Matchups to Watch for NFL Conference Championship Weekend

The NFL is a beautiful game—a dance and chess match all rolled up into one. The moves in the battle of wits on the sidelines and between the chess pieces on the field will provide dramatic theater in the conference championship games this weekend.

Which matchups will go the longest way toward deciding this weekend's games, based on each team's respective strengths and weaknesses? Bleacher Report breaks down the marquee ones with a fine-tooth comb right here.

We get to see the one-year difference between the New England Patriots having Aqib Talib get knocked out of an AFC Championship Game (by Wes Welker last year) versus having one of the best shutdown corners of all time, Darrelle Revis. A Hilton will visit Revis Island—the Indianapolis Colts' T.Y. Hilton, that is.

There is a rematch between the bouncer Rob Gronkowski and the man he "threw out of the club," Sergio Brown. The way the last one turned out, the Colts might want to get Brown's back in that nightclub fight.

We will see how the Seattle Seahawks defense tests the mobility of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his calf injury. It will be much better for Rodgers to have right-side pass-protector Bryan Bulaga healthy this go-around.

And, like every week, seeing how opposing teams try to attack the Seahawks' Legion of Boom with their set of wide receivers is always dramatic. We will see if Richard Sherman gets another NFC championship opportunity to call out "a sorry receiver" like he did with Michael Crabtree a year ago. Be careful of getting put on blast, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams.

Finally, who can stop Beast Mode, other than the media, which have him verbally clammed up? Clay Matthews is the name brand who will try. We cannot wait to watch that one.

It is all here, in its hyped-up dramatic glory, in this slideshow.

Indianapolis Colts WR T.Y. Hilton vs. New England Patriots CB Darrelle Revis

AJ Mast/Associated Press

The Patriots and the world are going to get side-by-side comparisons of last year's cover corner, Aqib Talib, vs. this year's shutdown guy, Darrelle Revis. It will be brought to you by the Colts' T.Y. Hilton, who just got done making Talib's life difficult with the Denver Broncos last week.

Hilton caught four passes for 72 yards and forced Talib to commit two first-half pass interference penalties. The Denver Post's Troy E. Renck dubbed it Denver's worst decision in his recap of the highs and lows from the divisional-round game:

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Slot machine: The Broncos elected to match cornerback Aqib Talib with T.Y. Hilton rather than Chris Harris. It proved a mistake. Referees flagged Talib for two first-half penalties, and he gave up chunk plays to the speedy slot receiver.

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Now, let's see what Revis—the Pats' answer for losing Talib—can do against the emerging 25-year-old threat. Writing for the Pats' official website, Patriots Football Weekly's Paul Perillo scouted the matchup between Hilton and Revis, writing the latter "may stick with [Hilton] from wire to wire."

Hilton is a bit too quick for the larger Brandon Browner, who is also dealing with a knee issue, Perillo wrote. Revis is the Pats' shutdown guy and managed to take Reggie Wayne out of their last meeting earlier this season. Wayne started the game hot, recording three catches for 70 yards, but only snagged two more grabs for 21 yards after Revis switched off Hilton and onto him. 

Wayne hasn't been the same of late—perhaps due to his groin issue, Perillo suggested—so we should expect Revis to tend to the Colts' most productive receiver. Hilton had 82 receptions for 1,345 yards and seven touchdowns this season, but was held to a season-low three catches for just 24 yards in the Week 11 blowout loss to the Pats.

Expect Revis to neutralize the Colts' No. 1 weapon.

Indianapolis Colts' Sergio Brown vs. New England Patriots' Rob Gronkowski

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Sure, the Darrelle Revis matchup is a headliner every week for the Patriots, but this might go down as one of the most dramatic one-on-ones of the 2014 season. The last time Rob Gronkowski got a hold of Colts free safety Sergio Brown, he famously played bouncer and "threw him out of the club."

OK, so Gronk tossed Brown into a camera cart on the sidelines of the end zone, as the Boston Herald's Karen Guregian recalls. The Pats tight end told the paper he won't be settling any personal vendettas this time, however: "[Brown] was just yappin' at me the whole time, so I took him and threw him out of the club. ... You've just got to go out there and play football. Definitely, it's an emotional game. You've got to think of the team first, that's all."

