Predicting the 2018-19 NFL Conference Championships
I am going to start quick with an apology for not posting for a few days due to semester exams starting this week. I am hoping to return to a normal schedule next week, so thank you for your patience! Now onto the predictions.
1 Kansas City Chiefs (13-3) vs 2 New England Patriots (12-4)
The rematch of one of the best regular season games of 2018, the Chiefs welcome the Patriots to Kansas City for the AFC Championship. Both teams have been superb this season and with great offenses. Patriots QB Tom Brady has been his normal great self, throwing for over 4,300 yards and 29 touchdowns during the regular season with his normal weapons in TE Rob Gronkowski and WR Julian Edelman. And similar to the previous few years the ground game has been amazing, especially with RBs James White and Sony Michel in the middle of career seasons. Kansas City's surge came as a surprise to many football fans who didn't look into them too much. Yes they had an above average regular season in 2017, but disappointingly went out in the Wild Card to the Tennessee Titans. This year they came back with a vengeance with new QB Patrick Mahomes and a fast offense. Mahomes is personally my MVP for this season just due to his athletic ability and maturity for such a young quarterback. Name me another QB with 50 TDs in his first full season, I'll wait. Kansas City is scoring on average eight points more per game than the Patriots, but are also allowed 100 more points during the regular season. The deciding factor in this game will be how defenses can adapt mid-game and which team can not turnover the ball, because I expect a lot of scoring in this game.
Prediction: Chiefs 38 Patriots 33
1 New Orleans Saints (13-3) vs 2 Los Angeles Rams (12-4)
The other game this weekend is also a rematch from an eventful regular season game, with the New Orleans Saints facing off against the LA Rams. The Saints have been arguably the best team in the NFL, going 13-3 and would've probably went 14-2 if they didn't rest key starters in Week 17 versus Carolina. QB Drew Brees is still getting better with age like a fine wine with his sidekicks in RB Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram. WR Michael Thomas is having a career season in New Orleans, having 125 receptions for 1,405 yards and nine touchdowns. The defense is better than previous playoff runs, which may be why they just have been spectacular this season. For LA, experts knew how good they would be just because of how much money they spent this off-season. But at times though, they have fell below expectations. Some may say one of those times were last weekend against Dallas which was maybe closer than it should have been. But, young Head Coach Sean McVay has done an excellent job with this team. He cannot connect with them on a different level than most coaches because he is around the same age as most of the players. QB Jared Goff can have his bad days, but RB Todd Gurley has been "Mr. Consistent" for this Rams offense. We will have to see if recently signed RB C.J. Anderson can have just as good of a game than last week. There is one stat that puzzled me that I heard about right before Christmas that has had me thinking more and more that the Saints will win the Super Bowl. When they won the Super Bowl in 2010, they were the one seed in the NFC, were 13-3, and lost to Carolina, Dallas, and Tampa Bay. It is the exact same this season.
Prediction: Saints 31 Rams 24
If you ever want to contact me about anything related to sports or the blog, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected] and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can!
