NFL Championship Weekend is finally upon us – or as Teddy Bruschi calls it: free hat and t-shirt weekend. The games today are the final stop on the road to NOLA. Both offer intriguing matchups and make for a Sunday Funday.

49ers at Falcons
The NFC is a chalk matchup where the top 2 seeds have made it to this point. Last week, we saw Atlanta finally get over their past playoff failures (barely) and Colin Kaepernick have a playoff breakout game in record setting fashion. This week, San Francisco a 4-point favorite, which is the biggest spread for a road team in a conference championship since 1978. However, the Niners have been a team that’s hard to get a pulse on this season, and have not won a playoff road game since 1989. Even after making a change at QB, they have been inconsistent and followed up big wins by falling flat at times. Can they come out and play this week in the same dominating fashion that they did against the Packers? If so, this game will be over before halftime.

The Niners are physical and have a great defense that should hinder Atlanta’s ability to get push up front and run with the same tenacity as last week. Kaepernick will have to stay composed in his first road playoff game. Atlanta’s strategy will be to make him beat them with his arm, however he’s such a powerful runner that he will be a nightmare for the dirty birds. The Falcons, despite a 3-1 record against similar QB’s have overall struggled with the read option this season, particularly against Cam Newton…today they see a faster version of Cam who is a better runner and has a more accurate arm. Additionally, the more they involve Vernon Davis, they better they will do – he’s a big target and good athlete. I’m also not concerned about the Michael Crabtree news being a distraction, he’s having a good season and expect that to continue today. A key for the Falcons will be if they can slow down the San Fran run game, which they did a pretty good job with last week versus Seattle. Matty Ice has great targets down field and will test the Niners secondary all day – provided he has time to get the ball off. Rumor has it that Julio Jones might break out the dirty bird dance today – I hope he scores just so I can see that! Their run game was great last week (mostly due to Seattle losing Clemons), but I don’t think it will be as much of a factor this week against a strong front seven from SF.

Statistically, the Falcons are better than the Niners in the red zone on both sides of the ball. I don’t put much thought into this fact, just found it interesting. Ultimately, I think the San Fran D and Colin Kaepernick will lead the Niners to a victory – but expect it to be a close game. Niners Win

Ravens at Patriots
In the AFC, this will be the third time we see these two teams play in a 13-month span, and if the last 2 matchups are any indication, this should be another exciting game to watch. Many of you will remember the AFC Title Game last year when Lee Evans bobbled the game winning catch that would have sent the Ravens to the Super Bowl, followed by Billy Cundiff missing a routine FG that would have tied the game just to see New England go on to another Super Bowl. Then, they met again in September when Torrey Smith had a huge game in honor of his brother and Justin Tucker kicked a game winning FG in Baltimore (which I’m still not sure if it was good- close call) to give the Ravens a win. So, here were are, with two teams that won their respective divisions and are very familiar with one another. The Ray Lewis farewell tour continues today – and will be ending today if you believe the countdown billboard that was put up in Boston. The Ravens are coming in after a huge upset over the Broncos where their resiliency won out and Ray plays on. The Patriots, on the other hand had a routine win over the Texans last week, but lost Gronk in the process. The Patriots are an 8-point favorite, which surprises me since these two teams always seem to get into tight battles, and I expect the same today.

The Patriots have Tom Brady running an up tempo offense, which has been very effective in scoring points. This could be key for them today given both the age of the Ravens D and the fact that their defense has been on the field for 174 snaps so far this postseason. Even without Gronk, the Pats still have plenty of targets. My biggest question here is how their running game will do. Shane Vereen had a huge game last week when Ridley went out, but how will the 2 of them work together in the backfield this week? Ray Lewis knows he has to come out and give it his all this week – he already has 30 tackles in 2 postseason games. Their rush defense has to step up and try to force Brady to make mistakes. Joe Flacco is still trying to prove that he’s elite, and while I’m not convinced yet, his 5 road playoff wins this early in his career are impressive. His success has often come in the form of big plays – we saw Torrey Smith beat Champ Bailey like a drum multiple times last week to bring the Ravens back every time it looked like they were getting into a hole and then a huge play in the last minute to Jacoby Jones to force OT and eventually win. I expect to see more big play attempts today – and the Ravens success could depend on if those are completions, or at least not interceptions. Additionally, Ray Rice is a stud in the backfield and has to be utilized correctly to keep the offense balanced and effective. The emergence of TE’s as targets (maybe they got this idea from the Pats) has also helped give Flacco options for turning potential sacks into short yardage completions. The New England D has gotten better as the season went on, but if Flacco and Rice bring their “A game” today, it will be tough for them to be slowed down.

Conventional wisdom says that New England wins – it’s just what they do. But I’m not always the most conventional person. I wouldn’t be surprised if this game comes down to a field goal make or miss again. The Ravens will cover the spread today, and if my gut is right, Ray Plays On one more time. Hey, diddle diddle, Ray Rice up the middle… Ravens Win

Prediction most likely to go wrong: AFC Title Game

Closing Thought: If my predictions are right, the Super Bowl would also be the Harbaugh Bowl – pretty crazy to think of two brothers facing off to win the Lombardi Trophy. Would make for some fun story lines…but first we need to play the games!