Macca

Playoff tipping comp points tally ... (3 points on offer for correctly tipping the Super Bowl winner) 7 - titan_uranus (6 correct tips in a row) 6 - DemonDave 5 - Macca 4 - Strafford* (technically you can still do the "double," Strafford) 3 - Gorgoroth 2 - Pantaloons*, the master*, cowboy from hell ('possibly still in "road team" mode 'cfh'? ) * denotes missed out on 1 or 2 weeks of tips. Perhaps along with our Super Bowl tips we can have a go at the Super Bowl MVP. While we're at it, posters here might care to name their regular season MVP, ROTY and defensive player of the year (Peyton would have to have a mortgage on the regular season MVP)

Fair enough - I guess what I was intimating at was that we possibly needed to see some magic from his WR's against that strong defense of Seattle's. A freak catch or such like. Sometimes a WR has to make the play. There might have been a couple of "short arm" efforts as well - but that can happen in any game with any team I suppose. What do they say - you may as well catch it as you're going to get hit anyway! I saw at least a few (in total) of those such incidents in this game (from both sides) ... and CK was hamstrung a bit because his RB's had very little influence (Frank Gore had 11 carries for 14 yards) But you make some good points, all the same. As for the Super Bowl - you'd reckon that Denver might have the advantage but they're only 1.5 point favourites. So many variables and then any particular player might have the game of their life.

Kaepernick will get better with more games. We sometimes forget that he only became a regular starter about 14 months ago. He's still quite raw in terms of managing a game. I felt that 1 or 2 of his receivers today might have made a better fist of things and he didn't get much help at all from his running backs. In the end, it seemed that he had to do it all for the 49ers to win. A good comparison is Russell Wilson - Seattle seem to have more structure with their offense so Wilson tends to just blend in (of course, he's a lot more than that but that's the perception sometimes) As for all the peripheral stuff with CK, you may be right but I'm not sure it effects his actual game. He's probably my favourite player to watch outside of a number of the Packer players so I guess I'm a little biased. That 58 yard run today was great to watch. There wasn't much in that last throw either - 40 seconds left, it was worth a go. If Sherman doesn't get his hand up there, Crabtree probably would have caught it in bounds and the 49ers win the game. Fine line sometimes. Classic match-up in the Super Bowl though ... no.1 offense vs no.1 defense and no.1 seed vs no.1 seed.

Terrific 2nd half by the Seahawks. Seattle's run defense (specifically against the 49ers RB's) was probably the difference but it could be argued that the 49ers only passing for 153 yards just wasn't enough either. A lot fell on Kaepernick's shoulders but perhaps the niners needed at least one other offensive player to have a standout game. Not much between the 2 sides in all reality but one team had to lose. But full credit to an all round excellent game by Seattle. An intriguing battle awaits in 2 weeks time.

Sometimes one or 2 of the cricket journalists might get the inside word but Malcolm Conn has definitely got this one wrong. However, I believe he was the journalist who broke the news that Alex Doolan was on standby for the Sydney Test against England. Looking back, the original squad selections of Warner, Cummins and Pattinson (at different times) has first come to light through the media. Of course, cricket journalists do get their speculative squads wrong - more often than they'd like to admit. They're far more likely to get it right with "certain" individuals within those squads. ... anyway, Hughes needs to have a sustained run at Shield level and I wouldn't have taken him to South Africa regardless - too early for a recall IMO (although I thought the selectors might pick him because of his Shield form) In the past, Hughes' technical issues have been shown up against quality test bowling (both pace and spin) However, I wouldn't write him off as he's still young enough to improve. I just wonder how he's going to be tested properly (to iron out his deficiencies) Shield attacks don't have too many Dale Steyn or Ravi Ashwin types. There are other young players like Silk, Maddinson and Burns who might get their chance before Hughes is possibly recalled. The Marsh selection is a bit of a left field one. There seems to be a bit of a policy towards picking more seasoned players (specifically batsmen, although our 3 current quicks are also very experienced) Marsh went off the boil after originally looking to be a decent prospect. He's got some talent and technically, he's not too bad - his temperament might be the issue. I'd like to see him do well. Nice to see Bird get picked as well as Pattinson. All 3 tests in South Africa are back to back (played over 22 days) so we'll need our back-up quicks to be able to step up to the plate. Here's the "actual" squad ... Australian squad for tour of South Africa: David Warner, Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke ©, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Alex Doolan, Brad Haddin (vc), Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, James Faulkner, Jackson Bird, James Pattinson.

10-3 the 49ers way at half time. That's a good result for the niners - so far. San Francisco also get the ball at the start of the 2nd half. Seattle need to get their offense working but like Denver in the preceding game, the 49ers defense has been very good. Kaepernick's run to set up the niners TD was amazing. The game is up for grabs though as there's so many variables that can happen - Lynch, Gore, Wilson, Kaepernick and all the WR's can all influence this result in a big way. That's apart from both defenses. Been a really good game to watch.

Kudos to Denver - far too accomplished. Terrific defense from Denver but Peyton's performance was also first rate. 400 yards with 2 x TD's and no interceptions. The Broncos time in possession in the first half was also telling. Brady and the Pats offense just couldn't get going but that had more to do with Denver's defense. So, it's off to New Jersey for Peyton and the Broncos. If Denver "bring it" like they did today, they'll be hard to beat - no matter who they're up against.

Not looking good for the Patriots - they're now down 20-3, half way through the 3rd quarter. 24.48 to 12.20 "time of possession" advantage to Denver as well.

