Shane Foley
Assistant Connector Editor

Brady fans watched their televisions in bliss last week as they saw the New England quarterback’s main rival for football legend, Peyton Manning, struggle to score a single touchdown as the Seattle Seahawks soared to a 43-8 victory. The good news for Team Brady, is that the Patriots may stand an even better chance of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy next season with a healthy Gronkowski and Amendola.

However, they may not want to get their hopes up too much, since if these particular playoffs proved anything, it’s that the NFC might own the Superbowl for the next couple of years at least.

While many people thought that the Seahawks would come out victorious, not many people predicted the enormous point differential that occurred. However, after small analysis of the playoffs, is the result that surprising?
It is interesting to note the games that were played up to that point in the respective conferences. In the NFC, Seattle had to surpass a tough San Fransisco team that just squeaked by Green Bay and Carolina in the 4th quarter in previous weeks. Denver, on the other hand, made quick work of the Chargers and the Patriots.

A simple look at both Conference Champinship games indicate the vast difference between the conferences. If not for a Richard Sherman tip, we might be talking about the Superbowl Champion San Fransisco 49ers, whereas the Broncos-Patroits game was just about over in the 1st quarter. One could argue that it was easier for the Seahawks to get out of the NFC than it was to beat the Broncos in the big game.

Why then was it that the NFC was so brutally tough and the AFC resulted in almost total blowouts? In one word, the greatest advantage in the NFC teams may be defense. The top 4 defenses in the NFL throughout the whole season were actually in order Seattle, Carolina, San Fransisco and New Orleans, which evidently are the Superbowl Champion and the 3 teams they faced.

Conversley, the top 4 teams in the AFC, being Denver, New England, Indianapolis and San Diego, all were mainly offensive squads, albeit San Diego’s defense was pretty stout.

As a result, we have the best defense in the league going up against an offensive squad for Sunday’s game. Also if you look at the way the game went, while they did score 43 points, the defense predominately yielded their lead at the half.

After the initial safety, they force a 4 and out which lead to a field goal, and then an interception that lead to a touchdown. By then, Denver had to play catch up, and the nature of the game remained as such throughout the evening.

NFL historians will breakdown and analyze and try to explain the absolute meltdown that occurred to end this NFL season. We may never get a good answer, but this may be a good start to begin the discussion.

Either way, Team Brady members better cross their fingers for next year, because it is going to take one hell of an effort to knock off these NFC defences over the next several years.