Who wins the NFL Conference Finals?

And then there were four – it’s Conference Finals weekend in the NFL

Sunday

NFC – Los Angeles Rams @ New Orleans Saints

AFC – New England Patriots @ Kansas City Chiefs

Fasten your seat belts. Sort out the refreshments. Select your Double Delight First Touchdown Scorer flutters.

Four teams are just one step away from Super Bowl 53, as they contest the Conference Finals; and what fantastic match-ups they are.

NFC – Los Angeles Rams @ New Orleans Saints, Sunday, 8.05pm UK time

The Superdome provides an impressive setting for the NFC Championship game. Saints have home-field advantage as the Conference’s number 1 seed, while the Rams look to avenge a pulsating 45-35 week 9 defeat to the same opponents in this very stadium.

Both teams had identical, impressive 13-3 regular season records, and both unsurprisngly rely heavily upon their quarterbacks. Don’t they all – but some play-callers are just different gravy, and we are blessed in each game to have among the finest in the NFL.

For the Saints, Drew Brees (pictured) lies second only to Patrick Mahomes in the regular season standings, and the two are well clear of their rivals.

It’s been a record-breaking year for Brees, whose brilliance and longevity has been richly and deservedly rewarded. Most career passing yards. An incredible 18th NFL season. The highest completion percentage ever – 74.4%, beating his own 72% record set just last season.

An extended Indian summer for the near 40-year-old who has one Super Bowl winners’ ring and evidently wants another.

Facing him is Jared Goff, a top-ten rated QB in the regular season stats, and an absolute greenhorn compared to Brees. Just 24, he was the number 1 draft pick of 2016 after a stellar career at the University of California, Berkley – The Golden Bears.

His record there for passing efficiency is second all-time only to a certain Aaron Rodgers.

He’s already a two-time Pro-bowl selection and will be around one suspects at the very highest level for some time to come. It’s a big ask, however, to wrest this championship from the Saints, in their house.

Any number of fabulous players can influence this one. Rams’ outstanding running back Todd Gurley. Saints’ brilliant wide receiver Michael Thomas. At the end of the day the big-game nous of Brees, and fanatical home support, can carry New Orleans to a Super Bowl date in Atlanta.

A Saints win is our idea of the outcome, available at 8/15 on the Money Line, and -3.5 @ 10/11 on the spread.

AFC – New England Patriots @ Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, 11.40pm UK time

Another master-and-pupil scenario when considering the opposing Quarterbacks. The Pats have Tom Brady, a FIVE-TIME Super Bowl winner, bona fide legend, and in the conversation concerning the greatest players ever to have played the position. His vast experience will count for plenty.

Opposing Brady is Patrick Mahomes, the season’s top-rated gunslinger and favourite to snaffle the individual awards, notably the League’s MVP.

After a brief run-out at the end of last season this is his first full tilt at the role, and at just 23 he’s grabbed the opportunity given to him by coach Andy Reid with both hands. Flamboyant. Unpredictable. Imaginative. Brilliant. All of the above and more.

Every now and then a young play-caller comes along that fair takes the breath away. Mahomes is in that class for me. He has all the tools required and then some. We could be looking at a future Hall of Famer. I’d be shocked if we weren’t.

Can he orchestrate a win against a team as battle-hardened and experienced as the Pats? I believe he can. In Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce (pictured above) he has potent offensive weapons, and Damien Williams proved against the Colts that the run game can be an effective additional factor.

The weather might be extremely bitter – there was snow around last week, too – and under such circumstances home field advantage, and the noisy Arrowhead faithful, can propel the Chiefs all the way to Super Bowl 53.

If I said that their last appearance in the big one was for Super Bowl 4, you’ll see they’ve gone a long time between drinks.

Kansas City Chiefs, on the Money line, 8/13. On the spread, -2.5, @ 4/5.

It’s the Pro-Bowl next week, then all roads lead to the Super Bowl in Atlanta on Sunday, Feb 3rd.

Who will be there, fighting for the Lombardi Trophy?

If you’re betting on American Football, Betfred