Mark WiedmerCould next Sunday become the best NFL conference championship round ever?
If you are a true pro football fan, given to excellence, high drama and revenge, what could possibly be better than the NFC's top-seeded New Orleans Saints hosting the second-seeded Los Angeles Rams followed by the AFC's top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs hosting the second-seeded New England Patriots?
This is like No. 1 Alabama facing No. 2 Clemson in the College Football Playoff title game, though one doubts that either the Rams or the Patriots (well, at least not the Rams) can embarrass their higher-seeded foes in the same way Clemson crushed the Crimson Tide this past Monday.
Still, it's worth noting both the Chiefs and Rams can quite easily use revenge as an extra tool for motivation to reach the Super Bowl after each team took a regular-season loss against the foe it will face for the conference title.
The AFC title game provides something different in that the Patriots, whose five regular-season losses were all on the road, must travel to Arrowhead Stadium as they try to avoid letting the Chiefs avenge their 43-40 loss at New England on Oct. 14. As for the Rams, they've already lost once inside the Superdome this season, falling 45-35 on Nov. 4, so at least they know how tough it will be to win in the Big Easy when they meet the Saints.
What was clear on Sunday to follow up the rather easy Saturday wins by the Rams and the Chiefs is that both New England and New Orleans will be a handful, regardless of the location or the opponent.
And in something of a plot twist for the dynastic Pats, who are making their eighth straight appearance in the AFC title game, they're quite enthusiastically painting themselves as the underdogs.
New England quarterback Tom Brady told CBS in a postgame interview, "Everybody thinks we suck and, you know, can't win any games."
Added fellow Patriot Julian Edelman, long one of Brady's favorite passing targets: "We're the underdog this week. I'm going to jump on that train and roll with it."
To some extent, all four of these teams have rolled to within 60 minutes of the Super Bowl. The Rams beat the Dallas Cowboys 30-22, largely because they outrushed them 273 yards to 50. The Chiefs crushed the Indianapolis Colts 31-13 at least partly because of brutal weather and partly because they're just that good.
Then came Sunday in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where New England, looking like anything but a team that couldn't win any games, led the Los Angeles Chargers 35-7 at halftime.
In fact, only the Saints' game against the Philadelphia Eagles had any real drama in the divisional round, with the Eagles - who beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl last February - racing out to a 14-0 lead in the opening period.
But then New Orleans coach Sean Payton made the kind of call that separates the great coaches from the good ones. On fourth down from his own 30, he called for a fake punt. If it failed, he might have cost his team the game right there. But it succeeded, the Saints went on to score a touchdown to pull within 14-7 and by halftime it was 14-10.
With New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees finding receiver Michael Thomas 12 times total for 171 yards and a touchdown, the Saints survived to host that rematch against the Rams.
One more thing about that fake punt. As Fox analyst Terry Bradshaw noted afterward, this is the same Sean Payton who began the second half of Super Bowl XLIV against the Indianapolis Colts in January 2010 by having his Saints successfully recover an onside kick. As with so many other things in life, timing is everything. Down 10-6 at the time, the Saints went on to win 31-17.
Whether New Orleans can get back to the Super Bowl this year in Atlanta remains uncertain. Unlike a year ago, when the Rams fizzled down the stretch, losing to the Atlanta Falcons in the divisional round, these Rams seem to be on the uptick. Then again, the Eagles beat the Rams last month in Los Angeles, so maybe Philly was the Saints' toughest test on the road to the Super Bowl.
Also, no team benefits from a dome more than New Orleans. So should the Saints top the Rams this weekend in their Mercedes-Benz Superdome, they'll play the Super Bowl in two weeks in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
There's surely an omen there somewhere.
As for the AFC final, New England's regular-season win over the visiting Chiefs was arguably the second-best game of the year. And the only thing that kept it from the top spot was the Rams' 54-51 Monday Night Football victory over Kansas City in Los Angeles on Nov. 19.
Logic holds that Kansas City gets revenge in the AFC title game. But then logic would never paint the Patriots as underdogs.
So as much fun as it might be to see the Chiefs get revenge against both the Pats and Rams over the next three weeks, it says here that New England and New Orleans will reach the Big Peach, with those underdog Patriots delivering Brady his sixth Super Bowl triumph in an amazing nine tries.
Then, maybe, just maybe, Tommy Title will finally retire and that New England trophy train will finally run off the tracks. Maybe.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.