No one can underestimate the San Diego Chargers, not only because they successfully contained Peyton Manning's Denver Broncos during the regular season, but also because they have a super strong quarterback: Philip Rivers.
Today, the league has four elite quarterbacks, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in the American League, and Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers in the National League. Generally speaking, what about the fifth quarterback outside of the elite four? In other words, who is the "Chinese Supernatural Power"?
Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, etc., the league has a series of outstanding quarterbacks, although they cannot be called elite. , but there is no doubt about excellence, and among them, Philip Rivers is the fifth quarterback known as the "Supernatural Power". His outstanding strength has been affirmed by countless experts in the industry, although he has always He has never won a Super Bowl, but his comprehensive strength in passing accuracy, long-distance passing ability, pocket footwork, defensive reading, tactical layout, etc., makes him the strongest non-elite.
Of course, now that Lu Ke has appeared again, perhaps some adjustments need to be made to the league's strength rankings, but still, no one can deny Philip's excellence.
The game between the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers was vaguely reminiscent of the match between the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints in the first divisional round. It was vaguely similar from the process to the ending. In the end, they were stronger. The side relied on hard power to successfully win.
In the first three quarters of the game, Peyton Manning was still full of firepower, completely suppressing his opponents, and the San Diego Lightning still had excellent coping methods, completely throwing away the score without letting Manning, and still holding on to the game. , which allowed the Denver Broncos to enter the fourth quarter decisive battle with a "17:0" advantage.
Philip Rivers, known as the "fifth quarterback", naturally refused to surrender. In the fourth quarter, he led the San Diego Lightning to blow the counterattack horn on the edge of the cliff.
In a single quarter of the game, Rivers scored two touchdowns and a free kick, sweeping 17 points. Every wave of offense was bound to gain something, and it instantly erased all Manning's losses in the first three quarters. Hard work; however, Manning did not sit still. He quickly stood up and started to fight back, and also scored a touchdown in response. Then, the game entered the bayonet stage.
With three minutes and fifty-six seconds left before the end of the game, the two sides were tied at 24:17. The San Diego Chargers were only one touchdown behind, and both sides had three timeouts. This also meant that there was enough time for both sides to make a decision. There are countless attempts and countless adventures, which also makes the game still have countless variables, and everything is possible.
At the critical moment, Manning stepped forward again, using a combination of passing and running to consume the game time steadily - rather than taking random risks for the sake of scoring; but when faced with a crisis situation, Manning was able to suddenly accelerate and explode, twice Faced with the dangerous third-speed transition, he calmly and calmly burst out with huge energy, and once again scored the first offense with a pass, ensuring that the offensive team could continue to stay on the field, exhausting all the energy of the San Diego Lightning bit by bit, and taking the initiative. The power is firmly in your own hands.
In the end, the three minutes and fifty-six seconds of the game were all consumed by Manning, and they advanced to the 12-yard line in the opponent's half. There was no need for a touchdown or a free kick, and the game was just like this. Time ran out, and the possibility of accidents caused by the change of ball possession was avoided, and the victory was easily won.
The San Diego Lightning finally caught up within a touchdown, but in the end the offense had no chance to counterattack. Rivers had no time to show off his comeback ability, and the game ended like this.
In the last wave of offense, Manning was like the Seattle Seahawks defensive team, unswervingly showing his strength on the offensive end.
It's still the ups and downs of the game in the fourth quarter, and it's still the hope of a comeback at the last minute, but the Denver Broncos, like the Seattle Seahawks, showed superior strength at critical moments. It's not so much the San Diego Lightning's pursuit in the fourth quarter. It was better to say that the Denver Broncos defense failed to tighten up in the fourth quarter, which gave the opponent an opportunity to take advantage of it. But fortunately, the offense still lived up to expectations and persisted until the end, winning in the way of the Denver Broncos. They won this hard-fought victory and successfully advanced to the American League finals.
Two years ago, Manning missed the entire season due to a neck injury and was eventually given up by the Indianapolis Colts. No one was optimistic that the 38-year-old veteran could make a comeback. Even his home team chose him. Turning his back to Manning, that was a turning moment.
Two years later, Manning led the Denver Broncos to the playoffs for two consecutive seasons. More importantly, his offensive strength even surpassed his previous performance with the Indianapolis Colts. It shocked countless people and proved that he is still honest.
