Wait, It Rains in SF? NFC TITLE GAME LIVE BLOG

645: NATIONAL ANTHEM TIME! I'm vaguely familiar with the work of Kristin Chenoweth. May or may not be a ringing endorsement for her rendition of the anthem.

648: Quote from Joe Buck - 'Eli is playing better than he did when he won the Super Bowl.' Glad he cleared that up for us.

655: My respect level grows for Eli every year. That said, I don't know how any of his receivers can take anything he says seriously when he gives them 'The Eli Face'.

656: If you don't know what the 'Eli Face' is, just think back to the movie "Half Baked" when Kenny goes to jail and he tries to show the guys with his 'mean' face.

703: I was eight seconds away from writing how the Niners would be foolish to try and throw their way to victory. I learn nothing. 70 yd pitch and catch to put SF up 7-0.

704: Official replay explanation. Poor Ed Hocculi. He knows too many words. Ed, we feel your pain, we know what you meant.

705: Commercial for #WrathOfTheTitans. How do you follow up a flaming turd? You add more dragons and explosions.

707: Apparently pre-existing celebrations can be granfathered and exempted from TD celebration penalties (i.e. the Lambeau Leap). Hell of a league, ya got, Goodell.

713: Giants passing game looks a bit out of sync. Hakeem Nicks has to give opposing coaches nightmares. Huge loss if he doesn't come back.

716: Whoops.

718: I'm going to reinstate my 'Niners stupid to try and throw to win' comment. That last pass from Alex Smith was ... dare I say ... Grossman-esque?

728: Commercial for 'This Means War.' They put Bane and Capt. Kirk into a movie together. That should've been enough. And then they made it a romcom with Reese Witherspoon. Just take my head off.

730: I'm fairly confident Eli's offseason passing coach is Tim Wakefield. Either way, hell of a throw on the TD. ALL TIED AT 7 KIDDOS!

733: Bettis: 'Peyton?' Peyton: 'Hey, a man's gotta work.' Priceless. Great commercial from Papa Johns.

741: Vernon Davis looked like Sensational Sheri jumping on another wrestler's back, trying to save the Macho Man from a beatdown. Awful penalty, comedy gold.

745: Really? Fake fair catch? I'm going back to a UCONN game a few years back when some douchebag return guy faked the fair catch and ran for a TD. I'm of the opinion that any player that does that should be forced to play the remainder of the game without a helmet. Bush league stuff.

755: Commercial for Disney's "John Carter". Let me get this straight. Gambit and Silverfox from 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'. These are your stars? It cost a gazillion dollars to make. I have no idea how they will make a profit. Not a clue.

757: The Bing commerical with the snowboarder returning from the brain injury? Might be a little ill-timed considering Sarah Burke's passing. Just saying.

806: Can't believe I'm giving Eli this much love. I guess when he's not dancing a jig or making awful faces, Eli Manning is a good quarterback.

810: UFC on Fox commercial Not sure how I feel about the Jon Jones/kicking the swings spot. Anyway, at the half it's 10-7 NY Giants.

830: Start of the second half. Niners not looking too sharp out of the gate. Did I mention I thought it was foolish for the Niners to force Alex Smith to carry them today? Just wanted to remind you guys.

832: If you're keeping score, the Niners' first drive of the 2nd half: three passes called, one sack, one penalty. Bailed out by a horrendous penalty against the Giants secondary. This cannot be ignored.

853: Watching Alex Smith the last two weeks, I'm still not impressed. Granted he has two TD passes and no picks but he's thrown flat routes and go routes and nothing else. Hence, Niners would be wise to be control the football with the lead.

901: Surefire interception broken up by ... two 49er DBs who never saw each other coming. Someone should tell the Goldson kid that 'yanking him up by his jersey' is not recommended treatment for someone with a potential head injury. Crazy play, should have netted a turnover. Hoping Terrell Brown is okay.

921: Devin Thomas for the Giants. Carlos Rogers for the Niners. I genuinely have no rooting interest in this game.

924: I know he's a bit awkward but can we have a round of applause for Ed Hocculi? No canned explanations from him. A casual breakdown of the call. Love it.

927:  Ladies and gents, we have an actual reception in the second half. Huge first down conversion for NYG coming off the turnover. Back to the turnover Kyle Williams' muffed punt: It will haunt me forever if Devin Thomas ends up making a critical play that could help send his team to the Super Bowl. I may not sleep tonight.

