The bookies favourites are the Kansas City Chiefs, lead by their 3rd year quarterback out of Texas Tech, Patrick Mahomes II, who lost out at this stage last season, losing in overtime to the eventual Super Bowl champs, New England Patriots. Chiefs fans out there will be hoping that the experience of losing at this stage last season will spur on the team to their first Super Bowl victory since 1970 where they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in New Orleans. The Chiefs must have been cursing themselves in last weeks Divisional Round where after just a quarter they trailed 24-0 to the Deshaun Watson lead Houston Texans, a quarterback they passed on in the 2017 NFL draft where they chose the afore mentioned Mahomes II, trading up to the 10th overall pick, a decision which looking back on it has not raised any eyebrows, however the irony must have been in the back of the mind of GM Brett Veach and HC Andy Reid. Mahomes then showed his class, tossing for 4 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter and hauling the Chiefs back into the picture, after a huge battle on offence, the tie ended up being a high scoring affair, the Chiefs coming out on top 51-31. Mahomes has not hit the glittering headlines of his exceptional first year as starter in 2018 where he tossed for 50 regular season touchdowns, however has still had an above average season, picking out his main targets of Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill more often that not, which means that he is still the quarterback to fear in this offseason, maybe they will become the new force in the NFL, however competing year in, year out with the Baltimore Ravens, with their quarterback Lamar Jackson seems an enticing prospect for any neutral. As a fan of the sport, battles between Mahomes and Jackson is definitely something to look forward to, and with Mahomes only being 24 and Jackson being 23, fingers crossed there are plenty of battles to come. It does look as if the Chiefs are the team to beat but you never know what's round the corner in Playoff Football.
The team looking to take down the chiefs are this years surprise package, Tennessee Titans, who's main man and biggest threat seems to be the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner, running back, Derrick Henry. The Titans mid-season trade for quarterback Ryan Tannehill after his release from the Miami Dolphins, displacing former first round draft choice Marcus Mariota, seems to be a shrewd decision as he has fitted in to the system that the Titans play like a glove. The number 6 seed came into the playoffs with the dreaded task of going to Foxbrough to play reigning Super Bowl champs and the seemingly invicible, New England Patriots, who have been lead since 2001 by the greatest quarterback to ever lace up in the NFL, Tom Brady, or as he is now referred 'The GOAT'. However this is something that the Titans did not fear, taking down the Patriots 20-13, shocking everybody associated with the NFL. The Titans then had to go to number one seed Baltimore Ravens as mentioned above with the sure favourite for the MVP award Jackson, a task which teams haven't exactly looked forward to this season. But in line with the common theme of this Titans team, it certainly did not faze them, Henry running for 195 yards off 30 carries. This has now given the Chiefs something to think about going in to this weekends fixture which looks as if it is going to be an absolute cracker.
MY PREDICTION - I do believe the Chiefs will just have enough to beat the Titans, however it will be a tight affair, I think Mahomes will show his class, the crowd at Arrowhead will drag the team through it and as much as I feel the Chiefs have a vulnerable defence towards the running game of Henry, Tannehill's lack of experience in the playoffs may show, expect a touchdown from the secondary defence of Kansas City. If I had to give a score prediction, I would say Kansas City by 6, with a Hail Mary attempt from Tannehill being intercepted late on.
Now in the NFC Championship game, a real comeback story vs somebody who has been a constant threat to any side for since I can remember, both teams having the same record in the NFL this season at 13-3.
