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Seattle Seahawks Battle the San Francisco 49ers for 2014 NFC Championship

The San Francisco 49ers visit Seattle to tackle the Seahawks in the National Football Conference’s Championship this coming Sunday, January 19 at Century Link Field. Kickoff is at 6:30pm ET, with the game being show nationally on the Fox Sports network.

The winner of the NFC Championship game will meet the winner of the AFC Championship game between the number one seeded Denver Broncos and the number two seed New England Patriots. The two winners will play Sunday, Feb 2nd in the National Football League’s Super Bowl XLVIII in New York, New York. It will also mark the very first ‘cold’ weather game to played outdoors in Super Bowl history.

Bookmakers see this game as a virtual toss-up, with the Hawks being made a 3-point favorite because of the home field advantage, while all expect the game to be very low scoring as the Total for this NFC Championship is set at 39.

On Sunday, the Niners and Hawks will be meeting as virtual mirror images of each other: both having very strong defences, strong running attacks (Niners’ Frank Gore and the Seahawks’ Marshawn Lynch) and young athletic quarterbacks (Niners Colin Kaepernick and the Hawks Russell Wilson). And both are led by their coaches who both were in the Pac 10 just four years ago.

The 49ers are led by Jim Harbaugh, while the Seahawks have Pete Carroll leading the way. Both teams flat out hate each other, as do both coaches, who’ve both had personal run-ins with each other over the years, in both the Pac 10 and in the NFL.

Head to head this year, the two teams split the two games, each winning in their home parks. The Seahawks thumped the Niners 27-3 back in week 2, while the Niners squeaked out a 19-17 win just four weeks ago, the gaming winning field goal booted with less than a minute remaining in the game.

Both teams are both going into the game quite healthy, with the biggest name in question being Seattle Wideout Percy Harvin, who is listed as questionable because of the NFL-mandated concussion protocol, as Harvin missed the second half of last week’s game against the New Orleans Saints with a concussion.

San Francisco, the number 5 seed in the NFC, has made it to the big NFC game by virtue of a 12-4 regular season record, and road playoff wins over both Green Bay and Carolina. Seattle had a 13-3 regular season mark, giving it the number 1 seed in the NFC. Last week the Hawks squeezed by the visiting New Orleans Saints by a 23-15 count.

Super Bowl 47 Preview: Baltimore Ravens vs San Francisco 49ers

Quarterbacks will be front and center when the AFC champion Baltimore Ravens battle the NFC champion 49ers from San Francisco this Sunday, Feb 3rd in New Orleans, looking to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy in Super Bowl XLVII.

Colin Kaepernick will be under center for the Niners when kickoff ensues at 6:30pm ET Sunday, while the Ravens will have Joe Flacco leading the way, as the two teams look to add another notch to their respective team’s Super Bowl belts. The 49ers have claimed five championships for their franchise, while the Ravens are looking to add to the one win they claimed back in 2001.

Sportsbook odds makers have the 49ers as the slight favorites, giving them a 3.5 point handicap with the Total now sitting at 47 points.

Kaepernick has been especially impressive since he took over from the incumbent quarterback Alex Smith mid-way through the 2012 season, displaying an ability to not only throw the ball down the field, but using his legs to confuse defences, which was on display when he rushed for an NFL rushing playoff record for a quarterback by hauling the ball 183 yards during a big win over the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round. Flacco has been equally impressive by throwing eight TDs and zero interceptions while spearheading an attack that has knocked off some of the best QBs in the game in Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, during wins over the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots.

On the defensive side of the ball, the 49ers have arguably the best front seven in football, and boast one of the top 3 defenses in the NFL statistically. They have one of the top rush ends in Aldon Smith, DT Justin Smith, middle linebacker Patrick Willis and outside linebacker NaVarro Bowman. The Ravens have been defined by their defence over the past decade, led by all-world middle linebacker Ray Lewis. However this year, the Ravens have struggled to slow down top offences and sat in the middle of the pack, but key to this drop has been injuries to key players such as Lewis, safeties Ed Reed and Bernard Pollard, as well as outside linebacker Jameel McLain.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Niners have Frank Gore leading the way on the ground as one of the best running backs, as well as long time stretch receiver Randy Moss, and wide out Michael Crabtree, who’s become the go-to guy for Kaepernick on 3rd down. For the Ravens, Torrey Smith is the man when it comes to big plays, but Baltimore also has solid receiving weapons in Anquan Boldin and Tight end Jacoby Jones. Ray Rice is the man when it comes to running ball, but he’s also a definite threat to catch the ball out of the backfield, especially on 3rd and long when Flacco has to check down.