The San Francisco 49ers became the first team to lock up a spot in Super Bowl 47 when they knocked off the Atlanta Falcons 28-24 at the Georgia Dome. Now, they’re playing in the biggest game of the season, and we are set to make our Superbowl predictions and picks.  In this article we’ll discuss the keys to the game; as in what the 49ers need to do to win the Super Bowl.

Click Here For The 2013 NFL Playoff Bracket, the 2013 NFL Playoffs Schedule, and all of our NFL Playoff Game Previews

#2 San Francisco 49ers vs. #4 Baltimore Ravens
Super Bowl 47 Location: Mercedes Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA
When is the Super Bowl?: Sunday, February 3rd, 6:30 p.m. (ET)
Super Bowl TV Coverage: CBS

Key #1: 49ers have to come out firing & let C.K. orchestrate the offense from the start.
Early in the Falcons game, it appeared that Jim Harbaugh & Greg Roman were trying to out-think Atlanta defensive coordinator, Mike Nolan.  It seemed as if the 49ers assumed that all the focus would be on Kaepernick’s running ability out of the pistol formation.  On the very first play, the 49ers came out of the huddle, showed the pistol formation, and than quickly switched to a power-i before running their first play.  Perhaps this was their way of saying, “We’ll do what we want”.  But, it didn’t fool Atlanta’s defense at all.  A hand-off to Gore resulted in Falcon defenders filling holes and swarming to the football.  Everyone knows the 49ers intend to run the football between the tackles, regardless of how well Kaepernick slinging the rock.  If the Niners coaching staff really wanted to throw the Falcon defense off-guard, a 5-wide receiver set along with a no-huddle offense from the start really would have done the trick.  The Falcons were playing the run on every play in the first quarter, and the 49ers were playing right into their hands.  Due to the quick three-and-outs, Kaepernick wasn’t able to get comfortable orchestrating the offense until he was allowed to hit some receivers in stride and make some check downs.  Baltimore is going to do everything they can to show that San Francisco’s highly touted offensive front isn’t going to push them around in the running game (and they are going to try to rattle the young gunslinger).  The Ravens will be very aggressive  in doing so.  Therefore, making sure C.K. gets into a rhythm throwing the football early is important.  Not only will it surprise the Ravens defense, but it will also open things up for the Gore/James/Kap running attack trifecta.  It will also allow them to use the Pistol more often later on in the game.  Making the older Ray Lewis run around a little bit, so that he’s huffing and puffing, rather than screaming, will do wonders for the 49ers offense.

Key #2: 49ers secondary has to communicate and avoid allowing big plays down the field.
The one knock against the 49ers over the course of the last few weeks is that they’ve been giving up some big plays down the field.  Early in the Falcons game, a blown assignment by the 49ers secondary allowed Julio Jones to catch a wide open TD.  The Ravens proved in the AFC Championship Game that they can score using the big play, as they got off quite a few big plays in the second half against the Patriots. Baltimore likes to run a modified hurry up, and it has the potential to get a heck of a lot of snaps off if the defense can’t get off the field. Keeping a close eye on WR Torrey Smith down the field and Anquan Boldin over the middle will be very important.  When playing against any elite defense, most teams that have a big arm quarterback are going to take their shots down the field; hoping they can either make a play or get a flag.  If the 49ers can bat these deep ball shots down, they will force the Ravens into some early 3rd and longs and some mistakes.

Super Bowl Betting Odds at WagerWeb Sportsbook
San Francisco 49ers -4
Baltimore Ravens +4
Over/Under 48.5
Click Here to Bet Your Super Bowl Picks!

Key #3: Someone has to get in the face of quarterback, Joe Flacco
Though we know that QB Joe Flacco has a history of being cool in the pocket, he has also had some games in which he has folded as well when he is under a lot of pressure. Matt Ryan was very comfortable early in the NFC Championship.  However, in the second half, they were able to get to him a little bit and force him into some mistakes.  Clearly the talent is there to get to Flacco.  DE Aldon Smith is one of the best pass rushers in the game and DT Justin Smith is a monster up front as well.  However, DT Isaac Sopoaga managed to get the only sack of the game against Atlanta. Two weeks ago, LB Patrick Willis had the only sack against QB Aaron Rodgers and the Pack. Aldon Smith, had 19.5 sacks in his first 13 games of the season, but has not recorded a single sack in his last five games.  He seems to get them in bunches as he recorded 11 sacks over a 4 game span in the midway point of the season. Regardless, it doesn’t have to be Smith, but someone had better get a hand in Flacco’s face and knock him around a little bit.

