NFL

WOW!

Yesterday was a day of amazing games and incredible comebacks.

Denver scored 51 points including a 64-yard field goal just before half. Yes, that's a record.

The Packers scored the last 12 points in their game to win 22-21. They are only 1/2 game back in the division with Detroit's loss.

New England, with Tom Brady at the helm, scored TWO TD's in the final minute of the game to win 27-26 in New England.

And of course there was THE game. The game that will live in history as the most amazing, comeback game of ALL-TIME. Five different comebacks, with five offensive touchdowns, in the final 2 minutes and 5 seconds of the game.

And I was watching it. It was MY team. And, of course, we lost.

I don't blame the Vikings. The officials were once again on center stage giving the Ravens every advantage they could with two major PHANTOM pass interference calls against the Vikings.

Other fans who watched, later on the blogs, were comparing these ref calls to various forms of both equine and bovine excrement. They are absolutely right of course. On both plays, the Viking defenders were between the receiver and the quarterback, facing the quarterback and defending their position. ANY contact was incidental or initiated by the receiver. On the first play the receiver made too quick a cut on the icy field and tripped all by himself falling INTO the Viking defender. And, AND we had an interception on that play nullified. The game SHOULD have been over right there.

Nonetheless, as a fan watching, trying to disassociate myself from the team that the game involved, all I could say was, "WOW."

It was amazing action. Video-game like action. FIVE touchdowns, scored so quickly, that you were absolutely stunned. And it happened 5 times in two minutes. The faces of the fans in Baltimore when the Vikings scored their two touchdowns was priceless. The gut wrenching emotion felt by all Vikings fans after all three Ravens TDs was equally palpable.

If the game MEANT more, it would go down in history as the most shell-shocking game of all-time.

As it is, it's just another Vikings loss and another nail in the coffin of Leslie Frazier's coaching career. The pooch kick that was ran back for a touchdown WAS his fault and all I could think of while the kick was in the air, was that nobody could be stupid enough to call for a pooch kick with those field conditions. They will have time to set up the perfect wedge and we won't be able to maneuver to stop their return man. I was right.

But a playoff spot wasn't at stake for us, so instead I'm going to enjoy those last two TDs that we got instead. Cassel was great yesterday. Gerhard had a good day with that go ahead TD run. The "fumble" he had earlier that led to the Raven's first TD was just another bad ref call.

All in all, that ending was as fantastic a finish as I'll ever see. It compares favorably to last week's Alabama/Auburn game. IF this was playoff game, and I was a Raven's fan, I would say this was a BETTER ending. But it wasn't and I'm not.

Still.

36 points in 2 minutes.

WOW!