NFL Playoff Picks 2024: Conference Championships

The road to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas is nearly at an end. Let’s take a look at the 2024 AFC and NFC Championship Games to see who will ultimately move on to Super Sunday.

NFL Conference Championship Sunday has been long regarded as the most exciting weekend in sports and that should continue with these two phenomenal matchups with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line in both games. As the road to the Super Bowl comes near its end, let’s take a look at the matchups ahead.

The NFL’s final four take the stage to determine who moves on to Super Bowl LVIII. The AFC title matchup features the two of the NFL’s best quarterbacks and dominant defenses, while the NFC title matchup features two of the NFL’s most exciting offenses. These games should be quite entertaining!

Last week I went 3-1

I told you so: Ravens over Texans!

What do I know: Bills over Chiefs?

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

#3 Kansas City Chiefs at #1 Baltimore Ravens

Sunday, January 28th – 2:00pm CST – CBS

From 2011-2018, the New England Patriots played in eight consecutive AFC Championship Games, an unprecedented run that many believed couldn’t be duplicated, but here we are with the Kansas City Chiefs entering their sixth-consecutive AFC Championship Game with no end in sight as long as Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are in KC. In year one, the Chiefs faced defeat in OT to the Pats in the end of the Brady/Belichick Super Bowl dynasty. In year two, they defeated a Tennessee squad leaning on an old school, smash mouth approach. In year three, they defeated a Buffalo team who honestly believed they were the next in line in the AFC. In year four, the Bengals stunned the Arrowhead crowd to wrestle away the AFC title from the perennial champs. In year five, the Bengals almost took out the Chiefs at Arrowhead for a second-straight year, but KC found a way in the closing moments.

This year, the Chiefs must finally leave the confines of Arrowhead and take to the road for the AFC Championship Game. Surprisingly, this is also the first AFC Championship Game that the Ravens are playing at home in Baltimore. This stellar matchup of the best teams in the AFC features the top-two scoring defenses in the NFL this past season. These defenses have been better than many even realized this season, but they will certainly face a stiff test from these quarterbacks.

This QB matchup is as good as it gets, as both men have won the honor of NFL MVP over recent seasons, and will prove how good they are with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Unsurprisingly, these two remarkable quarterbacks will carry their teams on offense, with Mahomes passing for 370 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT, while Jackson passes for 188 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT, while also rushing for 76 yards and 1 rushing TD.

This game will be a tight defensive struggle through the first half, but the excitement will pickup in the second half, and this one will need overtime to decide a winner for the AFC title. Thanks to a Justin Tucker game-winning field goal in overtime, Lamar Jackson finally gets his trip to the Super Bowl.

Pick: Ravens

Final Score: 26-23

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#3 Detroit Lions at #1 San Francisco 49ers

Sunday, January 28th – 5:30pm CST – FOX

The San Francisco 49ers are playing in the NFC Championship game for the third-consecutive season, and the fourth time in five years, while the Detroit Lions are playing in their first NFC Championship Game in 32 years. An intriguing matchup of one of the NFL’s premier championship franchises facing a franchise that has never played in the NFL’s premier game.

San Francisco fields arguably the most balanced team in the NFL, as the 49ers are top-three in both scoring offense and scoring defense this season. Only Baltimore stacks up in that respect in the entire league. Detroit’s top-five scoring offense should find a way to make some crucial plays in this one, but their 23rd-ranked scoring defense will be the unit that ultimately decides the game. Their task may be the toughest since attempting to stop the Ravens in Baltimore back in Week 7, a 38-6 loss.

The X-factor for the Niners is the availability of star wide receiver Deebo Samuel. If Deebo plays and is relatively healthy, he could be an absolute game-changer. Detroit’s pass defense, a bottom-six unit in the league, will have its hands full, even if Deebo isn’t a full go, having to cover George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, and even Christian McCaffrey as a pass-catcher. The Niners will stress the Lions much more than Los Angeles and Tampa Bay did in Detroit the past two weeks.

The Lions will fight hard and will be in this game most of the way, but the 49ers have been a team on a mission, and that mission will carry them to a big win over a tough and deserving contender, but one that is not quite ready to take that next huge step into the promised land. The 49ers snap their two-game NFC Championship Game losing streak, earning a trip to the Super Bowl for the second time in five seasons.

Pick: 49ers

Final Score: 31-24

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Well, there you have it ladies and gentlemen, your potential conference champions. Even without the New Orleans Saints in the playoffs, we definitely have some players and story lines to root for and against this weekend. Leave us your picks, insight, and comments below!

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