Key #4: Other receivers have to step up aside from Michael Crabtree
Head Coach John Harbaugh isn’t a fool by any stretch of the imagination. He knows that WR Michael Crabtree is going to get the ball thrown his way quite a bit, as Crabtree really is the only outstanding receiver that the team has at its disposal. The Texas Tech Red Raider caught 15 passes for 176 yards and two TD in the playoffs thus far.  He was largely blanketed by a bevy of Atlanta defensive backs in the NFC Championship (opening things up for a big game from Vernon Davis). No matter what the Baltimore defense throws at Crabtree, he’ll get his catches, but someone else has to step it up. Don’t discount guys like WR Randy Moss and TE Delanie Walke. Though the two only combined for four catches and 66 yards, they were all in clutch spots for the offense. It’s not a matter of getting 100 yards out of Davis, Moss, or anyone else in the lineup, it’s just that a few guys need to make a few big plays to help Kaepernick win his first Superbowl.

Key #5: The 49ers’ front seven absolutely cannot miss tackles
RB Ray Rice is going to be coming and coming strong at the San Francisco defense, and he forces as many missed tackles of linebackers as any running back in the league with his low center of gravity. TE Dennis Pitta and WR Anquan Boldin also have the ability to bowling over unsuspecting members of the secondary to boot. San Fran is one of the best tackling teams in football, and it comes all over the field. This is the second straight year that Head Coach Jim Harbaugh has had his 49ers in the Top 5 in the league in tackles, and that has to hold true in the Super Bowl. If Rice is shaking tackles left and right, the Niners are going to be in some trouble. They have to continue to wrap up at the point of attack no matter who has the football. If they do that, Baltimore is going to have a heck of a time just trying to move the pigskin.

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In order to make the most successful Super Bowl picks this year when the Baltimore Ravens meet the San Francisco 49ers, we really have to look at the past and pick out some of the best Super Bowl trends that are on the board. Here’s a glance at all of the Super Bowls in the past and some of the most notable things that we can point out heading into the biggest duel of the season.

Note: Teams highlighted in green were Super Bowl favorites

The first thing that we notice right away is that there are a ton of favorites on the Super Bowl odds that have taken down the biggest game of the year outright. Favorites are 33-13 SU over the course of the 46 Super Bowls coming into this season. There are seven Super Bowls in which the favorite has won the game outright, but has failed to cover the number, three of which have ended in a push. Half of the last six favorites that won the Super Bowl didn’t beat the Super Bowl betting lines, something that didn’t happen once for the first nine championship games. Interestingly enough though, the team that has been favored in the Super Bowl has lost three of the last five games outright, as well as from an ATS standpoint. Underdogs are 4-1 ATS in the last five Super Bowls.

The Ravens and the 49ers have played in six combined Super Bowls, and they are a flat out awesome 6-0 SU in those games. The Ravens have only been in one Super Bowl in franchise history, beating the New York Giants in 2000. The 49ers have five Super Bowls to their credit, and they are going to be in the big one for the first time since way back in 1994. There is only one team in the history of the NFL that has a spotless Super Bowl record to this point that has been in the game more than one time, and that’s San Francisco. Regardless of whether it is San Fran or Baltimore that wins this game, the winner will take that distinction over of being the only undefeated team with more than one appearance in the Super Bowl. The 49ers have played in five Super Bowls, winning all five, going 4-1 ATS in those games. The only failed attempt at a cover came in 1989 against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Baltimore’s Super Bowl against the Giants exceeded the ‘total’ easily. San Fran is 3-2 for ‘over’ bettors. If history holds for the 49ers, this should be a very high scoring game. In their five Super Bowl appearances, the 49ers have averaged outscoring their foes by the whopping score of 37.6-17.8, for an average of 55.4 points per game.

