"The Red Rifle," Cincinnati Quarterback Andy Dalton, 2nd-year man out of TCU, nearly gave his team the win over last year's Super Bowl champs in a stunning AFC Divisional playoff performance.
The Patriots didn't face the Ravens or the Steelers in this year's AFC Divisional Playoffs, but instead faced the Cincinnati Bengals. Although NE was able to limit Cedric on the ground to less than 150 yards rushing and less than 6 ypc (a stellar achievement for the well-worn defense), the Red Rifle was having his way with the Patriots' pass defense, hitting Green, Shipley, Gresham all over the place on all kinds of routes. Even former Patriot WR Ben Tate got revenge on his old ballclub, with over 100 yards receiving. By the end of the 3rd quarter, NE came back from a 21-31 halftime deficit to lead 38-30, hoping they could somehow preserve that lead and avoid overtime because unknown sources inside the team confirmed that they dreaded the thought of losing the coin flip and having the defense try to stop Cincy's surprisingly powerful offense. Cincy's defense absolutely shut down New England's running game, keeping them to less than 50 yards rushing for the entire game and giving up only 2.6 yards per attempt, forcing NE to be predictably one-dimensional with a passing attack. NE couldn't preserve the lead. After a few killed drives by both sides, The Red Rifle gets on fire and drives his team down into the redzone, and hits AJ Green in the back right corner of the endzone for Green's 2nd TD reception, and a clutch one because it tied the game in the 4th with only 1:06 left on the clock. Luckily, with good clock management, New England marched down the field from their own 22 with Brady, and by hitting TE Aaron Hernandez (who was cold going into this game and became the starter when "on fire" Offensive Playmaker TE Rob Gronkowski broke his collarbone in the second quarter) made an extremely clutch catch in traffic, catching the ball down the seam for a 20-yard completion to the 16 all the while getting slammed by Cincy's SS. The home crowd roared and went wild, in disbelief that he held on. Cue Patriots Kicker Stephen Gostowski. Bengals' Head Coach Marvin Lewis burned a timeout to try to ice Gostowksi, but it didn't work. He has ice water running through his veins! Clutch kick to win it, 41-38 (with only 16 seconds left on clock, a prevent defense stopped the Red Rifle's two miracle hail mary attempts).
Pats' QB Tom Brady was deemed "player of the game" by the media, but it's important not to forget that K Gostowksi sealed the deal for New England.