Phil Hughes in line for another recall to Test squad for tour of South Africa According to Malcolm Conn ...

Here's Bill Simmons' latest column from 'Grantland' - this week Bill answers various emails ... ... That Championship Mailbag

Monday ... 7.00am New England at Denver (ESPN & OneHD) Forecast - a top of 15 celsius with 15 km winds (with a 0% chance of rain) 10.30am San Francisco at Seattle (ESPN & OneHD) Forecast - a top of 10 celcius with 10 km winds (with a 20% chance of rain) The Pats/Broncos game can go either way but I'll go with the team that played better last week - New England. This game has a big chance of going down to the wire. If the Pats can get their running game going again, they'll be right in it at the finish. I'd like Peyton to get to another Super Bowl but Bill Belichick might prove the difference in the end. New England 33 Denver 31 Reckon the 49ers have a decent chance but they'll need to get a couple of scores before half time in order to win the game ... with at least one of those scores being a TD. Kaepernick and Gore have to have good games and I think both of them can do it. Overcoming the noise factor is probably San Francisco's biggest obstacle - they may just have the right plan, this time around. San Francisco 24 Seattle 22 The BS Report

Reckon we ended up getting 2 ideal matchups in the 2 Championship games. Both games promise a lot Next Monday ... 7.00am New England at Denver (ESPN & OneHD) 10.30am San Francisco at Seattle (ESPN & OneHD) Points tally in the Playoff comp ... 5 - titan_uranus, DemonDave, Macca 2 - cowboy from hell, Gorgoroth, pantaloons, Strafford, the master, Looks like a race in 3 although there are 3 points up for grabs for picking the Super Bowl winner.

The AFC Championship game will be played at 7.00am next Monday (AEDT) ... so it's New England @ Denver or San Diego @ New England. The NFC Championship game will follow that game at 10.30am (AEDT) Carolina or San Francisco @ Seattle. Here are the highlights and recaps from both of today's games ... Saints @ Seattle and Colts @ Patriots (the highlights may take a little while to load) Edit: Caught the last bit of "NFL Primetime" - Troy Wingo highlighted how quite a few teams have been running the ball a lot during the playoffs. Especially from some teams who have traditionally thrown the ball a lot.

Blount ran for 189 yards with 24 carries for 2 TD's in week 17 too - against the Bills. I guess we're just so accustomed to seeing Brady throw it a lot more.

43-22 in the Pats favour now. 11.12 minutes left in the game. New England have run the ball for 184 yards - it's doubtful that the Colts would have prepared for that amount of running. Great bit of coaching by Belichick.

Indi pick up a safety in bizarre circumstances ... 21-12 now

14 - zip already. That drive by the Pats was very impressive Edit : ... and the Colts get one back - now 14-7

Strange finish - that forward pass was way forward as well. The first play also had to be a throw to the sidelines - 26 seconds isn't a long time to play with. Saints did well to get back into it but Seattle too good all the same.

That's a catch but it wouldn't surprise if the call is reversed.

Seattle should have run that 1st play.

Saints score a TD! (and get a 2 point conversion) Maybe we have got a game after all? They'll need to stop the Seahawks scoring on this drive.

This is looking ominous. Saints need some of score - and quickly

Breakdown of the Rams salary cap - year by year There's a drop down box provided where you can look at the breakdown of the salaries of any other team. Covers all the other sports as well. Handy site.

That's another remarkable stat. I reckon that's the great thing about the NFL - any given game can go either way. Unlike a few other big time sports, the salary cap in the NFL really can even things out. Players nearing veteran status or even certain players coming out of their first contract have no issue with regards to leaving their team for more money. Coupled with this, teams are often forced to pay their franchise players (often the QB) a large chunk of their salary cap. Wilson, RG3, Luck, Kaepernick and maybe Tannehill are all going to command big dollars in the foreseable future. When that happens, those teams overall depth will therefore be tested. Baltimore with Flacco and Atlanta with Ryan are good examples of that theory (both teams lost a bit of talent in the last off season) The Bears with Cutler and Dallas with Romo might incur the same type of effect going forward. ... anyway, here is the game schedule again ... Sunday 8.35am New Orleans at Seattle (OneHD & ESPN) 12.15pm Indianapolis at New England (OneHD & ESPN) Monday 5.05am San Francisco at Carolina (OneHD & ESPN) 8.40am San Diego at Denver (OneHD & ESPN)

I reckon if the Lions had of scraped in and won the NFC North, it might have been a completely different story with regards to a team maybe not being fully deserving of their spot. The Packers might have made the playoffs by default but we didn't underperform this season IMO. On the contrary, we did about as well as could be expected, all things considered. Also reckon the Bengals season was impacted greatly because of all the players they lost. Cinci kept winning though - which is an even more remarkable story. Ok, they lost badly last week but there was a back story to their season. A better example is San Diego if we're looking at an underforming team that just scraped into the playoffs this season. At one stage they were 5/7 and seemingly out of it. But at their best, the Chargers are a very capable team - especially when Rivers plays well. Indy are another team that have been a little inconsistent this season (they also qualified from an extremely poor division - they went 6/0 within their division and 5/5 outside their division) They had some great wins but they also dropped games that they should have won. The Colts fall behind in so many games yet find a way to win. Despite all that, if they can get past the Pats, they might just go all the way to the Super Bowl. We might find out who the "hot" team is after this weekend's games. There's nearly always at least one big upset in the 2nd week of the playoffs. I can't see Seattle losing and the 49ers/Panthers game is line ball. So it's the Chargers or the Colts to cause the upset IMO. Colts for mine in a close one.