The throngs of media that attended Sunday's conference championship games better have enjoyed their pre-game meals. Because, as each game drew to a close, their selection had dwindled considerably to just one item: Crow.
Very few people who watched Sunday's games did not have to eat their words. Some believed that the New York Giants were a product of their weak schedule. Others thought that the Minnesota Vikings offense could not be stopped. Even more thought that the Baltimore Ravens could not go to the Super Bowl without an offense. They were all proven wrong.
In a season chock full of surprises, the results of the AFC and NFC Championship Games took the cake. For the first time in 20 years, both underdogs advanced to the Super Bowl, leaving stunned onlookers in their wake.
The first shocker of the day didn't take very long to unfold. The Giants, who finished 12-4 and with the NFC's top seed, weren't being taken very seriously going into their game against Minnesota. The Vikings were the popular pick against a New York team that got trampled in its only game against an offense comparable to that of the Vikes - a 30-10 loss to the St. Louis Rams on Nov. 12 - and failed to score an offensive touchdown in a 20-10 divisional playoff win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
But, in a development that has become commonplace in today's NFL, the popular pick proved to be the wrong one. The Giants jumped on Minnesota early and never relented, taking a 34-0 lead by halftime, and going on to win by a 41-0 margin.
To understand the seemingly inexplicable result, one need look no further than the quarterback position. The Giants' Kerry Collins, believed to be a liability, played like a Hall-of-Famer while sophomore sensation Daunte Culpepper, an MVP candidate during the regular season, struggled horribly.
Collins made smart reads and executed the Giants' game plan - to attack a weak Minnesota secondary - perfectly. Both of the Giants first two touchdowns came on perfect strikes, a 46-yard pass to wide receiver Ike Hilliard followed by an 18-yard pass to fullback Greg Comella. Those two plays gave New York a 14-0 lead, barely two minutes into the game, and the Vikings never seemed to recover.
Any chance to do so evaporated with the play of the offense, which had been the team's ticket to the NFC Championship Game. Culpepper, along with wide receivers Cris Carter and Randy Moss, shied away from the spotlight, and the offense could not put together a drive of more than 24 yards. Perhaps it was inexperience on Culpepper's part, but the team looked rattled all afternoon. When the Giants' Emmanuel McDaniel picked off a pass intended for Carter later in the first quarter, Minnesota went into the tank, amassing negative yardage in the remainder of the first half.
The end result was an unexpected laugher. The Giants proved that they were not the same team that was on the brink of collapse after two consecutive blowout losses at home in November. For the Vikings, it was one more chapter in a sorry postseason history. After choking away an NFC title two years ago after a 15-1 season, Minnesota decided to spare its fans the "oh-so-close" pain this time around. Apparently traumatized by 1998, this time they simply did not show up.
While the Giants win was shocking in how it happened, the AFC Championship Game marked the latest in a series of shockers for the Baltimore Ravens. After taking out the popular postseason favorite, the Tennessee Titans, last week, Baltimore stormed into Oakland and quieted the Raiders' rowdy fans.
Oakland's vaunted rushing attack, the top-ranked ground game in football, never got rolling, as Tyrone Wheatley gained just seven yards on 12 carries. Throw in an injury to Rich Gannon that sidelined him for most of the game, and the Raiders had no shot against the NFL's best defense.
The Ravens used the same recipe they have throughout their current 11-game winning streak: Dominating defense and just enough offense. A 96-yard touchdown pass from Trent Dilfer to Shannon Sharpe was the only whiff of the end zone that either team got, but it was all the Ravens needed in putting together a 16-3 win.
Dilfer was efficient and did enough to allow the team's defense to win the game, as has been the recipe since he replaced Tony Banks as the starter. The defense also chalked up some assists in the scoring department, setting up the offense in field goal range three times in the contest, leading to six points.
The Ravens defense, through 19 games, has given up three points fewer than the mark the 1985 Chicago Bears set for fewest points in a 16-game season. That defense proved too much for the Raiders' offense, especially without Gannon at the helm. Backup Bobby Hoying, who hadn't seen significant action all year, was thrust into a high-pressure situation and appeared overwhelmed at times. Two key interceptions hindered any chance of a Raiders comeback. The first came on the drive that followed Baltimore's touchdown, with Duane Starks returning the pick to the Raiders' 21-yard line to set up a field goal that made it a two-score game at 10-0, not a good position for an opponent of the Ravens to be in. The second iced the game, with just under four minutes left, as Hoying was intercepted by Jamie Sharper deep in Baltimore territory.
Those mistakes, plus three more turnovers, were far too much to overcome against the best defense the league has seen in years. Considering that, in two of the Ravens three previous wins, the team was dominated statistically, even a wash in yardage would have probably been good enough. So the fact that the Ravens out-gained Oakland by almost 100 yards spelled doom. In fact, once Baltimore took the lead, the game was never really in doubt.
The end result of two surprisingly easy playoff wins is, for a second straight year, a Super Bowl match-up nobody could have foreseen going into the season. In using dominating defensive performances to get to Tampa, the Giants and Ravens have proven that the era of winning with just a dominating offense is over after just one year. And in a week and a half, one of these two teams will have something even better than the satisfaction of shutting up the experts - a Super Bowl championship.
