Championship Sunday Thoughts

Congratulations to the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks on earning a trip to Super Bowl XLVIII.

There is no worse site in all of football than a happy Pete Carroll on the sideline.

Peyton Manning and Tom Brady entered the game with 343 combined wins. It's the most combined wins by starting quarterbacks in a game in NFL history. It broke the record set when the Broncos and Patriots played earlier this season.

Manning took the latest game in this classic rivalry of great quarterbacks, 26-16 Broncos.

The Patriots run and the incredible, season-long coaching performance of Bill Belichick comes to an end.

Of the two conference championship games, the Broncos-Patriots game was supposed to be the higher scoring game. Explosive offenses. Sometimes suspect defenses. 42 combined points was probably lower than what was expected.

Manning was fantastic. 32 completions in 43 attempts for 400 yards and two touchdowns.

This was Manning's fourth 400-yard passing game tying Drew Brees for most in postseason history.

Peyton Manning has a lot of NFL records.

LeGarrette Blount had given the Patriots a terrific running game over the last few weeks. The Broncos bottled up Blount and the Patriots running game. 64 yards. Blount was no factor. Five attempts for six yards.

Broncos receiver Wes Welker knocked Patriots corner Aqib Talib out of the game with an illegal pick. That changed the game. Talib was the only Patriots corner that could handle Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas. Alfonzo Dennard replaced Talib in the lineup. Thomas lit up the smaller corner. 7 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown.

Denver Broncos defensive tackle Terrence Knighton made more big plays yesterday than I've seen him make all season. His 4th down sack of Tom Brady in the third quarter was huge.

There have been two 100-yard rushing games by a quarterback in the postseason before the arrival of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick now has two of his own.

Kaepernick has thrown eleven interceptions on the season. Six of them have come against the Seahawks.

The last interception sent the Seahawks to the Super Bowl.

The officials of the 49ers-Seahawks game were directed to take control of the game early and keep control of the game. It certainly wasn't as chippy as the 49ers-Carolina Panthers game last week. The officials might have had control of the game but they seemed to have ignored the rule book on occasion. The worst was the running into the punter penalty called on the Seahawks. It was clearly the more serious roughing the punter penalty. The 49ers should have kept the ball. The Seahawks scored a touchdown on the possession that they never should have had.

The 49ers lost two of their best players during the game. They lost guard Mike Iupati in the first half. They lost Navorro Bowman in the fourth quarter to a brutal-looking knee injury.

Bowman clearly recovered a fumble on the play but for mind-numbing reasons the play could not be reviewed. At least the 49ers got the ball when the Seahawks went for it and failed on fourth down.

Richard Sherman is an ass.

It's being reported that the Cleveland Browns are willing to trade up in the 2014 NFL Draft to insure the selection of Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel. I guess it means that the Browns have wrapped up their preparations for the May draft. In January. Before the combine. Before Pro Days. Before they even hire a head coach. That's really something.