconded me and pointed out Roethlisberger’s impressive mobility.

I didn’t think he’d be quite this good this quickly, though it probably helped that he fell to a pretty good team. In any event, the best comparison I can think of is that he’s becoming the John Elway to Tom Brady’s Joe Montana. I hope the Patriots bounce back and these two face off in the playoffs time and time again.

Having said all that, he got on my nerves a little bit the last few weeks with his constant carping about being disrespected. I get it, Ben, you want more props. Then he really went over the edge and beat the Broncos. While I sort of felt a Super Bowl run for Denver had come out of nowhere and that I would be happy with whatever we did, I changed my mind pretty quickly once we fell apart yesterday. As much as I like him and want Jerome Bettis’ career to end on a high note, there is no way I’m rooting for Pittsburgh in two weeks.

Steve Smith. I felt like Sean Salisbury said it best on one of those shows on ESPN where they sit at a desk and talk about games (in other words, I’m not exactly sure what show I was watching, but it’s whatever’s on ESPN 24-7 anyway). He said Smith “doesn’t walk on water.” All the pregame talk that Smith was absolutely unstoppable was, of course, ridiculous. Smith’s an incredible player, but Seattle was able to slow him down. Not that they’ve found some solution and Smith will never have a good game or anything, but none of the rest of the Panthers were able to make Seattle pay.

Seattle’s defense. I said the key to Sunday’s game was whether Seattle could run on Carolina, and Shaun Alexander had 132 yards in Seattle’s 34-14 win. But his running was gravy-it was really Seattle’s defensive effort that won the game. Lofa Tatupu has been amazing in the playoffs, rookie or not. (That calls to mind the problem of calling a college team as a dynasty, when key players leave constantly. Don’t you think the Trojans could have used him against Vince Young?)

My prediction “skills”. I’m now 7-3 in the playoffs after a 1-1 weekend, but it could have been worse, because I talked myself into a Carolina win over the weekend. Of course, it could have been a lot better, too-one of my early drafts last week talked about what trouble Carolina would be in if Nick Goings went down, though I apparently edited that out.

Anyway, I am leaning towards Seattle in the Super Bowl right now. (There will be a complete breakdown later.)

Paul Allen’s teeth. Anyone see the Seahawks get the NFC championship trophy? (I’m sorry, the George S. Halas Memorial Trophy?) I have never seen such evenly distributed tooth discoloration or plaque (not sure which) on a billionaire. Nasty. (I’m not going to say anymore, though since I've badmouthed a Microsoft founder, I totally expect my computer to lock up the way it did when I read this.)

They were so bad, they almost made me forget Terry Bradshaw making a complete fool of himself during the trophy presentation...almost.