The San Francisco 49ers after having 2nd pick in the 2019 draft find themselves in the Championship game, something I really did not predict happening before the start of the season, this must have even come as a surprise to the most optimistic of 49ers fans. However with the 2nd pick of the draft, they drafted, for me, the best player in the draft in LE Nick Bosa, which is a name which makes you sit up and listen after brother Joey's performances since being drafted by the Chargers a few years prior. Their quarterback is the former understudy to Tom Brady in New England, Jimmy Garoppolo, who seemed as if he was on the way to a career which was not going to reach the potential it seemed it had a few years ago in New England. When he was traded to San Francisco to the surprise of many it seemed as if they had found their new franchise quarterback, however just 3 games into his career in Santa Clara, the quarterback suffered a torn ACL in an injury that saw him miss the rest of the season, this then poised the obvious question of 'Will we see Jimmy G back firing like we expect him to'? To his credit, Garoppolo has bounced back and has been worth his plaudits this year, leading the 49ers to a 13-3 regular season record, helped by a mid-season signing of Emmanuel Sanders who has looked like the receiver he was in Seattle when Russell Wilson was throwing to the likes of him and Tyler Lockett who is still looking like a huge weapon in the Seahawks offence and TE George Kittle who has turned into an absolute machine in the last 2 seasons for San Francisco, looking like he could be a future Hall of Famer. The 49ers have also drawn plaudits for their rushing offence, with the 2nd best record of this regular season behind just Baltimore, who have arguably 1 of the most well known rushing threats in the NFL in Jackson, showing quite how impressive they have been this season. They have been the team to beat all season in the NFC this season having only lost their first game in week 10 to the Seattle Seahawks, this being their 9th game of the season, this is something that people will be looking at when preparing for the 49ers this season, they will not be an easy game for anyone.
Their opponents this weekend and the visitors to the Levi's Stadium are the Green Bay Packers who are lead by future first ballot Hall of Famer, Aaron Rodgers who has been one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, certainly in the bracket of the Tom Brady's, Joe Montana's, the top top tier of players. He has made every team who passed on him in the 2005 draft definitely rethink their decision to pass on him, proving to everybody that he should have been the number 1 pick in that draft over QB Alex Smith who has not had a bad career, but certainly has not hit the heights that Rodgers has hit in his career. Rodgers was a Super Bowl champion in 2011 defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl 45 by 31 points to 25 and he will be hoping that he can upset the odds and take the Packers back to the promised land as they have not been in the National Championship since then and its a question of should Rodgers have won more possessing the class that he has done? Well he may just add to his total if WR Davante Adams is on his game, Rodgers main target has been tremendous this season and has grown into the role of number one target since the loss of Randall Cobb to Dallas and Jordy Nelson to Oakland. Some of the route's that Adams ran in the Divisional Round victory vs Seattle were nothing less than superb, obviously helped out at times by tremendous throwing by Rodgers, one throw sticking out which created the first score in the game, a beautifully floated throw by Rodgers but Adams making the defensive back look silly by checking his run and being wide open when going into the corner, it looked as wonderful as it sounds. Another player who has really impressed me this season for Green Bay has been running back Aaron Jones, who has ran in for 19 touchdowns this season, impressive for anybody but in an offence which is usually pass orientated, Jones must be impressing HC Matt LeFleur in practice to be able to get the ball out of the hands of Rodgers. As a neutral going in to this round of fixtures, if I had to pick a team I would like to see lift the Vince Lombardi trophy on the 2nd February, it would definitely be the Cheeseheads but it will be a tricky task for even a quarterback of Rodgers class to overcome stiff opposition, however I was impressed by the Packers against the Russell Wilson lead Seahawks.
MY PREDICTION - I feel this is a tighter call than the AFC Championship as we have 2 Super Bowl winning quarterbacks on show (albeit Garoppolo as a backup) however working under Brady and coach Belicheck must give him the knowhow of how to handle the pressure in these situations. This is something I believe will give them the edge in this game, unfortunately for Rodgers, I do think this is the end of the road for the Packers this season, and I also do think this is the last chance for Rodgers to lift his 2nd Super Bowl, I'm going for San Francisco to win by double digits and I feel their running game will kill the Packers, I feel like the offensive line of the Packers looked weak at times against Seattle and I feel like people like Nick Bosa will put enough pressure on Rodgers and he is not the scrambler he once was, leading to opportunities for sacks and to push the Packers further back on offence and gaining better field position for San Francisco.
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