Yesterday's post was a recap of the two Conference title games. Today, I'll be giving a brief recap of the AFC half of the postseason tournament up to the CCG.

The first match-up of the 2006 postseason pitted the Indianapolis Colts against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Colts had been the toast of the NFL after racing out to a 9-0 start to become, again, the NFL's last remining unbeaten squad, but stumbled down the stretch, losing 4 of their last 7. Their run defense, long the chink in their armor, had become more like a festering wound, lowlighted by an awful performance in which they gave up an incredible 375 rushing yards to the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 44-17 loss. Kansas City had snuck into the playoffs after losses by Denver and Cincinnati, and many thought they would give the Colts a good game, since their offense was pretty much all about the running game, and star back Larry Johnson, who rushed for 1789 yards on an NFL record 416 carries on the season. But, using 8 and 9 man fronts, the Colts shut down the Kansas City rushing attack and the Chiefs never responded with an aerial assualt. Meanwhile, Peyton Manning had an on-and-off game, throwing 3 INTs but completing 30 of 38 passes. The Colts got the win, 23-8.

The next day the New England Patriots took on the New York Jets. The AFC East rivals split their two game series, with each team winning on the road. The Patriots hosted the rubber match, and for three quarters the game was entertaining, but the Patriots capatilized on a couple of costly turnovers late in the game to put it out of reach. The lopsided 37-16 final did not reflect the nature of most of the game.

The Colts were once again playing the Saturday game in week 2 of the postseason, as they traveled to Baltimore to take on the 13-3 Ravens. The Ravens were, as always, led by their defense, which was the stingiest in the League in terms of yards per game and points per game (not even the fabled 2000 defense did that - Tennessee was first in YPG that year) and was seond in the league in takeaways, and their offense, behind power running back Jamal Lewis, was doing just enough to win, which had many around the country thinking that this might be a repeat of the 2000 season. But once again the Colts defense rose to the task of stopping their opponents ground game, and once again, the opposing quarterback failed to make their safeites pay for sneaking up in the box. The Ravens were absolutely immobile on offense. As for the Colts offense, they didn't exactly light it up - neither team got the ball into the end zone in this game - but 5 scoring drives, four of which covered more than 45 yards, were enough to catapault the Colts into the AFC Championship Game with a 15-6 victory.

The next day, the Patriots took on the Chargers in San Diego, in what was certainly the ugliest game of the postseason. The Patriots got out to an early 3-0 lead, but the Chargers responded with two TDs before Tom Brady worked a nice and neat two minute drill for a score right before the half to make it 14-10 going into the break. Then the Chargers got a wicked case of the stoopids. Eric Parker, who had been plagued by drops all game, muffed a punt which dropped at his feet, but then he inexplicably tried to scoop it up instead of just falling on it, and the Patriots ended up with the recovery. Later, the Chargers stopped the Patriots on 3rd and long, but Drayton Florence couldn't help himself and headbutted Daniel Graham, giving the Patriots a fresh set of downs and eventually giving kicker Stephen Gostkowski an easy figgie to pull the score to 14-13. The Chargers scored one more time on a run by MVP LaDanian Tomlinson (but once again, the stoopids took over, and they ended up with a 15 yard Unecessary Roughness penalty ON THE EXTRA POINT), and with under 7 minutes remaing, the defense had the Patriots facing 4th and 5 at midfield. Tom Brady threw a pass that defensive back Marlon McCree stepped in front of. But rather than knocking the pass down, which would have all but sealed the voctory, McCree intercepted the pass and attempted to run with the ball. This monumentally stoopid decision gave WR Troy Brown the oportunity to strip the ball away from Jackass McCree, and the Patriots' day was saved. Armed with a fresh set of downs, Brady drove his team in for the game tying score. One more Gostkowski field goal later, and the Patriots were on their way to face the Colts in a football game of epic proportions.

Tommorow, the NFC playoffs...