Since the Ravens moved from Cleveland, there hasn’t been a heck of a lot of history for these two teams against each other. The clubs have met just four times, with the 49ers going only 1-3 in those games. The teams have split the ATS proceedings. The most recent clash was last year on Thanksgiving Day night, a 16-6 win for John over Jim in the first ever Harbaugh Bowl, pitting the two brothers against one another. The 49ers have only scored 19 total points in three games against the Ravens since 2003, though only two of the four games have stayed beneath the ‘total’ that these two teams have ever played against each other.

Trying to beat the Super Bowl odds is never something that is easy to do, and that’s why there are a lot of amateurs that struggling with the Super Bowl lines every year. However, history could be very important in this duel between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, and we are going to take the time to show you the most important Super Bowl betting trends for the game. Join us, as we analyze the “Harbowl” this year, as Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh square off against each other on the Super Bowl betting lines in the biggest game of the entire season.

Ravens vs. 49ers All-Time Series
2011: Ravens 16 – 49ers 6
2007: Ravens 9 – 49ers 7
2003: Ravens 44 – 49ers 6
1996: 49ers 38 – Ravens 20

There isn’t all that much history here between the 49ers and the Ravens, but the history that is there is rich with defensive showdowns. In the first ever “Harbowl” between San Fran’s Jim and Baltimore’s John, the Ravens got the best of the Niners on Thanksgiving Day in 2011. That was a game that was played between the 20s for the most part, and neither team that all that many chances to get points on the board. Even when they did have chances to score, there were a lot of field goals, and not a lot of chances at full touchdowns. The 49ers now have just a total of 19 points in their last three meetings with LB Ray Lewis and this remarkable Baltimore defense, which has stayed consistently remarkable over the course of the last several seasons.

History though, doesn’t really suggest that one of these teams has the extreme advantage over the other. Yes, Baltimore owns the 3-1 SU advantage in this series, but it has historically been a heck of a lot better than these 49ers have been. San Francisco, as a result, is 2-2 ATS in those games. Even the ‘total’ is split right down the line with two ‘overs’ and two ‘unders’ in spite of the fact that the 49ers have only scored more than seven points once in this series all-time, and that was back in 1996.

Of late though, both of these teams have been understandably hot. They are a combined 5-0 SU and ATS here in the playoffs between them. The 49ers have been playing great ball of late. They have gone 7-2 SU and 6-3 ATS over the course of the nine games that QB Colin Kaepernick has started this year, and they have averaged 28.6 points per game in those outings. QB Joe Flacco and the Ravens have won and covered their last four meaningful games, as we aren’t going to count the Week 17 loss against the Cincinnati Bengals when both sets of starters were out of the lineup by halftime. Both of San Fran’s games have flown past the ‘total’ with relative ease here in the second season. In spite of the fact that Baltimore has scored at least 24 points in all of its games, two of the three have failed to reach the number.

Over the course of a 16-game regular season and three weeks of the playoffs, players are bound to get hurt. Injuries have kept some of the best players on teams out of the Super Bowl in the past, and here at Bankroll Sports, we are going to be keeping up to date the Superbowl 47 injury report to keep you abreast of the most important Super Bowl injury news and notes leading up to the big game.

The Baltimore Ravens had oodles have injuries over the course of the regular season to deal with this year. They were without LB Ray Lewis for the better part of three months, they had to deal with problems to men like S Bernard Pollard (three games), LB Dannell Ellerbe (three games), LB Jameel McClain (three games), DT Haloti Ngata (one game), DB LaDarius Webb (10 games plus the playoffs), and DE Terrell Suggs (8 games). However, at this point, the team is as healthy as it has been all season long, and it is going to be flying high into the Super Bowl on February 3rd.

The injuries that we have to discuss are all ones that have been around for quite some time. We’ve already mentioned that Webb is on IR with a torn ACL that has cost him over half the season. McClain is out for the year with a neck injury as well, though he was never put on IR. Aside from that though, at least as of the start of the week, there really is nothing to worry about from the standpoint of the Ravens.

