Total: 1–1
Cumulative Total: 69–56–1
Last week’s nail biters and close calls yielded a rather mundane result for yours truly, with a .500 finish keeping me on pace for an above average finish on the year. Perhaps the championships can match the spectacular endings we saw last week as teams compete for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Either way, here’s who I think makes it to the big game (or fares the best against the spread in attempting to do so).
Bengals @ Chiefs 3:00 Est. Sun.
Normally, a young team going to Arrowhead for the AFC title game would spell doom for its fanbase. But this Bengals team is not your ordinary underdog. Joe Burrow exudes a confidence which spills over to the rest of the squad, and after watching him take nine sacks and lead a game winning drive in overtime on the road I’ll never count him out. This game will certainly be a shootout given both teams’ sub-par defenses, and I think Cinci’s offense is too explosive to get blown out in that event. Ultimately, seven points is too wide of a a margin by which to pick a team that already lost this game outright a few weeks ago.
Pick: Bengals +7 ✅
49ers @ Rams 6:30 Est. Sun.
I hold the following belief about the teams in the NFC championship game: “anything the Niners can do, the Rams can do better.” San Fran’s pass rush is fantastic, but LA has Aaron Donald AND Von Miller. Jimmy Garoppolo seems to have some sort of winning quotient, but no one would pick him in a duel over Matthew Stafford, who seems to be better justifying LA’s investment every day. Perhaps the 49ers have a little bit of an edge in the running game, btu I don’t think that will be enough to stop the Rams at SoFi. With all of that said, though, how do we resolve that the Rams haven’t won this matchup in three years. To that, I will simply say that perhaps the seventh time is the charm: all of the Ram’s talent eventually has to break through.
Pick: Rams -3.5 🅇
