That was a good weekend of football. We saw some really good, close games and some thoroughly dominating offensive and defensive performances leaving us with one Cinderella team, the Jets, one Cinderella story, Favre and the Vikings, and two teams that delivered after promising regular seasons.

NFC Divisional Games

The Saints made the Cardinals look bad. I felt this game had blow-out potential, I just wasn’t sure which way it would go and the Saints poor play down the stretch had me leaning away from the Saints.

Way to prove me wrong.

I loved how the Vikings completely dismantled a hot Cowboys team. The combination of good preparation, the right game plan and a veteran quarterback like Favre who can bring it all together makes Minnesota a threat to any team.

As good as their respective offenses played, much of the credit has to go to the defenses who were in lock-down mode. It will be interesting to see whether it’s the veteran savvy of Favre or the overwhelming force of Drew Brees and the other Saints stars that gets the upper hand on the defenses.

Early NFL conference final odds have the Saints favored by four points. I don’t want to under-estimate the Saints after underestimating them last week, but I’m going to have a long hard think before betting against the Vikings.

AFC Divisional Games

The Chargers-Jets game played out almost exactly as I expected, although I didn’t account for the Jets ability to wear down opposing defenses and thought they’d be up early. The Jets aren’t going to play any pretty games, or at least they aren’t going to win them, but it’s nice seeing a team buck the trend to pass-heavy offenses and succeed.

Too many coaches are like sheep always building teams that emulate the most recent Super Bowl winners when there’s more than one way to win.

I also got the Ravens-Colts game right except that the Ravens surprised me with how much they passed. When the Ravens got the early field goal, it felt like Manning just decided that there was no way the Ravens were going to outplay the Colts and immediately quelled any doubt.

The AFC Final odds favor the Colts by 7.5. It’s a lot to cover and you know the Jets will play them tough, but the Colts are better equipped to deal with the Jets than the Chargers who really didn’t match up well.

The Indianapolis Colts play their first meaningful game in a month as they host the run-happy Baltimore Ravens.

The Colts (-270) are 6-point NFL playoff odds favorites over the Ravens (+225) and the over/under is 44.

Come playoff time there’s always a favorite that rested starters late in the season and then lost because they weren’t in sync when games started to matter again. Sports betting fans have to wonder if the Colts are that team.

The Colts started resting their starters in Week 16 and got two losses to show for it.

But Manning and crew looked dominant in the first half of their game against the Jets and the white-out conditions in the Buffalo game mean that you can probably give the offense a pass for their poor showing against the Bills.

If the Indianapolis starters were struggling in the last couple of weeks it might be something to worry about, but they weren’t so the rest will probably help them.

In the Ravens’ victory last week over New England, they kept running the ball into the teeth of the Patriots defense and it kept working.

But they also showed very little confidence in their quarter back Joe Flacco who completed just four passes and still managed an interception in just ten throwing attempts. Flacco is playing through injuries which is great when you want excuses, but doesn’t help much when you’re trying to win games.

Baltimore was probably also helped by the cold New England weather which tends to affect passing offenses more than running ones, but their defense also deserves credit for keeping New England’s star receivers well covered.

They’re probably going to have to stick with their running game against Indianapolis to keep the Colts’ fierce passing attack off of the field. But the Colts’ run defense is also something fierce.

In their November 22 meeting, a 17-15 win for Indianapolis, the Colts held the Ravens to just 76 yards on the ground. With Flacco injured, a similar defensive performance will make this game a rout.

The Colts might struggle a little to get their timing back on offense, but they’ll get it back soon enough to cover because the Ravens aren’t going to score much in this one.

There isn’t a team in the league that’s given their fans more to cheer about over the last 10 years than the Patriots. Three Super Bowls wins in four appearances, seven division titles, a 16-0 regular season, a record setting offense, the list goes on.

So how do those loyal Patriots fans respond? By booing their team in Sundays wildcard loss to the Ravens. The Ravens first play from scrimmage was an 83 yard touchdown run. The Patriots first series finished in a strip sack of Brady by Suggs, which led to another score for the Ravens.

With the team down 14-0 only five minutes into the game the crowd lost all faith in their team. Forgotten are all the comebacks dialed up by Brady and games won in the final seconds. Nope, Patriots fans weren’t having any of it. In their eyes the team was a disgrace.

The Ravens were the ones who benefited from this. Their arrogance was bubbling over even more than usual as the sound of frustrated fans only served to jack Lewis and company up more. At the end of the first quarter the Patriots were down 24-0.

New England’s defense settled down only allowing 9 points for the remaining three quarters. But the damage had been done. The Patriots offense never seemed to find it’s rhythm. At times it looked like a comeback was possible. It never manifested itself though, the Ravens just seemed to be getting all the bounces.

Would this game have been different had the crowd not disrespected their team? There’s a good possibility it may have. If you watched the game you could see how the Ravens were feeding off it. You could also see the frustration from the Patriots. Who wouldn’t be frustrated and let down?

It’s pretty obvious football doesn’t mean as much to Boston fans as baseball, basketball or hockey. Maybe the Patriots just don’t have the tradition Boston fans love. I’m really not quite sure why it is. I know that if my town had a team as successful as the Patriots have been there would be nothing but love for them. But like spoiled children, nothing is ever good enough for Patriots fans.

That’s the loudest the fans at a Patriots game have been in quite some time. Too bad it only served to help the Ravens play better. With all the talk about Jacksonville, Minnesota or a few other teams that have way better fans than the Patriots moving to Los Angeles, maybe it’s time to throw another team into that mix. The LA Patriots, it has a pretty nice ring to it. Much nicer than the ring heard in Gillette stadium Sunday afternoon.

T. Jay is the writer and founder of http://www.GridironInsight.com, a blog dedicated to giving people a different view of the NFL. You can follow everything on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/GridironInsight.

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