The 49ers have a ton of men that are listed as probable early on in the week on the injury report, but we aren’t even going to bother for anyone that we didn’t see with a real problem in the NFC Championship Game. We are mildly concerned over a shoulder injury that LB Aldon Smith has. He has been practicing very little over the course of the last couple of weeks, and perhaps that’s the reason that he doesn’t have a single sack in the last month and a half. We’ll definitely monitor this one, though we don’t see any way that Smith doesn’t give it a go for the full 60 minutes on February 3rd.

Again, relatively speaking, this has been a pretty darn healthy team, especially knowing that this is the end of the season. RB Brandon Jacobs proved to be useless to the Niners, and he has been suspended for the rest of the year and won’t travel with the team to the Bayou. WR Kyle Williams, the goat of last year’s NFC Championship Game is finished for the campaign with a knee injury. WR Mario Manningham is probably the most notable man on IR for the year for the 49ers, as he tore up his knee, leaving the team without a truly viable second option opposite of WR Michael Crabtree. And finally, RB Kendall Hunter has been done for the campaign since November with a torn Achilles tendon.

We’ll also keep an eye on the legal situation with Crabtree, who has gotten into a run-in with the law in recent days. However, he played in the NFC Championship Game, and we don’t figure there to be an issue with him playing in New Orleans either.

The 2013 NFL Playoffs are here, and here at Bankroll Sports, we are going to take a look at the 2013 NFL playoffs and make our Super Bowl 47 predictions. Don’t miss out, as our expert NFL handicappers take a look at all of the best teams in the league, which ones have a chance to go all the way, and which are still quite a ways away from getting the job done.

Super Bowl 47
#2 San Francisco 49ers vs. #4 Baltimore Ravens

The 2013 Super Bowl 47 odds are set to go, and the 49ers and the Ravens are going to be involved in the Harbaugh Bowl. These two teams have both had long roads to get here to the Super Bowl, but they both did a remarkable job beating the NFL betting lines each and every step of the way. Baltimore had the significantly tougher road, beating the Colts, Broncos, and Patriots. They beat both Denver and New England on the road, and they did so in fine fashion both teams. Yes, one could make the argument that this team has gotten a bit lucky off of things like the tipped pass that was intercepted at the end of the AFC Championship Game and the 70-yard touchdown pass at Mile High to WR Jacoby Jones. On the other side of the field, we have the 49ers, who were favored in each of their last two games to get to this point. Head Coach Jim Harbaugh pushed all of the right buttons this year, especially when he decided to put QB Alex Smith on the bench in favor of the more nimble QB Colin Kaepernick. It seems like ancient history now though, as Kaepernick has torn up the Packers and the Falcons here in the second season. This should be a remarkable game between two teams that are 6-0 in the Super Bowl all-time between them.

Final NFL Playoff Picture (AFC Playoff Bracket)
1: Denver Broncos (13-3)
2: New England Patriots (12-4)
3: Houston Texans (12-4)
4: Baltimore Ravens (10-6)
5: Indianapolis Colts (11-5)
6: Cincinnati Bengals (10-6)

AFC Playoff Schedule

AFC Wild Card Round
#5 Indianapolis Colts 9 @ #4 Baltimore Ravens 24 (Click Here For Colts @ Ravens Game Preview)
#6 Cincinnati Bengals 13 @ #3 Houston Texans 19 (Click Here For Bengals @ Texans Game Preview)

The first round of the playoffs is all set to go in the AFC, and the NFL matchups are quite intriguing. The 3/6 game between the Houston Texans and the Cincinnati Bengals is a rematch of the first round matchup last year between these two clubs. The difference this year though, is that Houston really comes into the playoffs struggling, while Cincinnati is on a high, quite the opposite of what we saw last year. The Texans have lost three of their last four games, and they went from a surefire lock for the No. 1 seed in the AFC to having to play in Wild Card Weekend. Of course, the team is a lot healthier this year than it was a campaign ago as well, knowing that QB Matt Schaub, and not QB TJ Yates will be throwing the ball all over the place. Cincinnati though, has one of the best defensive lines in the game, and it learned a lot last year with its youngsters, QB Andy Dalton and WR AJ Green. These two are going to try to pull off the upset this weekend. Click Here For Cincinnati vs. Houston NFL Playoffs Preview

