NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

For those of you who watched the Arizona-New Orleans game earlier today, then you probably learned by watching that crime-in-progress that getting two weeks of rest does your team a world of good. The question, despite that piece of truth, that was needed to be asked when the Baltimore Ravens came to Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday to take on the Indianapolis Colts was this: Would the Ravens exploit the Colts’ lack of a running attack, leaving the fate of the Colts on the arm of Peyton Manning? Or would Indianapolis exploit the Ravens’ secondary?

Interestingly enough, the Ravens’ ability – or lack thereof – to hold on to the ball would seal their fate; they turned the ball over four times, which was enough opportunity for Manning to throw a pair of touchdown passes, enabling Indianapolis to advance to the AFC Championship game by stifling Baltimore 20-3.

The Colts drew first blood as ex-Ravens kicker Matt Stover converted a 44-yard field goal with 10:44 remaining in the first quarter, but the Ravens would reciprocate on a Billy Cundiff FG, tying things up at 3. The second quarter was all Indianapolis as Manning threw a pair of TD passes – a 10-yard strike to Austin Collie and a 3-yard TD pass to Reggie Wayne, putting the Colts up 17-3. An early fourth-quarter FG by Stover iced the game for Indianapolis.

It wasn’t for the lack of opportunities for the Ravens to score as Ed Reed was victimized twice – once on being stripped of the ball by Colts wide receiver Pierre Garcon and recovered by Dallas Clark and an interception that was wiped out due to a pass intereference penalty assessed on Corey Ivy. Ray Rice didn’t help matters foir the Ravens either as he coughed up the ball after a 20-yard gain and recovered by the Colts’ Raheem Brock.

Manning’s numbers for the game were average – at least for him – as he went 30-of-44 for 246 yards with 2 TDs and an interception while Joe Flacco went 20-of-35 for 189 and a pair of INTs. The Colts’ rushing attack – or lack thereof – was led by Joseph Addai with 23 yards on 11 carries while Rice led the Ravens’ rushers with 67 yards on 13 carries and caught 9 passes for 60 yards.

Wayne led the Colts’ receivers with 8 receptions for 63 yards and a TD while Dallas Clark caught seven for 59 yards; Collie caught 4 passes for 52 yards and a score. Derrick Mason led the Ravens, catching 4 passes for 64 yards while Todd Heap caught four for 35 yards.

Indianapolis now awaits the winner of Sunday’s game between New York and San Diego.

For those that were worried that losing the last three games of the regular season would doom the New Orleans Saints – think again.

Saturday at the Superdome the Saints flexed their offensive muscle that they showed for most of the regular season, putting the Cardinals away with five first half touchdowns to lead 35-14 at halftime enroute to 45-14 win that puts them in the NFC Championship Game.

The win means that the Saints will host the NFC Title game next week against the winner of Sunday’s Dallas-Minnesota game at the Metrodome Sunday afternoon. Arizona’s run ends, as they self-destructed on defense in two playoff games, allowing 90 points in a win over the Packers and then a loss to the Saints.

The Saints offense was high powered from the word go, as they fell behind 7-0 the first play of the game when Cards running back Tim Hightower went for a 70-yard touchdown to give Arizona a quick 7-0 lead. Drew Brees and the Saints came right back, as they went on a long drive to tie the game, opening up the flood gates for three first quarter touchdowns.

After a fumble gave the Saints the ball back, Brees threw a 17-yard TD to Jeremy Shockey to make it 14-7, then five minutes later Reggie Bush broke off an amazing 46-yard run in which he broke some tackles and hit the open field in full speed mode to make it 21-7 before the Cardinals could recover.

Two more second quarter touchdowns – Brees touchdowns to Devery Henderson and Marques Colston put the Saints up by 21 at halftime, and by then it was academic of the outcome, as no matter who they were facing, the Saints defense were not going to allow 21 points in the second half.

Brees had a solid day, going 23-for-32 for 247 yards with three touchdowns and a QB rating of 125.4. Bush ran for 84 yards and a touchdown, and Pierre Thomas rushed for 52 yards on 13 carries. The Saints took advantage of the Cards poor tackling, and piled up over 400 yards of offense on the night.

For Arizona, Kurt Warner was knocked out of the game on an interception when he was knocked out, but did come back into the game. Some say that Saturday was his last game of his Hall of Fame career. He ended the night 17-for-26 for 205 yards and a pick.

So the Saints will sit back and wait out the winner of the Cowboys-Vikings for the right to go to Super Bowl XLIV.

One of the most important match-ups this Sunday will be Viking LT Bryant McKennie vs. Cowboy LB/DE Demarcus Ware.

