NFL Primetime 2009 Championship Playoff Sunday (ESPN January 24th, 2010)

Chris Berman and Tom Jackson host ESPN NFL Primetime for 2009 Championship Sunday, where Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts beat the New York Jets 30-17, while Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints barely edged Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings 31-28. This game was the first time in NFL history that two first-year head coaches met in any conference championship game. The Colts defeated the Jets for the first time in the postseason and advanced to their second Super Bowl in the last four seasons. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning threw for 377 yards and three touchdowns as his team recovered from an 11-point deficit by scoring 24 unanswered points. For the second time in three seasons, the NFC Championship Game required overtime to decide a winner. As in that game and the two other overtime games in the history of the conference championship games, the winning score was a field goal, this one from Saints kicker Garrett Hartley. The Vikings outgained New Orleans in total yards 475 to 257, and overcame five turnovers (three fumbles and two interceptions) to send the game to overtime. For the second time in 11 seasons, the Vikings were defeated by a field goal in a conference championship game, as they had lost by the same differential to the Atlanta Falcons in the 1998 NFC Championship Game. This would turn out to be Brett Favre's final playoff game. ____________________________________________________