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Christensen: A Hard-Earned Title Shot

By Todd Christensen, The Mtn. Insider
January 17, 2012

The consensus was that the best two teams in professional football were Green Bay and New Orleans.  With a combined record of 28-4, over 10,000 yards combined passing and the two best quarterbacks in the league in Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees, the winner of the NFC Title Game was most assuredly going to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.  

But the one statistic that seems to be the most reliable indicator of wins and losses in the NFL came back to bite both teams.  Brees had only had two interceptions in his entire postseason career prior to this past weekend, but had two this past Sunday.  The five turnovers New Orleans had as a team ultimately orchestrated their downfall to the 49ers.  The Packers had fumbled only six times all year but picked the wrong day to fumble three times as they too fell hard, this time to the New York Giants.  The fact that the last two Super Bowl Champions are now spectators leads one to believe that the playoffs are not as predictable as one might think.  

On the AFC side the home team favorites did prevail, but in different ways.  Joe Flacco completed fewer than half of his passes to remain maddeningly inconsistent.  But he did not play as poorly as TJ Yates, the rookie QB for the Texans, who threw three costly interceptions, affording the Ravens just enough wiggle room to move on to the AFC Title Game. That will be played in Foxborough, where Tom Brady put on a clinic by throwing for a playoff record-tying six touchdowns as the Patriots crushed the Broncos, effectively ending the saga that was Tebowmania.  

Tim Tebow made his own contribution by throwing an unsightly 9 of 26 for only 135 yards.

Amidst the usual story lines of these contests, there was a human-interest story that hits close to home.  The Mountain West's own Alex Smith led San Francisco to its first playoff win in over a decade.  Back in the 2004 college football season, he had led Utah to the Conference title with an undefeated season followed up with a decisive 35-7 victory over the Pitt Panthers in the Fiesta Bowl for Utah's first Top Five ranking in their history.  

He was the very first pick of the 2005 NFL Draft.  But his career seemingly went downhill from there.  In his six seasons of play for the 49ers, the oft-injured Smith not only never led the team to the playoffs but did not have a winning season, either.  Of course, it did not help to have three different head coaches and six different offensive coordinators.  So when Jim Harbaugh was hired, the sentiment was that it was a new day and Smith would get his walking papers.  

Instead, Harbaugh saw something in Smith that he liked and that decision played dividends as with the former Ute at the helm. The 49ers went 13-3 and garnered the No. 2 seed in the NFC.  With a dynamic runner in Frank Gore and the best defense in the NFL, Smith was only required to manage the game - a euphemism for "don't screw it up.”   But with 2:11 to play, Smith ran a sweep 28 yards for a touchdown to put his team in front.  Drew Brees, however, was clearly not done as he drove the Saints to a go-ahead score with only a minute-and-a-half remaining.  Smith could no longer "manage the game" but instead had to go out and win it.  And that is what he did, driving his team and throwing the winning touchdown with nine seconds remaining.

The so-called smart money is calling for a reprise of the Patriots-Giants Super Bowl from four years ago.  But do not bet against a Mountain West grad, especially one who has overcome adversity and feels a destiny.
See all of Todd Christensen's blog entries HERE.