NFC Championship Game: Rams 24, Bears 13

Down 10-3 at the half the Rams offense was starting to doubt themselves. The Bear defense had stymied them for a full 30 minutes. When the 3rd quarter started it looked to be more of the same. When great offenses meet up with great defenses in the post season games are tight and one key pivotal play sometimes is needed to jump start things. That play occurred with 5:13 left to play in the 3rd, when Dexter McCleon jumped a route on his own 19 for what would become an 81 yard pick 6. Just like that the game went from the Bears looking to go up by 2 scores to the Rams tying it. When you give Kurt Warner and company life they take yours. Warner hit Tory Holt from 4 yards out to cap off a 12 play 74 yard drive to give the Rams their first lead of the day.

The Bears now had to play catchup and went on a long drive of their own, which netted a Paul Edinger 38 yard FG and made the score 17-13 with just over 5 minutes to play. Tension began to mount with the margin for error being just 4 points. The Rams took over possession at the 2:14 mark looking to run out the clock. They did better than that when Marshall Faulk took the ball to the house with a 46 yard TD run to put the Rams up by 11 and send them to New Orleans for a date with destiny vs the Chargers. On a day where both QB's were overly generous: Miller 4 pics / Warner 3 pics, Marshall Faulk (21-121-td) outplayed his counterpart Anthony Thomas (14-30) to win the NFC Championship MVP.