This doesn't get any juicier, although you could argue the Colts would be better off taking their shutdown corner, Vontae Davis, and using him to take out the Patriots' No. 1 downfield weapon. Head coach Chuck Pagano told reporters this week that he knows his Colts have their hands full with Gronk, but he won't tip his hand on whom they will employ on him, per the NFLmedia.com press conference transcript (media access required):

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We're going to have (face) this team and facing a guy like (Rob) Gronkowski, who's one of the best, if not the best right now in the league at playing that position. So you've kind of got to pick your poison on how you're going to defend those guys.

You want to decide whether you're going to put a linebacker on those guys, a safety, a cover corner, a bigger corner-type guy. We've seen all kinds of different ways that people play us and try to defend our guys. They do a great job with formations and personnel groups, and displacing those guys and get them in position where you can't disrupt him, so to speak, at the line of scrimmage.

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Gronk had four catches for 71 yards and a touchdown in the Week 11 meeting, suggesting Brown is likely to need some help. If it doesn't come from Davis, perhaps it might come from strong safety Mike Adams, who is ready to defend Brown's honor, per the press conference transcript:

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Singling that out, Gronk is a good player. I don't want to take nothing away from him, but I don't want to single out the fact that he slammed my boy on the sideline. That was after the play. I don't know if he got a fine or whatever, but that wasn't football.

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Corner Darius Butler, another versatile member of the Colts secondary, said in the press conference transcript that stopping Gronk is a focus, dilemma and likely a team task: "I don't know, that's a team effort. That's a defensive effort. All 11 guys have to be aware of where he is and how he can beat us. We've got to gang tackle him; obviously, he's a tough guy to bring down one-on-one. It's going to be a challenge, and I think we're going to be up to it."

If it is a linebacker, perhaps we might see D'Qwell Jackson trying to jack the tight end up off the ball, as he said in the press conference:

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He's a prototypical tight end. He's transcended that position. He's a bigger guy. He looks like a glorified tackle, but he can run, he can catch, he can block and he can do all the things that allow him to be successful. For us to be successful, we've got to understand where he is, get hands on him, not allow him free releases off the line of scrimmage and try to make his job a little harder. That comes with putting hands on him and understanding where he is because they do a lot of different things with him. They line him up at tight end formation on the line of scrimmage or they put him out like a wideout. They do some different things that we'll be prepared for.

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So, in summation, the last thing the Colts will do is allow Brown to get kicked to the curb all by his lonesome. This matchup is going to be interesting no matter how it unfolds.

Seattle Seahawks DE Cliff Avril vs. Green Bay Packers RT Bryan Bulaga

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

With Aaron Rodgers (calf) playing at something less than 100 percent and expected to be lining up out of the shotgun or pistol for most of the game, the Packers are going to need to make sure they neutralize the pressure off the edge. That is where potential offseason free-agent right tackle Bryan Bulaga can earn a huge payday.

Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril had a down season by his standards, registering just 5.5 sacks (his lowest total since his rookie year in 2008), but he had a sack of Rodgers in their Week 1 meeting, a half-sack in the season finale against St. Louis and a full sack of Cam Newton in the divisional-round game.

Avril is playing his best football right now, while Bulaga is one of the game's best pass-protectors. Bulaga also missed most of that Week 1 matchup because of a knee injury, leaving after just 20 snaps, according to The Sports Xchange.

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett (seven sacks) and outside linebacker Bruce Irvin (6.5 sacks) will be applying pressure as well, but the Packers will likely help out on them with a running back and/or a guard. Bulaga is going to need to take Avril out of the equation himself to keep Rodgers from exposing his balky calf.

The Seahawks put Richard Sherman on the right side of the field, and the Packers did not throw one pass that way in the Week 1 loss, per the press conference transcript from NFLmedia.com. Rodgers will be looking left and middle a lot, presumably, which means Avril will be the blindside rusher.

Rodgers told the media it wasn't necessarily a game plan to avoid Sherman, though: "I plan to throw to the open guy. That's kind of been the way I've played for a number of years. If the guy on the right is open, I'll throw it to the right. If the guy on the left is open, I'll throw it to the left. I'll go through my progressions and play the way I've always played."

Regardless of where Rodgers throws, a healthy Bulaga will have to make a significant difference in this rematch against Avril.

Green Bay Packers Receivers vs. the Seattle Seahawks' Legion of Boom

Stephen Brashear/Associated Press

Unlike most teams that match up their best cover guys on opposing No. 1 receivers, the Seattle Seahawks merely keep Richard Sherman on the defensive left, offensive right side of the field. That allowed the Green Bay Packers to keep Jordy Nelson almost exclusively on the left side against right cornerback Byron Maxwell in their Week 1 meeting, per The Sports Xchange.

