BEHREND BEACON 8 Sp January 15, 2010 www.thebehrendbeacon.com NFL PLAYOFFS Wild card round riftered with upsets ryards to become the third differen Arizona would in fact get into rookie to rush for 100 yards in a kicker Neil Rackers' range for a playoff game since 2000. 34-yard, clinching field goal with The Jets would score again later 14 seconds left. in the quarter and would take a 14- Rackers would pull the field goal 7 lead into the locker room at half- wide left, however, and the game time. would go into to overtime tied at Late in the third quarter, Jets' 45-45. running back Thomas Jones car- On third-and-six from his own ried the ball nine yards in to the 24-yard-line, Rodgers dropped end zone giving New York a 21-7 back and the pocket collapsed lead. around him. The Bengals would refuse to As Rodgers was hit, he lost con give up as running back Cedric trol of the ball and it was picked Benson broke a 47-yard touch- out of the air by Arizona line down run early in the fourth guar- backer Karlos Dansby. With noth ter to cut the deficit to a ing in front of him but the end touchdown. zone, he trotted in for the easy That was all the Bengals could muster up. A late field goal by the Jets would seal it as they advanced with a 24-14 victory. The second NFC wild card game featured the fifth seeded Green Bay Packers and the fourth seeded Arizona Cardinals. This game was an offensive showdown that saw a total of 96 points, an NFL post-season record. The teams also totaled more than 1,000 yards combined offensively. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw for 422 yards and four touchdowns, while Cardinals' quarterback Kurt Warner went 23 of 33 passing for 379 yards and five touchdowns. The game was a back and forth offensive fireworks show that left the Packers trailing late in the fourth quarter. Green Bay was able to find the end zone leaving the Cardinals 1:52 on the clock to put to gether a game-winning drive The NFL playoffs are now a week old and the field of twelve has been cut to eight. Four games took place on Jan. 9 and 10 in the tournament's wild card round. The first AFC game featured the sixth seeded Baltimore Ravens and the third seeded New England Patriots. The game took place in New England at Gillette Stadium, giv ing the Patriots home field advan tage. However, having home field would mean nothing for the Patri ots as they were run off their own field by the Ravens, resulting in New England's first home playoff loss ever at Gillette stadium. The Ravens started the game strong as running back Ray Rice broke free for an 83-yard touch down run on Baltimore's first play from scrimmage. The 83-yard trot by Rice was just the beginning of a long first quar ter for the Patriots, as Tom Brady turned the ball over three times, all of which led to scores for the Ravens. Baltimore had a 24-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, tying a sec ond place record for most points in a quarter in NFL postseason his tory. The Ravens never looked back, and the Patriots did not catch up. The Ravens defeated New Eng land 33-14 to advance to the divi sional round. "There are games, like last year against Cincinnati, where I got too clever with my play calling,"said Baltimore Ravens offensive coor dinator Cam Cameron on the Bal timore's offense during the game . "Clever just gets it handed to you in this league. Sometimes sim pler is the better wr - There are times whet tered is the be: against the Patriots The first NFC g. between the sixth Philadelphia Eagle' third seeded Dall boys. NICK BLAKE sports editor The Cowboys' offs came out strong am carried the team to its first postsea son victory since 1996. Dallas was able to rack up 428 yards of total of fense, 27 first down: and had possession ball for 39:34. Quarterback Tony his team going 23 o: 244 yards and two touchdowns. These numbers are some of Romo's best in the post-season thus far in his career after having less than average performances in previous years. The first quarter ended in a scoreless tie The Cowboys would ex plode in the second quarter and take a 27-7 lead into half time. Dallas would remain in cruise control for the second half and take the game by a final score of 32-14 and earned a spot in the sec ond round. The second AFC tilt took place in Cincinnati as the fourth seeded Bengals took on the fifth seeded New York Jets. This game would turn out to be a little more competitive compared to the first two. The Bengals held a 7-0 lead after the first quarter, but Jets' rookie run- The Cardinals survived the shootout and advanced to the next round by a score of 51-45. There was always doubt about Kurt Warner's durability late in the season, but his coach has confi dence in him. "He [Kurt Warner] is one of the best playoff quarter backs of all time," Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt said on his quarterbacks performance during the wild card game. "We thought going into today that would be an advantage for us." The AFC divisional round will feature the Baltimore Ravens ver sus the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Jets versus the San Diego Chargers. The NFC divisional round match-ups are the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings along with the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints. The two winners will then face off for the NFC title game. Associated Press Peyton Manning just won his fourth MVP and will be looking for his second super bowl this February. The Indianapolis Colts will be facing the Baltimore Ravens at the RCA Dome this Sunday. orts score
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