THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND

I have been putting off writing this week’s “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” because like many football fans, I am in total denial about the fact that there is only one game left this year. This season seems to have passed even faster than usual, but what a year it has been. Considering there were a lot of new faces in the playoffs this year, it is funny that the Super Bowl will be a rematch of the historic 2008 game. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a look at last week’s successes and failures.

The Good: After playing second fiddle to Hakeem Nicks the last two playoff games, Victor Cruz hauls in a whopping ten catches for 142 yards.

All season long, the Giants had lived and died by creating long, explosive plays on offense. Eli Manning led a passing offense that had more 40+ yard plays than any other team in 2011, but he was going up against a defense that was the best in the league in stopping big plays, mostly due to their stellar play at the safety position. Hakeem Nicks had been unstoppable the last two weeks, accounting for 280 yards, four touchdowns, and more than 20 yards per catch. The 49ers clearly focused on stopping Nicks, and they did, holding him to just 55 yards.

However, they did not have an answer for Cruz all day. It was his ability to keep the chains moving that slowed down the fierce 49ers pass rush just enough for the Giants offense to keep them in the game. His ability to get open quickly gave Eli a reliable target to go to while he was being taken to the ground by defenders, which was quite often (a staggering 20 times to be exact). I almost went with Eli in this spot because he took such a beating and still led his team to a W, but he could not have produced much of anything on offense without Cruz coming up big for him over and over again. Cruz and Nicks should give the Giants a dangerous one-two punch in the passing game for a long time to come and it will be interesting to see if the Patriots struggling defense has an answer for either of them.

The Bad: Kyle Williams loses two punts, including one in overtime that set up the Giants with the game winning field goal.

I will not blame Williams as the sole reason the 49ers lost like many have done, but there is no denying that this was a really tough game for such a young and inexperienced player. His two turnovers accounted for 10 of the Giants’ 20 points, including the game winning field goal. Both were inexcusable mistakes, especially in such a huge game for a franchise that had not been in the playoffs since the 90s. His muffed punt during regulation where he simply failed to get out of the way and allowed the ball to be recovered by the Giants was in my mind significantly worse than the fumble in overtime. The golden rule of being a punt returner is either catch the ball or get the heck out of its way. He is not the 49ers’ starting punt returner, but he has still been around football enough of his life that he should have known better.

All that being said, the 49ers had many other problems that led them to lose this game. Most notably, the 49ers passing attack did absolutely nothing unless Vernon Davis was streaking down the field wide open. The 49ers have to figure out if they want to ride it out with Alex Smith or if they will bring in another quarterback to compete with last year’s second round pick Colin Kaepernick. Possibly more important, they need to find some decent receivers to help out whoever their starting quarterback is in 2012 because Michael Crabtree drops a lot of passes and their second best receiver has a lot of work to do to repair his image in the Bay Area. What’s his name? You guessed it, Kyle Williams.

The Ugly: The Ravens offense.

I could blame Lee Evans for dropping what would have been a game winning touchdown, or Billy Cundiff for missing the field goal that would have sent the game into overtime, or even Ray Rice for averaging barely over three yards a carry. However, it is much simpler to just say they all stunk and it took the entire Ravens offense to lose this game. Going into this matchup, the Ravens had to know that they were not going to win this game with 20 points. The Patriots offense had been unstoppable in recent weeks and the Ravens defense played out of their mind holding Tom Brady to zero touchdowns to two interceptions.

I have already mentioned Evans, Cundiff, and Rice as guys who could be blamed for this loss, but Joe Flacco needs to get at least some of the blame as well. Statistically Flacco had a good day, but anyone who watched that game saw him miss open receivers numerous times and often looked lost. His pocket awareness was pathetic and he often stepped up right into the Patriots’ blitz. He might have thrown for 306 yards, but the Patriots allowed 294 yards per game so he had nothing but an average game against them. Flacco has not helped himself in the media by talking about how he does not get enough credit for the Ravens success and speaking publicly about wanting a new contact before next season. Since he has not really backed up his big talk with anything but mediocre performances in the playoffs, it will be interesting to see what his future will be with the Ravens.