After a long offseason, 17 weeks of regular season football and two playoff rounds, we are into the home stretch of the NFL postseason.
The top two seeds in each conference take center stage this weekend as they battle for a shot to head to Atlanta for the 2019 Super Bowl. For some teams, this game seems normal, but for others it could be their first and last appearance for a while.
Who’s playing?
The AFC is up first: Kansas City Chiefs vs. New England Patriots. This is a matchup most did not expect as the regular season started to close up shop. Most believed the Chiefs could make it, due to the play of their star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Despite the team’s defensive woes, the offense has righted the ship throughout the season to put them in a position for a deep playoff run.
New England on the other hand struggled for much of the season, but one would not know that, based on their 11-5 record and first-round bye. The Patriots played host to the Los Angeles Chargers last weekend in a game many believed would be the end of the Brady-Belichick dynasty.
Not quite.
The Patriots looked like the team of old, beating L.A. 41-28, though the score is much closer than the game actually was. New England now must head into Arrowhead Stadium in what is expected to be the coldest game in the stadium’s history.
AFC prediction
The underdog Patriots will play in their eighth-straight conference championship, but it will not end happily as they will fall to the Chiefs, 35-21.
The NFC has a compelling matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans. It is a battle of conference supremacy between a young coach paired with a young quarterback and an old coach with an old quarterback.
Both teams have been on top of their game this season, but had different paths through the divisional round to get to this point. Los Angeles handled quarterback Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys easily. The combination of Todd Gurley and C.J. Anderson amounted for 238 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Jared Goff will have to fare better under center to beat the Saints, but if the run game continues to thrive, the point may be moot.
New Orleans struggled early against the Philadelphia Eagles, with Drew Brees throwing an interception on the first play. They quickly went down 14-0 in the first quarter, but shutout Philly the rest of the game, converting on third-and-long countless times and extending drives over 10 minutes.
NFC prediction
Drew Brees and Sean Payton do not have many more opportunities together, while Jared Goff and Sean McVay do. The Saints take this one, 28-24 and go head-to-head with Kansas City in the Super Bowl.
