#2- San Francisco 49ers @ #1- Atlanta Falcons - Sun 20 Jan 13 - 3:00 PM ET - FOX - The great thing that I love about the NFL is that you can be a person who is extremely knowledgeable about football and make these fancy, detailed, elaborate predictions and yet have most or all of them fail. Its the unpredictability of the league that makes it really fun. Out of the three games I picked wrong, though, the Niners were the team that surprised me the most. I still feel bad for Alex Smith, that has never been changed, but Colin Kaepernick was amazing. And as I was watching him, I was actually having nightmarish flashbacks. College football-wise I am a big BYU fan and I remember the day we played Kaepernick's Nevada team and Kaepernick ran all over us. The man was insane and made me depressed that no matter what we did, we couldn't stop him. Packer fans now know how I feel. Now CK and the Niners get to travel to Atlanta for a chance to punch their ticket to the Super Bowl. Now as far as Atlanta goes, they are feeling pretty stoked right now because Matty Ice finally get his first playoff win. And it was a good playoff win against a good Seahawks team. They look to take that momentum into this game. Now if we look at a huge pattern, the Niners actually haven't won three games in a row yet this season, which might be surprising to you, but is true. And following that pattern, they have now won two straight and so following that they might just tank and get blown out by the Falcons, but my gut impression says that they will not fall into that trap and will come victorious. Here is my deciding factor. The Falcons actually have one of the worst run defenses in the league. And they are going up against Colin Kaepernick and Frank Gore. Not a good sign. I do think that the Falcons will keep it close for the majority of the game, but San Fran will pull this off and be the first team of the day to set them up for the Super Bowl.
Prediction: 49ers 27 - Falcons 20
#4- Baltimore Ravens @ #2- New England Patriots - Sun 20 Jan 13 - 6:30 PM ET - CBS - It's almost amusing to think that the last time there was a rematch in the AFC Championship game, as in both teams made it to the game two years in a row, the Cleveland Browns were one of those two teams. Yeah, can you believe it? The Browns were actually good at one point. It is always fun watching the Ravens and the Patriots play because you know it will be a close game. The last two times these two teams played, once in the AFC Championship game last year and again in earlier this year, the game was decided by a field goal, the former in favor of the Patriots and the latter in favor of the Ravens. A lot of people will be counting the Ravens out of this one, and I can see why. The Pats are playing extremely good football right now and it is tough to beat Tom Brady in the playoffs. Joe Flacco has had a good winning career in the playoffs, but he has yet to lead his team over the hump and into the Super Bowl. Last year when the Ravens lost in the AFC Championship game to the Pats, Ray Lewis had the following to say: "We gotta come back and go to work and make sure we finish it next time." Well, they have done the first part of that, come back. The second part of that will be a little tricky, but I actually believe it will happen. This is Ray Lewis' last season and it would be really fantastic to see him go out on a Super Bowl win. And I think that I am not the only one who thinks this. I think that his teammates want this to happen and will play inspired ball because of him. I am predicting that yet again the game will go down to a late field goal, but in favor for the Ravens this time.
Prediction: Ravens 33 - Patriots 30
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