[stkelly52]

Conference Semifinals
Washington 12-5 @ Atlanta 14-2
We were the most dominant team during the regular season, but if we were to loose this game, everyone will forget what a great team we were. The only option is for us to reach the Super Bowl. The first step is to take care of the Redskins. Washington started the year off solid, but they fell apart in the final 4 weeks and lost 3 games. Last week's win was a bit of a surprise and it may be a sign that they have turned things back around for themselves.

Washington is a team that relies heavily on their Super Star QB. Letourneau is one of the best in the league. Last year he brought Washington to the Super Bowl, this year he wants to win it. We should be able to run against them as the finished the year with the worst rushing average in the league. Hopefully Leland will be able to take advantage of their week run stoppers.

We won the toss and elected to receive. After a good runback we took over at the 33. Our strategy was obvious from the first play of the game. We would run the ball until the proved that they could stop us. Nixon ran well in his first few carries. But we were not able to sustain the drive and we had to punt it away (it went into the end zone for a touch back). Our defense then came out and did exactly what they were supposed to do. It took just three plays, and we got the ball back as Washington netted just 3 yards on their drive. We would not fair much better though, as our drive would be shortened by an interception on the second play. Fortunately, it was a long pass and it amounted to about the same as a punt, pinning them down inside the 10.

Washington moved the ball quite well, and it looked like they might be able to break the game open, but 94 yards is a long way, and their drive fizzled at our 46 yard line. Their punt forced us to start at our own 2 yard line. We set off on a near perfect drive. We mostly relied on runs by Leland, though we threw in a few passes for good measure as well. We only faced 2 third downs, and both of them were converted as we moved the length of the field to set up a 7 yard TD pass on the first play of the second quarter.

To this point it had been a very close, defensive game we were hoping, though, that this TD would be the spark that we needed to pull away. Washington's next drive would again last just 3 plays before they had to punt. And again we turned to Leland to pick up the bulk of the ensuing drives yards, before concluding the drive with a 9 yard TD pass to put us up 14-0.

It was nearly the exact same scenario that was played out again on the next set of drives. Washington went 3 and out, and we moved the ball easily down the field inside the 10 yard line. On 3rd and one, instead of giving it to the most surefire 1 yard TD RB in the league we tried to trick them with a hand off to the FB. It failed and we were forced to kick the field goal instead. But we still had a 17-0 lead.

Washington finally got a first down on their next drive, but just one before they were again forced to punt. With time running out in the half were put together another solid drive that only ended because we were short on time. With time counting down we kicked the field goal and went into the half with a 20-0 lead. Our defense was playing about as well as you could hope.

As the second half opened, our defense finally stumbled. We gave up an 80 yard drive that cut our lead to 20-7. following a couple of punts that we traded, our offence was again able to extend the lead out to 20 by scoring on another TD pass. And again the key to this drive was the running of Leland Nixon. With the score at 27-7 and the 4th quarter rapidly approaching, we felt quite confident that the game was well in hand.. We went into slowdown mode and tried out best to eat up all of the rest of the clock. Meanwhile our defense remained as stingy as ever throughout the rest of the game. When the final gun sounded we had the 27-7 victory and we were moving on to the NFC Championship.

While he did not score, Leland was a huge star in this game. We gave him the ball 48 times, and he carried for 224 yards. It was nothing less than a thing of beauty. We also suffered no new injuries for next week's game.

In other news around the NFL. Tampa crushed the Eagles in Philadelphia, meaning that we will play them for the third time this year to see who will go to the Super Bowl. Also Jacksonville's incredible run continues. They slipped past the Chargers 17-14. Next week they will travel to Baltimore to take on the 15-2 Ravens to try to earn their 6th consecutive Super Bowl appearance.