Possible Super Bowl Matchups

We’re down to four teams left standing in the NFL playoffs. Both conference championship games will feature the second seeded team against the sixth seeded team. After the AFC featured division rival matchups last week, the NFC gets one for its’ conference championship. Green Bay and Chicago split two games in the regular season, with each team winning low-scoring and close games at home. The AFC championship game gets a rematch from Week 15 when the Jets won for the first time ever in Pittsburgh 22-17.

JETS VS PACKERS
This is the matchup I’d personally want to watch the most. Not only because I am a Jets fan, but because after seeing the way Rex Ryan fleeced Tom Brady, I would love to see what kind of defensive schemes he comes up with to deal with Aaron Rodgers and all those Green Bay receivers. The Jets were shut out at home when they played Green Bay on Halloween, but the held Rodgers out of the end zone and to his lowest passing total of the season. With the Jets offense together and clicking, this could be a very exciting Super Bowl.

PACKERS VS STEELERS
This is probably the best matchup that we could still see in the Super Bowl. A high-octane offense that is firing on all cylinders against a brutally tough defense. What Pittsburgh does best is stop the run, but the Packers don’t necessarily need a running game to win. They’ve won seven games this year when their leading rusher gained less than 60 yards on the ground. Aaron Rodgers is good enough and mobile enough that he can march the Packers up and down the field without a viable run option. I think the Jets secondary is better equipped to handle the Packers tremendous receiving corp and that’s why the Packers should be rooting to see Big Ben in the Super Bowl.

BEARS VS JETS
Another regular season re-match under this scenario. The Bears won a shootout at home, but I seriously doubt that Rex Ryan allows that to happen twice in a season, especially with extra time to prepare. Chances are also good that Matt Forte doesn’t rush for 100 yards again, as Rex Ryan defenses have allowed that to happen only twice in the past two years. I’d expect a Bears-Jets Super Bowl to be significantly more defensive than their first meeting was.

STEELERS VS BEARS
A Pittsburgh-Chicago Super Bowl would be an intense and hard-hitting affair between two teams that would be more comfortable on a frozen tundra than in Jerry Jones’ phenomenal palace. Still while past sense would tell us to expect run-heavy approaches by both teams, recent transpiring would tell us to watch for a whole lot of Big Ben and Jay Cutler. Both QBs have big arms and a lot of targets.

2010 NFL Divisional Playoffs

RAVENS (13-4) AT STEELERS (12-4)
Both AFC playoff games this weekend are the third meeting between bitter division rivals. As good as Jets/Pats has been of late, Baltimore/Pittsburgh has been better. Seven of the last eight games between these teams have been decided by 7 points or less and this year’s playoff installment shouldn’t be much difference. The Ravens manhandled an upstart Kansas City team in the wild card matchup, while the Steelers are coming off a bye and welcoming back a healthy and rested Troy Polamalu. The teams split their regular season games, but the Steelers won the game in which they had Ben Roethlisberger. I like both teams a lot, but trust Big Ben more to extend plays and make big throws than Joe Flacco.

Steelers 27, Ravens 24

PACKERS (11-6) AT FALCONS (13-3)
The Packers and Falcons have already played once this year in Atlanta while both teams were mostly healthy. And the Falcons won. But in the rematch I like Green Bay. The Falcons winning formula all year was to play 60 full minutes of smart, disciplined football and catch a few breaks. They followed that plan perfectly in their matchup against Green Bay in November and pulled off a last-minute victory. Unfortunately, I don’t think that they can count on a goal-line fumble and 344 passing yards accounting for just one solitary touchdown the second time around. The Packers are a better offensive a defensive team than the Falcons, but the Falcons have stayed far more healthier this season. Nobody is playing better than Aaron Rodgers and the Packers will ride his arm to the NFC Championship game and perhaps further.

Packers 38, Falcons 20

SEAHAWKS (8-9) AT BEARS (12-4)
Nobody in the country truly believed that Seattle would miraculously upend the defending champs last week, but a smidgen of me isn’t too surprised that Seattle proved to be a tough environment for the Saints. This week, the worst NFC playoff team ever has to go on the road – where they were 2-6 this year but one of the wins was at Soldier Field in Chicago. The Bears however are far more developed offensively than they were when Seattle first came to call. Mike Martz has crafted the offense into a unit that plays to its strengths and I’m picking convincingly against the Seahawks for a second consecutive week.

Bears 31, Seahawks 14

JETS (12-5) AT PATRIOTS (14-2)
While comparisons to the 16-0 2007 Patriots are obviously unfounded, this is still a very talented New England club that embarrassed the Jets 45-3 on Monday Night Football just over a month ago. Sanchez has played poorly in Gillette Stadium, throwing seven picks in two games whereas Tom Brady is on an incredible 12 game run. The Patriots dominance has always been directly tied to turnover success, and I believe if the Jets can win that battle, they have a very good chance at pulling off a huge upset. Unfortunately, Tom Brady has completely stopped turning the ball over and has received superb protection since Pro Bowl lineman Logan Mankins returned from a holdout.

Patriots 27, Jets 21