The Seattle Seahawks will host the Los Angeles Rams for the NFC title while in the AFC, the surprising New England Patriots (4-13 a year ago) will travel to Denver to face the Broncos, who will be looking to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time in ten years. The Patriots last made the Super Bowl following the 2018 season, when (Coach) Bill Belichick and (quarterback) Tom Brady were still dominating the league.
Here is a look at each game this weekend with predictions for the outcome of both games.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS at DENVER BRONCOS
The Patriots manhandled the Houston Texans last Sunday in their home win in the divisional round with quarterback Drake Maye throwing for three touchdowns, but also throwing an interception and losing another fumble leading to five turnovers in the two playoff games. The Patriots defense has been tremendous, registering six sacks against the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild card win and forcing five turnovers against the Texans last week. On the other side, the Broncos keep doing enough right things in their games to win. Last week against Buffalo, they forced five turnovers and pressured Bills QB Josh Allen throughout the game with the pass rush. Denver led the NFL with 68 sacks during the regular season.
New England Head Coach Mike Vrabel has been very successful in getting the team to buy into what he wants from them, having seen the team improve by ten games from a year ago. The offense was second in the league in scoring and the defense has steadily improved all season long. The Broncos are led by veteran head Coach Sean Payton, who is looking to get back to the Super Bowl for first time in 16 seasons after winning it all back in 2009 with the New Orleans Saints. The Broncos will be without starting QB Bo Nix, who suffered a season ending ankle injury last week. Jarrett Stidham will be the starting quarterback for the Broncos in this game and he hasn't seen a whole lot of action in the last few seasons. In fact, he did play with the Patriots for two seasons (2019-2020) in a backup role. The key will be avoiding mistakes against a stingy Pats defense and getting the running game going. Whichever team avoids the turnover bug will win the game.
LOS ANGELES RAMS at SEATTLE SEAHAWKS
These teams know each other very well having faced each other twice as NFC West division foes. Both games were tight (Rams won 21-19 and Seahawks won 38-37 in OT) with the home team winning each time. The Rams led the NFL in scoring this season (30.5 PPG) while the Seahawks had the best scoring defense, allowing just 17.2 points per game.
The Rams won a tight one in OT against the Chicago Bears last Sunday night following a three-point win at Carolina in the wild card round. The Seahawks crushed the visiting San Francisco 49ers, 41-6 last weekend while seeing their running game dominate with Kenneth Walker III scoring three touchdowns and QB Sam Darnold avoiding mistakes that haunted him last year (with Minnesota) in the playoffs. Seattle will be without Zach Charbonnet (knee injury) for the rest of the post-season, leaving it up to Walker to carry the load for the rushing attack. The Rams have the likely regular season MVP in Matthew Stafford at quarterback and he has been there and done that before, having led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory four years ago. The L.A. passing attack is very formidable and Seattle has seen that already, so they know what to expect. This game should be another close one for sure and could go to overtime again.
The Heftyinfo picks for the AFC and NFC Championship Games . . . . . (home teams are listed in bold)
New England over Denver
Seattle over L.A. Rams
Last Week's Record - 2-2
PLAYOFF RECORD - 5-5
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