NFL Conference Championship Games

Does it seem to you that the football season goes by way too fast?  To me it seems like the season just started and here we are in the Conference Championship Games week.  Hard to believe that there are only three games left in the season.  Granted they are the three biggest games but after that the season is over.   The games feature some interesting match ups.  In the AFC game you have two quarterbacks that are considered to be two of the best who have ever played the game.  In the other game you have two quarterbacks that have won the Heisman trophy and have had career years this year.  In Both the AFC and NFC conference championship games  you have the 1 vs 2 seed.  Not sure how many times that happens anymore but with the number of wild card teams that have won Super Bowls recently it probably does not happen as much as you would think.

The first game on Sunday is the Patriots (12-4) at the Broncos  (12-4)

At the end of the season it looked like the Patriots were going to be the one seed in the AFC and the Broncos were going to be out of the playoffs.  The Broncos got things back together for the last two games of the season to pull off wins and needing the Patriots to lose their last two games.  Which they did losing 26 -20 to the Jets and 20-10 to the Dolphins.  I am not sure how hard the Patriots were really trying to win the game against the Dolphins it really looked like they were trying out different plays that the might be using in the playoffs.  I am not sure but they did some things that they had not done all season.    If the Broncos have a chance in this game they really have to figure  a way to handle Gronkowski. How ever if they pay too much attention to him the Patriots will beat them in other ways.  They don’t really have a running game this year considering all their running backs got hurt and they are using Steven Jackson after pulling him back in to the game.  On the Offensive side of the ball The Broncos need to protect Peyton Manning and hope that hes wet noodle of an arm somehow comes back to life.  Can this happen.  Sure it can.  But will it?  I say no.

Patriots 24 Broncos 17

The Second game on Sunday is the Cardinals(13-3) at the Panthers (15-1)

The Panthers crushed the Seahawks in the first half of their game last week then put it on cruise control for the second half and almost blew the game.  The Cardinals played in one of the most exciting playoff games in recent history.  If the coin toss had gone the other way they probably would have lost this game.  That is not to say that they do not deserve to be here.  They did win the game.  Both of these teams have really good defenses and very dynamic quarterbacks.  Ranking 5th (Cardinals)  and 6th (Panthers) in total defense .  On Offense the Cardinals were the top rated team and the Panthers were 11th in overall offense.   Even though the Panthers had the best record this year they have not received a lot of respect.  The Cardinals were in the mix for the top overall spot before blowing games at the end of the season.  This may have been because they has already locked up their division and were already looking ahead to the playoffs.  Both teams showed they have what it takes last week.  I think that this is going to be a close game.

Panthers 24 Cardinals 23

Either way these games go they are going to be fun games to watch.  Let us know in the comments who your picks are.