The two conference championship games on Sunday couldn’t haven’t been more different. In the NFC, it took a pseudo miracle for the Seattle Seahawks to come back and win at home over the Green Bay Packers. In the AFC, it was a dominating performance by the New England Patriots in a game that was decided early on in the third quarter.
But while the Seahawks looked like a lucky team to get by at home and move on to a second-straight Super Bowl, it’s Seattle that is still being considered the slight favorite.
Looking at the NFC Championship, it’s still hard to fathom how the Seahawks were able to squeak that one out. It was a series of perfect events; or a series of unfortunate events if you are a member of the Packers or their fan base.
It started with a successful fake field goal by Seattle to get the goose egg off of the scoreboard in the third quarter. But even after that, the Seahawks found themselves down 19-7 late in the fourth quarter.
And then things got really interesting…
Another touchdown, a botched onside kicks by Green Bay, another touchdown, and the perhaps the first Hail Mary in a two-point conversion equated to a 22-19 Seahawks lead in the span of about a minute on the clock.
A team of destiny? Perhaps.
Or maybe it’s just a team that is able to pick up the slack when one or several aspects to it are struggling.
Seattle has the opportunity to win back-to-back Super Bowls, and if they are successful, they would have defeated Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in the process.
How about that one for the Super Bowl resume’?
But to beat the Patriots, the Seahawks will not be able to turn the ball over four times and live to tell the tale. New England is not Green Bay. The Patriots have been on a tear in the second half of the season, and proved that they are a complete team capable of playing great defense and running the football down the opponent’s throat.
When looking at it, the two teams in Super Bowl 49 show some remarkable similarities. It’s what makes the Super Bowl XLIX point spread so close. In fact on many online sportsbooks the line sits at even money as a pick’em. In others, it’s Seattle as about a one-point favorite.
Over the coming days there will be plenty of predictions to how this game will go. Experts can go back and forth talking about how they are sure this game will turn out a certain way. But if the conference championships taught us anything, we are probably in for several ‘wow’ moments.