In speaking about Rodgers' decision not to test Sherman once in the previous meeting, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said "that's pretty rare," per the NFLmedia.com press conference transcript:

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I've heard their comments about that, which were guys weren't open or available when they wanted them to be, and it wasn't such an intent to not throw it that way. And so that's a real compliment to Richard in that game. But that's pretty rare. Usually what would happen is if you have a brand new player, a guy that's off the street that you had to play, I've been in that situation more than I'd like to admit, but that's where the ball will really go to one side more than stay away from the guy.

Very few players ever have that kind of a factor where the ball just won't go there. We saw that a little bit early, and it turned out to be very normal for the season. I think they still steered clear of Richard in general, but the ball has got to go both ways. I would expect and we expect that it's not going to be the same thing where the whole game goes the other way. I don't think that'll happen.

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The Legion of Boom doesn't tend to alter its plan, so it does give the Packers some kind of advantage on getting Nelson on the guy they want. Nelson had nine catches on 14 targets for 83 yards in the first meeting, although Maxwell did get a second-half interception on a throw off Nelson's hands, The Sports Xchange noted.

Randall Cobb tends to operate out of the slot, and Davante Adams was a rookie in his first NFL game on the side opposite Nelson in the Week 1 matchup—perhaps what Coach Carroll was referring to above about "a guy that's off the street." It bears watching whether Adams garners any targets this week, or if the Packers choose to test Sherman with Cobb or Nelson.

The Seahawks have the No. 1 pass defense in football. The Packers have the No. 8 pass offense. Whether it is Nelson, Cobb or Adams, how the Packers line up their receivers versus the Legion of Boom will be must-see TV.

Green Bay Packers' Clay Matthews vs. Seattle Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch

Mike McGinnis/Getty Images

We saved the best for last here, the Beast Mode matchup. The NFL has tried, and failed, to stop Marshawn Lynch just as much as reporters have been unable to get him to speak.

This is the NFL's No. 1 rushing offense, which is arguably the biggest reason (offensively) why the defending champion Seahawks are back in the NFC Championship Game against the Packers—a team that struggled against the run earlier in the year. Lynch rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns against the Packers in the Seahawks' Week 1 victory.

There is a difference now, though. The Packers have moved outside linebacker Clay Matthews to the middle at times and improved against the run, as Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin noted this week, per the NFLmedia.com press conference transcript:

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Man, it's done a lot of things for them. I think their stats, their rushing yards allowed is cut in half. ... That eliminates the first downs that opposing offenses are capable of getting. Him specifically, he's such an athletic guy, a linebacker, big body in that box, he's capable of doing a lot of things and stopping the run. ... So it's directly affecting a lot of things that I don't think people really notice or can appreciate. So his effect in the middle has a lot to do with their success as a whole.

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The Packers allowed DeMarco Murray of the NFL's No. 2 rushing offense to go off for 123 yards and a touchdown in their divisional-round matchup, although they escaped with a 26-21 victory. They cannot allow Beast Mode to get those numbers this weekend if they hope to advance to the Super Bowl.

Moving Matthews inside from his rush linebacker spot can help, as Pete Carroll said in the press conference transcript:

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They have a number of packages. Dom Capers is a great coordinator. He's been around the league forever and he knows everything there is to know about coaching defense. He gives his opponents a big problem with the different substitution packages that he uses, and you don't know how he's going to do it or how he sees us, and we're going to have to wait and see at game time.

And they've moved Clay around. He's played behind the line of scrimmage and they've utilized him for all of the great ability that he has and the aggressive nature that he has, shows up when he plays off the ball as well as when he's on the ball. We have to wait and see. We don't know how they're going to use him. We know how they have and anticipate some stuff, but we're going to have to wait until game time to see how they do it.

But it's interesting how that has coincided with their turn. I think it was at the nine-game mark or whatever when he came in. Great coaching, obviously. It's made a big difference.

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We will be captivated too, especially if the Packers can pull off an upset in one of the most difficult road environments in football. It is great theater, these conference championship games.

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Eric Mack, one of the giants among fantasy writers, is the Fantasy Football Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, where you can ask him endless questions about your team, rip him for his content and even challenge him to a head-to-head fantasy game.