930: Eli hits Manningham for TD in the back of the endzone to take the lead. Incredible throw. Again. If the score holds, we are less than nine minutes away from Eli surpassing Peyton. Room spinning real fast.

936: For the Giants, the road to failure is littered with Kenny Phillips penalty flags.

938: Niners trying to tie the score. Two huge runs to get the Niners in scoring position. Who knew.

940: 44 FGs. If you had David Akers on your fantasy squad this year, well done, you. WE'RE ALL TIED AT 17, KIDDOS!

958: Giants and Niners exchange possessions. Eli and his face have one minute and 18 seconds. Niners defense might make a play here. Call it a hunch.

1002: 27 tics left. Score tied. And a brand new episode of American Idol to follow!!!

1010: Overtime. Where complicated happens.

1015: This Goldson kid could ruin a cup of coffee. Not one, but two gift interceptions and he screws the pooch on both by running into a teammate. Sidebar: Thanks to Aikman for pointing out that Skins fans were not crazy and he did drop plenty of picks in his time here. Again, not crazy.

1022: Eli and the Giants with their 2nd crack at the win her in OT. Sidebar: Shocked at just how little we've heard from Patrick Willis today. Quiet days are good for linemen, not linebackers. Just saying.

1030: No words to describe how awful I feel for Kyle Williams. Not often that we get two goats in one day. Kyle Williams and Billy Cundiff ... you are both apart of history.

1040: Giants boot the GW field goal. Grown men celebrate awkwardly. Seriously, congrats New York. You officially have the better Manning. You got swept by the Redskins but I guess it turned out okay in the end. Just keep Devin Thomas off the mic and we'll be square.

1046: Terry Bradshaw said 'Devin Thomas' nine times in a row. I might need to cut bait before he shows his face. Great day of football. Deuces.

A Monkey's Uncle.

Lord Tebow met his match.

Aaron and his Pack lost their way.

And ... Saint Drew fell from grace.

If football isn't religion, I got nothing else for ya.

(Oh yeah, Baltimore beat Houston. I couldn't come up w/ a fitting analogy and let's be honest, that game was a turd and a half.)

This wasn't an impossible chain of events but the idea that both the Saints and Packers would exit the Playoffs in the divisional round was pretty damn unlikely. On the other hand, I think everyone outside of the Rockies could see Tebow and co. were in over their heads but given how the Broncos performed against the Steelers, you would at least expect a competitive contest.

Wrong on all accounts.

Nonetheless, I took two things away from this past weekend's games:

1) Just how well the 49ers offense played.
In the words of The Miz ... really? Really?! I mean, San Fran isn't exactly inept on the O but no one would confuse them with the Saints. Which isn't a bad thing. But the chances of Alex Smith outdueling Drew Brees were pretty slim going in so unless he's completely full of crap, I highly doubt Jim Harabaugh went into the game thinking that was the gameplan. That said, Alex Smith went all-Utah on the Saints. Vernon Davis came up huge. Totally changes the perception of the Niners' passing game and adds a dimension to this team that was missing all year.

2) Just how poorly the Packers played. 
This takes nothing away from the Giants but the Packers blew. In nearly every facet of the game. Completely BLEW.

Injured teams and slumping teams benefit the most from a 1st round bye. The Packers fall into neither of those categories. Throw in an inconsistent defense and then Sunday happens. In week 1, I was impressed as anyone with the offensive performance from the Pack but the ease with which the Saints moved the ball was especially troubling. Yes, it was Brees moving the ball but that's besides the point. A defensive unit that helped carry Green Bay to a title was suddenly an 'opportunistic' defense. And if you're scoring at home, 'opportunistic' (when describing defenses) is code for 'good in spots but largely crappy'.

It's an odd thing with prolific offenses. Their defensive counterparts will generally produce plenty of turnovers and play 'bend-but-don't-break' football en route to a title. And then the subsequent season, the offense will play as well, if not better than the last year, while the defense regresses as the team fails to duplicate their prior success. Case(s) in point: 1999 St. Louis Rams, 2007 New Orleans Saints, and now ... the 2010 Green Bay Packers. What a shame. Better luck next year, cheeseheads.

If this past weekend was any indication, next week's title games will be interesting to say the least. My early vibe: a Super Bowl rematch with ... the Ravens and Giants. Take those picks with a grain of salt as I am unofficially known as 'The Cooler' but lightning strikes. Blind squirrels find nuts. Don't say I didn't call it.

Anyway, I'll be back with some notes on UFC 142 in Rio. For now, I say adieu.