The other battle is a big one as well, as the Baltimore Ravens and the Indianapolis Colts will square off at M&T Bank Stadium. This is the third time that these two teams have met in the playoffs, and those meetings occurred three years ago and three years prior to that. The Colts won both games. QB Andrew Luck will be on center stage in this, his first career playoff game, and he is going to try to go on the road and get the job done against a Baltimore team that has a great history of playing in the second season. QB Joe Flacco and the gang feel like they have the talent to get back to the AFC Championship Game for the second straight year, but there are some real questions about this defense in the end. This unit ranked in the 20s in most of the major defensive categories this year, something that you never, ever saw with this unit in the last decade or so. Click Here For Indianapolis vs. Baltimore NFL Playoffs Preview

The road to the Super Bowl goes through Mile High this year, as the Denver Broncos will host either the Bengals if they win, or the Colts/Ravens winner if Cincinnati fails. Houston will visit the No. 2 New England Patriots with a win in the first round of the playoffs, but if that the Texans lose, the winner of the Indianapolis/Baltimore game will head to Foxboro instead.

AFC Divisional Round
#3 Houston Texans 28 @ #2 New England Patriots 41 (Click Here For Texans @ Patriots Game Preview)
#4 Baltimore Ravens 38 @ #1 Denver Broncos 35 (Click Here For Broncos @ Ravens Game Preview)

The Texans might have lost three of their final four games in the regular season, but they ultimately still made it to the second round of the playoffs anyway when they knocked off the Bengals 19-13. This terrible stretch for the team started in Foxboro against the Patriots, but if there is a measure of revenge, this would be the time for the franchise to get it. There is no bigger moment in the history of the Houston franchise than this, and an upset would mean worlds to the club to get to the AFC Championship Game. New England has to be happy to have had the week off, but Head Coach Bill Belichick knows that this won’t be the easiest game in the world. It’s going to be a massive mismatch to see QB Matt Schaub against QB Tom Brady, but the Houston defense has to prove that the last meeting of these two teams was a farce. Obviously though, Schaub has to get the ball into the end zone, something that he has only done once in the last five games. The Houston offense only has two total TDs in the last four games, and that isn’t going to cut it. Click Here For Houston @ New England NFL Playoffs Preview

We have another December rematch in the second round of the AFC playoffs as well when the Ravens take on the Broncos. That game wasn’t the prettiest for the visitors either, as the Ravens were beaten 34-17 in that game. What’s worse for Baltimore is that that game came at M&T Bank Stadium, and now, to keep its season going, it is going to have to go to the other side of the country and knock off the No. 1 team in the conference, fresh off of a bye week. QB Peyton Manning has accomplished a ton this year, but one of the games in which he really didn’t play at his best was the game against these Ravens. That being said though, he did play well and brought the team to the easy victory without much muss or fuss. We know that Manning can win games in the playoffs, but can he do it in Denver in an outdoor setting instead of doing it at home in the RCA Dome/Lucas Oil Stadium? That’s going to be the big time question that has to be answered. QB Joe Flacco hasn’t had a problem getting here in the playoffs, but he has had a problem winning these big time games against the best teams in the AFC. This very well could be the last game of this era of Ravens football, knowing that LB Ray Lewis is retiring when this season is over with, and Baltimore is a heavy underdog and is not expected to challenge. Click Here For Baltimore @ Denver NFL Playoffs Preview

AFC Championship Game
#4 Baltimore Ravens 28 @ #2 New England Patriots 13 (Click Here For Ravens @ Patriots Game Preview)

