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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.

2013 NFL Playoffs: AFC and NFC Championship Weekend Review

After an exciting championship weekend in the NFL, the Super Bowl matchup is now set as the San Francisco 49ers will face the Baltimore Ravens in New Orleans on Sunday, February 3rd, 2013. Let’s take a look and see how each team made it to the big game.

You can always bet the spread, total and moneyline, as well as a myriad of prop bets throughout the game.

NFC Championship Game

The Atlanta Falcons raced out to another big lead in the first half this week just like they did in the divisional round against the Seattle Seahawks. Behind the solid play of quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones, the Falcons built a 17 point first half lead. However, San Francisco made some excellent halftime adjustments and quickly got back into the game early in the second half. Once the 49ers were able to force a couple of turnovers and convert those turnovers into points, the Atlanta Falcons appeared to play a bit more passive, possibly being worried about blowing another large lead.

The 49ers eventually went ahead with 8:23 to play in the fourth quarter thanks to a Frank Gore nine yard touchdown run. With plenty of time left on the clock, the Falcons tried to march down the field for the game winning touchdown but eventually came up shot when they could not convert on fourth and four on the San Francisco 10 yard line.

AFC Championship Game

The AFC Championship game was a rematch from a year ago and did not disappoint NFL fans. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots came out firing on offense and built 13-7 halftime lead over the Baltimore Ravens. After scoring 10 points in the second quarter, Patriots fans had to be thinking that their team had finally figured a way to move the ball against the Ravens and that they would cruise in the second half. However, that was not the case the Baltimore Ravens put the clamps down on the Patriots and did not allow a single point in the second half while scoring 21 points of their own.

The turning point in the game came early in the fourth quarter when Bernard Pollard laid a huge hit on running back Stevan Ridley who then fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Baltimore. The Ravens had just taken a 21-13 lead two minutes earlier and needed to come up with a big stop, which they did when they recovered the fumble. Four plays after the turnover Joe Flacco hit Anquain Bolden for another touchdown and the Ravens went up 28-13 and appeared to have the game in hand.

With two hard hitting defenses winning their respective conference’s championship game, the Super Bowl promises to be another exciting game in what has been an overall highly entertaining NFL playoffs.