The Vikings will need McKennie to step up and be the dominant player he is capable of being this week-end. He is responsible for protecting QB Brett Favre's blindside as he will be lining up opposite one of the elite defensive forces in the game in the Cowboys Demarcus Ware.

It's a tough assignment for McKinnie, who has suffered from an ankle injury that has affected his mobility, but the team needs him to rise above the pain and play at a high level to keep Ware from disrupting the Vikings offensive plans.

Ware registered 11 sacks this season. Good for 7th in the league. He also forced 5 fumbles this season. He was an absolute force vs. the Eagles with 2 sacks and a forced fumble in the lopsided Cowboys victory.

There is little doubt that the Vikings will be scheming a way to slow, if not control the pressure from the Cowboy's right side by giving Big Mac some help.

The last time he faced an elite Pro Bowl pass rusher, he gave up two sacks, committed two penalties and was benched for ineffective play. That nightmarish performance came Dec. 20 against Carolina's Julius Peppers, who kept the Vikings left tackle on his heels all game.

Ware, who has been selected to four consecutive Pro Bowls and has also led the Cowboys 45 quarterback hurries this season, can be just as destructive as Peppers.

"[He's] very high-tempo, so you have to match his intensity," McKinnie said.

On the other side of the line, Vikings rookie right tackle Phil Loadholt doesn't exactly have a walk in the park on the other side. He will be matched primarily against linebacker Anthony Spencer, arguably Dallas' best defensive player the final month of the season.

Spencer earned NFC defensive player of the week honors for his effort against the Philadelphia Eagles in the regular-season finale. He had five tackles, two sacks, two hurries and a forced fumble in a 24-0 Cowboys victory that enabled the Vikings to clinch the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs.

From – The Times Picayune:

Inactives for the New Orleans Saints against the Arizona Cardinals have been announced and the Saints will have both running back Pierre Thomas and tight end Jeremy Shockey active for today’s playoff game. The Saints complete list of inactives are: Defensive end Paul Spicer, tight ends Darnell Dinkins and Troy Humphrey, running back Deuce McAllister, linebacker Anthony Waters, offensive guard Jamar Nesbit, defensive back Chris Reis and quarterback Chase Daniels.

The Cardinals will indeed be without wide receiver Anquan Boldin today. Steve Breaston will start in his place. Here is the full list of inactives for the Cardinals: Quarterback Brian St. Pierre, fullback Nehemiah Broughton, safety Rashad Johnson, linebacker Gerald Hayes, offensive lineman Herman Johnson, defensive end Jeremy Clark, wide receiver Anquan Boldin and tight end Stephen Spach.

There’s been plenty of talk about a couple high profile free agents for the Steelers, one of which is NT Casey Hampton. The big guy says he doesn’t want to be franchised, but the team wants to keep him according to the Tribune-Review, which means he could see a tag coming:

Art Rooney II made it clear that the line for the Steelers re-signing their own free agents forms behind nose tackle Casey Hampton as Rooney II and Tomlin said the Steelers want the Pro Bowler back. The Steelers can prevent Hampton from hitting the open market by using a franchise tag on him. If they tag Hampton, the Steelers would have to offer him a one-year deal with a salary that is the average of what the five highest-paid defensive linemen made in 2009. “That will be part of our offseason plan, figuring out the best way to do that and how to handle Casey,” Rooney II said. “We’ll get into others and make some decisions about what we can do contract-wise with various other players.”

Hampton’s shoes would be awfully hard to fill, as the team has Ziggy Hood, but there’s no way he can play the nose as well as Hampton, and he might never even end up as a NT in the Pro game. For now, the Steelers should plan on biting the bullet and come to the conclusion that they are going to have to play him quite a bit of cash – when they franchise him.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that a decision on Raiders head coach Tom Cable’s fate is likely by Tuesday. Teams must make a decision on their assistant coaches by the third Tuesday after the season. According to Schefter, Al Davis is planning to fire about six assistant coaches. It is unlikely Tom Cable will survive in Oakland.

ESPN.com reports that the Cowboys are losing d-line coach Todd Grantham to the University of Georgia:

Cowboys defensive line coach Todd Grantham was hired as the defensive coordinator at Georgia on Friday. “I’m excited,” Grantham said. “It’s an opportunity to be a coordinator, coach in the SEC. They’ve won a lot of games there. They haven’t quite been as good on defense as they would have liked over the past couple of years. Hopefully we can go in and get them back to being one of the premiere teams in the SEC.” Grantham’s contract with the Bulldogs is for three years at $750,000 per season. He will remain with Dallas through the playoffs.