For the second straight year, the Ravens and the Patriots are going to be playing against each other with the Lamar Hunt Trophy on the line. The winner will move on to Super Bowl 47, while the loser will have a long offseason to figure out what went wrong. QB Tom Brady and his Patriots are looking for some payback after losing 31-30 at M&T Bank Stadium back in September in a game that was decided by a last-second field goal by K Justin Tucker. Baltimore though, still has some revenge on its mind as well from losing the AFC Championship Game last year in this very building. Remember that WR Lee Evans had what would have been the game-winning touchdown pass in his hands before dropping it, and there was no excuse for K Billy Cundiff to miss a 32-yard field goal that would have forced overtime. There is a ton of emotion that is going to go into this game. It could be LB Ray Lewis’ last game. It could send Brady to a sixth Super Bowl, which would tie an NFL record for all players and would break the record for the most starts for a quarterback in the Super Bowl. It could be the game that validates the career of QB Joe Flacco. Or it could be just another game where the Ravens end up falling short of the ultimate goal, further making them the choke artists of the league. This should be a great game in Foxboro on Sunday. Click Here For Baltimore @ New England NFL Playoffs Preview

Final NFL Playoff Picture (NFC Playoff Bracket)
1: Atlanta Falcons (13-3)
2: San Francisco 49ers (11-4-1)
3: Green Bay Packers (11-5)
4: Washington Redskins (10-6)
5: Seattle Seahawks (11-5)
6: Minnesota Vikings (10-6)

NFC Playoff Schedule

NFC Wild Card Round
#5 Seattle Seahawks 24 @ #4 Washington Redskins 14 (Click Here For Seahawks @ Redskins Game Preview)
#6 Minnesota Vikings 10 @ #3 Green Bay Packers 24 (Click Here For Vikings @ Packers Game Preview)

The NFC side of the playoffs took its twists and turns in Week 17, but matters are all set at this point. For the third time this season, and for the third time since the start of December, the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings are going to play against each other in the 3/6 game. RB Adrian Peterson will once again be the focal point, as he rushed for over 400 yards in two games against the Pack this year. Green Bay won the NFC North, earning the right to host this game, but it has to be smarting after losing last week at the Metrodome. The win put Minnesota into the second season and kept Green Bay from getting a first round bye. It’s a total mismatch between QB Aaron Rodgers and QB Christian Ponder, but these two teams played two great games against each other this year that could have gone either way. Click Here For Minnesota vs. Green Bay NFL Playoffs Preview

The Washington Redskins ended up earning the final playoff spot of the year by beating the Dallas Cowboys in the final Sunday Night Football game of the year, and now, they are going to reap the rewards. That was their seventh straight victory to end the season, and they needed that to win the NFC East. QB Robert Griffin III is clearly put together one of the best seasons that a rookie quarterback has ever had, but the man that he is going to be facing off against in this one, QB Russell Wilson threw for the most touchdowns in a single season for a rookie with 26. Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks really did a remarkable job this year, especially playing at home, where they ran the table and went 8-0. The problem? They went just 3-5 on the road, and they are going to have to win three more games on the road just to get to the Super Bowl. These two teams have played four straight games in Seattle in their meetings, including last year when the Skins pulled the upset. Click Here For Seattle vs. Washington NFL Playoffs Preview

The Atlanta Falcons have won the top seed in the NFC, and they are going to be waiting for the worst seed left remaining in the second season. Clear on the opposite coast, the San Francisco 49ers will be around to take on most likely the Packers, or the winner of the Seahawks/Redskins game.

NFC Divisional Round
#3 Green Bay Packers 31 @ #2 San Francisco 49ers 45 (Click Here For Packers @ 49ers Game Preview)
#5 Seattle Seahawks @ #1 Atlanta Falcons (Click Here For Seahawks @ Falcons Game Preview)

The second round of the playoffs will open up when the Packers and the 49ers do battle. This is a rematch of a Week 1 game that went the way of the Niners. However, QB Alex Smith was the quarterback in that one, and QB Colin Kaepernick is now the man calling the shots. The Packers were forced to throw the ball all game long, as they had to play the whole game from behind. This time around though, both of these teams are coming into the proceedings hot with a lot more on the line. There is going to be no degree of sneaking up on anyone. The winner of this one knows that it is going to have a good chance of hosting the NFC Championship Game, so the stakes are going to be even higher than they normally would be for a playoff game this early in the postseason. Click Here For Green Bay vs. San Francisco NFL Playoffs Preview