Of course, the Indianapolis Colts led by Andrew Luck also made it to the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, and they have no need to regret it——
Now, they are also eagerly looking forward to Andrew being able to lead the team back to the American League finals. If he can stand in front of Manning by then, the top management of the Indianapolis Colts team can also prove that their original choice was Yes, even without Manning's leadership, they are still a strong team. They can even defeat Manning's Denver Broncos and reach the Super Bowl, which would be even more perfect.
Then, all attention shifted to the next divisional game, because the Indianapolis Colts were about to debut with countless attention on their backs.
In the third divisional round, the New England Patriots, the second seed in the American League, faced off against the Indianapolis Colts, the fourth seed in the American League.
Before the start of the game, the "Tom Brady VS Andrew Luck" duel is undoubtedly the most topical game, because in the past ten years, the New England Patriots, Indiana Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers have been the three major players in the American League. Driving a carriage, the American League championship has hardly escaped the control of the three teams. With the rise of the Baltimore Ravens and Peyton Manning's injury absence, the situation in the American League has changed slightly. Now, Andrew Luck is stationed in Indiana. After Polis, the familiar iron triangle returned again, which then raised a question:
Can Luck truly seamlessly connect with Manning and get the Indianapolis Colts back to the top of the competition? Last year the Indianapolis Colts returned to the playoff ranks, but lost in the first round. What about this year? After a shocking reversal in the first round, he defeated the Kansas Chiefs. Facing the team's old rivals, the New England Patriots, can Luck break through the blockade and go further? Or is it that, like Andy Dalton of the Cincinnati Bengals, he has never been able to go further in the playoffs?
On the one hand, it is Luck's succession to Manning, and on the other hand, it is the confrontation between Luck and Brady. All of this is full of suspense and expectations, even surpassing the battle between Lu Ke and Cam, and has become the most popular game in the divisional competition. The expected matchup, but the actual progress of the game was shocking, because the performance of the two focus players was unsatisfactory, completing a game that "didn't look like themselves at all", even the advantages and disadvantages of the offensive and defensive ends All turned upside down.
On the New England Patriots' side, Brady was in mediocre form and almost didn't know what he was doing. Even the short passing layout that he was best at made mistakes again and again. He was completely unable to open up the situation, and the offensive team was stuck; in the end, it was running back Laga. Rhett Blount stepped forward and became the shining star. He rushed for 166 yards in the game and scored the highest four touchdowns in the history of the American League Division Series. He almost dominated the entire game by himself. .
On the Indianapolis Colts' side, Luck was a wildcatter. Although he passed two touchdown passes, he also sent an incredible four interceptions and even gave his opponent a ball for dropping the ball. Recording safety points, the performance of the whole game was a nightmare, and the poor performance of continuous mistakes was completely suffering from "playoff syndrome". It seemed that he could not play at all while standing at Gillette Stadium. It's just average, I don't know what it means.
Neither of the two focal figures was able to live up to expectations. What's even more funny is that the defensive team also suffered from sap. Even though the opponent's quarterback performed terribly, the defensive team failed to show its strength and made many low-level defensive mistakes. This missed key defense made the analysts and commentators in the studio dumbfounded. It also made the game completely chaotic, with fouls and mistakes flying all over the place. It was really not exciting.
In this abnormal and unconventional game, both teams did not behave like themselves and fell into a melee situation. This also unexpectedly kept the score trend in suspense. In the first three quarters of the game, the two teams fought " At 29:22”, the New England Patriots, playing at home, took the lead by a touchdown.
Just like the other two games that started first, it seems that the fourth quarter will witness a fierce duel again, and it seems that the final moment will be relied on to decide the outcome, especially Luck - he is also known as the "reversal" of the new generation. King", so many holes have been dug in the previous three quarters, and now it depends on whether the holes can be filled in the fourth quarter.
but……
Total collapse!
In the fourth quarter of the game, the Indianapolis Colts offense completely collapsed and failed to show any competitiveness; while the experienced New England Patriots steadily broke through from the ground attack, and Lagarette, who was in excellent form - Blount brought 14 points to the team, instantly opening up the score and winning easily.
The final score was "43:22".
Then, the New England Patriots also successfully advanced to the American League Finals for the third consecutive year, competing with the San Francisco 49ers; while the Indianapolis Colts unfortunately lost and failed to join forces with Manning.
