San Francisco at Carolina
The Carolina Panthers come into this offseason playing their first playoffs since the end of the 2008 season. They come in with a player who has revitalized his career in quarterback Cameron Newton. He has done an exception transformation from the struggles he had previously to get back the QB hew as as a rookie. Also of note for the Panthers is the exceptional quality of their defense. They come into the playoffs as the second best total defense in the league during the regular season.
San Francisco had a bit of a downturn from the previous season and are not considered the favorite coming out of the NFC this season as they were in some eyes last year. They do had as tout defense as it was ranked fifth in the regular season but just as the Carolina panthers they were bottom half of league in offense. Colin Kaepernick has seen a bit of a "sophomore" slump but it can be easily attributed to fact that coach Harbaugh didn't go to many read option looks this season.
Saying all of this the game should really be a defensive battle. It could easily hinge on one bad mistake by one of the two quarterbacks. The crowd will play one heck of a factor since the last time the Panthers were in the playoffs they were beaten soundly at home by the Arizona Cardinals.
My opinion is that although the crowd will try to will the Panthers to victory the quarterback I think will make the mistake is going to be Newton. Therefore my pick is: San Francisco 27 Carolina 24
San Diego at Denver
Denver comes into this game with arguably the best quarterback ever and definitely the best quarterback of the year. They have the benefit of the "rare air" in Denver which so many teams have trouble with due to not being able to prepare for the high altitude. Keeping with Peyton Manning team tradition the defense on the Broncos is quite awful and the offense will have to make up for the lack of stops created by the defense. The offense is LOADED with weapons be it the quarterback, Wes Welker, Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker and 1,000 yard rusher Knowshon Moreno.
San Diego has an equally powerful offense ranked in the top five in the league. The offense is led by a resurgent Philip Rivers with his main tagets Keenan Allen and Antonio Gates. They are also led by a 1,000 yard rusher of their own in Ryan Mathews. Their defense is actually worse than the Denver Broncos statistically so this game it would tend to reason won't be won by that side of the ball.
As can be seen this game will most likely not be dictated by the defenses but rather the quality offenses held by both teams. Considering the game is at Mile High and the Broncos have the best quarterback, in my opinion, of all time my pick is : Denver 41 San Diego 31
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