NFL Playoff Picks: Looking at Anticipated Results from Conference Championships

We're just two days away from one of the best NFL Sundays of the season, which means it's perfect timing to give predictions of what we'll see in just 48 hours.

Each game features some of the most complete teams in the league with the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants all looking to punch their ticket to Indianapolis.

Here are my picks for both the AFC and NFC Championship Games along with a few things to expect to happen during each contest.

New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers

Like their Week 10 meeting, this game should be a close one through out.

The Giants and 49ers are built in similar ways. Both play a smash-mouth style defense while trying to utilize several different weapons on the offensive side of the ball.

Like any offense, the Giants are at their best when they can use play-action and establish a running game early on, but that simply won't happen this Sunday. The 49ers are giving up an average of just 77 rushing yards per game, boasting the NFL's best run defense.

That being said, the San Francisco offense will have an equally troubling time in the run game. Frank Gore hasn't had a game with 100 or more rushing yards since Week 9 this season, and the G-Men are coming off two straight weeks of shutting down Michael Turner, James Starks and Ryan Grant.

That brings us to the passing game for both teams, where it's clear that Big Blue has the flashier attack. The Giants like to throw the ball around to their plethora of talented receivers like Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham which gives Eli Manning plenty of options to move the ball down the field.

San Fran is no slouch against the pass either, ranking 16th in the NFL this year, but they're going to have to respect the Giants' run game for at least the first quarter of play as well as find a way to properly cover the receiving corps. The 49ers have more to deal with when trying to shut down the Giants offense compared to their opposition.

New York obviously needs to focus first and foremost on taking away Gore and Kendall Hunter on the ground, but quarterback Alex Smith showed the world last week that he can sling it through the air when he needs to. The Utah product has nearly 300 yards passing and three touchdowns against the Saints last week.

Smith has got to be coming into this game feeling confident, even more so considering it's  home for the 49ers. The Giants though, will quickly rattle Smith with that treacherous defensive front line showing its muscle early on.

New York was able to put pressure on Aaron Rodgers and sack the potential MVP on four occasions, with the defense likely able to do the same to Smith in two days.

When it comes down to the NFC Championship Game, the 49ers have the better defense, but New York may have the second-best left in these playoffs. With that said, though they put up points last weekend, San Francisco has the less explosive offense, and because of that, will lose this contest to a offensively stacked Giants squad.

Final Score: San Francisco 24 New York 28

Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots

Switching to the AFC Championship Game, playing the Patriots in Foxboro is a difficult task for any team in the postseason, but the Ravens have already done it once before.

Back in the 2009 Wild Card Round, Baltimore came into New England and defeated the Pats rather easily with a 33-14 victory.

Now each team is slightly different than their 2009 counterparts, and the Patriots seem to be looking more like the 2007 team than the '09 squad. New England simply shut down everything the Denver Broncos tried to do on offense while tearing apart their defense that was playing well over the latter half of the season.

The Ravens have the fourth-best pass defense as well as the fourth-best against the run however, so don't expect big numbers from the Patriots offense this weekend. The Ravens should be able to keep the Pats' run game in check while using their talented secondary to slow down Tom Brady and the passing game.

While it's true New England has been able to put points on the board against almost everyone this season, they haven't seen a defense on the same talent level as Baltimore since Week 8 and Week 9 when they faced the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants back-to-back. The Patriots were unable to score more than 20 points in either of those contests, both in losing efforts.

The Ravens offense on the other hand, has scored its fair share of points this season, with nine games of 24 or more points this year. Ray Rice should have no problem carving up the Patriots defense on Sunday, while Joe Flacco should have a reasonable amount of success against New England's 31st-ranked pass defense.

New England has been unable to stop the run in recent weeks, with three of their past five opponents able to post 150 or more rushing yards on the AFC East champions. The Ravens will make that stat four of their past six on Sunday.

Flacco and company should be able to move the ball effectively on the Pats defense, making this into a relatively high-scoring affair. Though the Ravens have a phenomenal pass defense that has held six of their past seven opponents to less than 20 points, the Patriots are on a whole different level than those six teams. New England hasn't scored less than 20 points all season and hasn't put up less than 27 since Week 9.

This one will be a close affair and can certainly go either way, but it just seems difficult to fathom the thought of the Patriots making the Super Bowl with such a pedestrian defensive unit.

Final Score: Baltimore 34 New England 31