First off, apologies for the downtime there. Apparently the server that hosts SB Nation and several other big sites (Daily Kos and Perez Hilton...who knew?) had an outage. But it seems things are back up and running.
The Cardinals-Saints matchup ended up being as wild as many of us expected, although maybe not quite that result. I figured the Saints would win, but I was a bit surprised at how easily they handled Arizona. Although, given what our 49ers did to the Cardinals this season, maybe I shouldn't surprised. Either way, New Orleans is on to the NFC Championship game after a 45-14 whupping of Arizona.
While there's plenty to discuss with the remaining playoff games, the biggest story to now emerge for 49ers fans is the Kurt Warner retirement watch. It might even be more important than the special teams coach search! Mike Sando posted some information that emerged after the game as to Warner's next step:
"A big hit like that makes you think twice about playing this game," Warner said lightly.
Warner said he plans to get away for a while and talk over his future with wife Brenda. He has one year remaining on his contract.
"I don't think it will be a long and drawn-out process," Warner said. "I think it's something I will discuss with my family and inform the organization about what I plan to do as soon as I have time to think about it."
Given how big an impact this could have on the rest of the NFC West, we'll definitely have plenty of coverage of the situation in the coming days, weeks, and possibly months.