Twenty weeks of NFL football have come and gone, narrowing the field from 32 teams down to four.
The Seattle Seahawks will host the Los Angeles Rams to represent the NFC, and the New England Patriots will head west to square off against the Denver Broncos for the AFC crown. The winner of each game will meet in Santa Clara for the Super Bowl on Feb. 8.
In what has been an incredibly unpredictable season, I believe the only fair assessment in looking at these two games is absolutely anything can happen. I will provide a brief overview on each team followed by predictions for the final three games of this NFL season.
The Los Angeles Rams have something that none of the other remaining teams possess, a quarterback who has won the Super Bowl already. Matthew Stafford took the Lombardi trophy home in the 2021 season and is looking to lock up a Hall of Fame bid with a second championship.
The Rams arguably have the best coach and quarterback left in the playoffs, which bodes well historically.
Offensive mastermind Sean McVay continues to dominate despite a rather slow game in Chicago where they won in overtime, taking down the Bears. The game was by no stretch pretty, but a win is a win in this league especially in the playoffs.
The MVP frontrunner Stafford will look to get revenge from the 38-37 overtime loss to Seattle just a month ago, which ended up costing the Rams the chance to host this game.
The Seattle Seahawks have a defense that I don’t believe any team left comes close to in terms of talent and production. Head Coach Mike Macdonald has taken the league by storm in his first two years going 25-10 and holding opposing teams to an average of 19.4 points per game, which is very impressive.
Sam Darnold hasn’t been his best in big games in recent years, but he really didn’t have to be incredible last week when they embarrassed the 49ers by a score of 41-6 led by a 3-touchdown game from star running back Kenneth Walker III. If Sam Darnold can play turnover free and this defense plays to their standard, they will be a very tough out.
Moving to the AFC, the Denver Broncos received unfortunate news that rising star quarterback Bo Nix will miss the remainder of the season (coming off the heels of a dramatic overtime win against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills). They are down but are far from out.
Head Coach Sean Payton has expressed extreme confidence in backup signal caller Jarrett Stidham, who has not played a ton of regular season football in his career but has been in the Payton system long enough to comprehend and execute it well.
The Broncos also have a great defense and could stun the second-year Patriots quarterback into a few mistakes, which is exactly what it will take if they want to extend their season.
Finally, the New England Patriots seem to be back and on the fast track to another Super Bowl appearance. Coach Mike Vrabel and QB Drake Maye have been a perfect combination, and there is a lot to like on both sides of the ball. They will look to tee off on the backup Jarrett Stidham and win in field position making him drive the full length of the field, a big reason I believe this will be a slow and low-scoring game.
As for predictions:
NFC Championship Rams 26-Seattle 23
AFC Championship Patriots 23- Broncos 13
Super Bowl Rams 30- Patriots 23
