Nearly all relevant obstacles to a championship have been removed from the Patriots' path, as if Mark Henderson plowed the rest of the playoff field aside for them the way he created a tidy swath of turf for the game-winning field goal in the Snowplow Gamein 1982.
No Peyton Manning. No Ben Roethlisberger. No Rex Ryan. No Drew Brees. No Aaron Rodgers. This playoff field is as soft as a pair of Brady's UGG boots.
Events have lined up perfectly for the Patriots to host tomorrow's AFC Championship game at Gillette Stadium and punch their ticket to a fifth Super Bowl in 11 seasons. Call it karma for Patriots owner Robert Kraft helping to save football and end the lockout.
In a season of unabated offense in the NFL that may go down as the Year of the Quarterback, the Patriots can advance to the Big Game without having to take down a single elite signal-caller. The list of quarterbacks the Patriots avoided playing in the AFC playoffs reads like a Pro Bowl program: Manning, Roethlisberger, Matt Schaub and Philip Rivers.
Here are the quarterbacks they will have beaten if they earn their way to Indianapolis -- Tim Tebow and Joe Flacco.
Tebow's teammate, Champ Bailey, said Tebow has to learn to throw from the pocket, kind of an important quality for an NFL quarterback.
Flacco sounds like the Eeyore of NFL QBs. He has spent all week bemoaning critiques and a shortfall of respect after Baltimore safety Ed Reed said he looked "rattled" in the Ravens' playoff victory over the Houston Texans.
Flacco possesses a 5-3 playoff record, including a win over the Patriots in 2009. However, he threw just 10 times in that game and has thrown more interceptions (seven) than touchdowns (six) in his postseason career. Brady threw six playoff touchdown passes last week against Denver. Flacco is still the best quarterback the Patriots have faced in 11 weeks.
Avoiding high-quality quarterback play is a minor miracle when you consider the Patriots' pass defense allowed the second most passing yards in the history of the league (4,977), 11 yards short of equaling the ignominious record set by this year's Green Bay Packers.
