(Editor's Note: Matt Medved's Sports Matters blog will launch next week. In the meantime, enjoy his prediction for this weekend's AFC championship game.) The San Diego Chargers [1] continue to make mockeries of my Super Bowl [2] dreams.
Tom Brady's licking his malevolent chops with excitement at the prospect of facing a busted-up Chargers squad.
Just three weeks ago the stage seemed set for a showdown of epic proportions, the likes of which would have stirred up strange apparitions of times past in grizzled football fans and left neophytes scratching their heads in disbelief. It could have been glorious, a triumphant wrench hurled in the gears of the mainstream sports media’s inflated expectations. [3]
Brady [3] vs. Favre [4]? No way. Collins [5] vs. Collins [6]. After star QB Vince Young [7] went down with a strained quad during the regular season finale with the Tennessee Titans trailing the Jim Sorgi-led Indianapolis Colts 10-7, it looked as though the Cleveland Browns might actually make the playoffs and catch a break from their repeat role as the butt of every NFL joke. Enter Kerry Collins, the balding rodent-faced hellion famous for losing Super Bowl XXXV with a 4 interception showing for the Giants in 2000. The 35-year-old veteran led the Titans to three field goals to take a 16-10 lead before Sorgi’s 4th quarter drive fizzled out, leaving him the most reviled QB by Browns’ fans since John Elway.
The Titans were in the playoffs, the Browns were home on the couch (again). Meanwhile, on the other side of the league another unlikely Collins renaissance had the Washington Redskins in the playoffs after a 27-6 throttling of the overrated Dallas Cowboys. Ex-Buffalo Bills QB Todd Collins had led the reeling 5-7 Redskins to 4 consecutive wins after starter Jason Campbell dislocated his patella tendon in Week 14, giving Collins his first starting action in 10 years. Collins vs. Collins. The Collins Bowl. Two #6 seeds hell-bent on an unlikely collision course in the Arizona sands. It was perfect. But it was not to be.
Perhaps Titans coach Jeff Fisher deserves as much blame as the Bolts for the untimely demise of the Collins dream for benching our hero in favor of a hobbled Vince Young. Perhaps Todd Collins and the Redskins had already bowed out against the Seattle Seahawks the day before. But the Chargers ensured that no Collins would grace the field of Super Bowl XLII with their 17-6 Wild Card round victory over the Titans. But that was not enough for them. No, they were inclined to dash my hopes for a Manning vs. Manning Super Bowl too. I know I wasn’t the only one pulling for that (whereas I very well might have been with the Collins’). And now that the biggest roadblock to the realization of said dream (namely Eli) has his team one win away from the Super Bowl with his newfound swagger, big brother is nowhere to be found.
All kidding aside, the Chargers did more than prevent a Super clash of siblings with their shocking 28-24 road upset of the defending champion Indianapolis Colts Sunday: they eliminated the best chance the AFC had at preventing the 17-0 New England Patriots from achieving perfection. The Bolts are banged up. Badly. Superback Ladainian Tomlinson missed most of the game with a hyper extended left knee and QB Philip Rivers left in the third quarter with a sprained knee ligament. As lackluster backups named Billy Volek and Michael Turner drove the Chargers to their improbable victory, I could envision Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi hunched before their televisions, licking their chops with excitement.
There would be no rematch of last year’s thrilling 38-34 Colts-Pats AFC Championship game. Instead, an injury-plagued underdog is all that stands in the way of the Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl berth in seven years. The current word on the street is that Tomlinson and TE Antonio Gates (dislocated toe) will play, while Rivers is still listed as questionable for the game. Volek vs. Brady? Fate would be too cruel. But even if Rivers, Gates and Tomlinson do take the field, as I would bet they will, what level of play can we expect to see? Star LB Sean Merriman and CB Antonio Cromartie will give Brady a run for his money, but I can’t see the Chargers offense matching the Pats point for point unless their difference makers are healthy. And even then it’s a stretch. On their last trip to Foxboro September 16th, the Chargers were handily dismantled 38-14.
True, the Chargers have been playing far better as of late and are currently riding an 8-game winning streak. But will it be enough to derail New England, who have a 17-game win streak of their own? Doubtful. As a Buffalo Bills fan, the prospect of a Patriots-Cowboys Super Bowl made me want to vomit a river and boycott the game. Luckily, the red hot Giants knocked Dallas out. It’s time to do your part San Diego. If you can pull off the upset this Sunday, you’ll be the toast of my next post. But I think it’s more likely that confetti will once again fill the Foxboro skies and we will forever be wondering what might have been had Peyton Manning and company gotten their shot at spoiling the Patriots’ legacy. New England 34, San Diego 20. Prove me wrong Bolts. You’ve already done it twice.