A Seattle team that is as hot as could be is going to take on an Atlanta team that has a god awful playoff history to start Sunday’s NFL playoffs action. The Seahawks have the second longest winning streak in the conference right now at six, and they have covered five of those six. The Falcons need a win in the playoffs more than any other team in the second saeson. They haven’t won a game since 2004 in the postseason, and QB Matt Ryan has a terrible history here in the playoffs. Seattle is the only team that went on the road and won a game in the playoffs in the first round, and it is going to have to fly from Seattle to DC back to Seattle and then to Atlanta for this one. It should be a very interesting game for sure, and it is expected to be the closest of the four playoff games in the Divisional Round of the playoffs Click Here For Seattle vs. Atlanta NFL Playoffs Preview

NFC Championship Game
#2 San Francisco 49ers 28 @ #1 Atlanta Falcons 24 (Click Here For 49ers @ Falcons Game Preview)

The 2013 NFC Championship Game should be a doozy this week. There aren’t many neutral NFL fans that would say that the Falcons are the better of the two teams that are going to be on the field. They do have home field advantage though, and that could go a long way, especially since the 49ers are playing a long way away from home. San Francisco has to get over the fact that it blew it in the NFC title game a campaign ago at home against the New York Giants, but this would be the way to get some sweet revenge. QB Colin Kaepernick put together one of the biggest games that a quarterback has ever had in a postseason game, especially for a quarterback that was making his postseason debut. That was at home, though. This one is on the road, and it comes in a hostile environment. The Falcons put together 30 minutes of championship football and 30 minutes of suspect football against the Seahawks. If we see the Falcons that played the first half against Seattle for the full 60 minutes, they’ll be in the Super Bowl. If we see the Falcons that played the second half against Seattle, this could be a brutal showing in the Georgia Dome, and all of the haters will be right back on the case of Head Coach Mike Smith and QB Matt Ryan. Click Here For San Francisco vs. Atlanta NFL Playoffs Preview

The New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens are set to continue the 2013 NFL playoffs, and as a part of our analysis of the AFC Championship Game betting lines, we are taking a look at some of the best NFL props on the board for this crucial clash.

Joe Flacco Over/Under 34.5 Pass Attempts: Flacco attempted 523 passes in his first 15 games of the season (we’ll throw out Week 17 when he played just two drives against the Cincinnati Bengals), an average of 34.9 pass attempts per game. Over the course of the last several weeks since Jim Caldwell took over as the team’s offensive coordinator, the run game has been a significantly bigger part of the game. So forget about the fact that Joe Cool put the ball in the air 39 times when these two met the first time, and forget about that average. Instead, look at the fact that Flacco threw the ball 34 times last week against the Denver Broncos… in a game which lasted over five quarters and the team played catch up for a good chunk of the second half. The Baltimore defense is just on the field for too many plays right now, 87 in each of the last two weeks, for Flacco to get to this type of a number of pass attempts. Joe Flacco Under 34.5 Pass Attempts (+100)

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Will Ray Rice Score a Touchdown?: This seems to be an odd line. Rice only at -140 to score a touchdown? That basically insinuates that he is only going to score in nine of the 16 games in the regular season, and about 10 of the 18 that he has played this year including the playoffs. Again, throw out Week 17, and Rice has 10 TDs scored in eight games this year. Still, one of those touchdowns came against these Patriots, and it feels as though the team has to get close enough to the goal line for Rice to get in. Remember that last year, Rice had 15 total touchdowns in his 16 games, and we think that he has a lot better than a 60/40 chance to find pay dirt against a sometimes suspect New England defense. Ray Rice To Score a Touchdown (-140)

Ray Lewis Over/Under 9.5 Tackles: We apologize to the big man out of Miami, but asking for Ray Ray to get to 10 tackles in this game is tough. A lot of the tackles made against the Patriots are done so in open space and are more often done by safeties than anything else. (For that reason, Ed Reed Over 5.5 Tackles is probably a great play.) Yes, Lewis has had 13 and 17 tackles in his two playoff games, and yes, he had at least 10 tackles in four of his six games before getting injured, but a lot of that came against teams that prefer to run the football. This is more of a high octane passing attack that gets the ball out on the edges and doesn’t run the ball inside quite as much. Lewis could ultimately suffer when push comes to shove. Ray Lewis Under 9.5 Tackles (-105)

Tom Brady Rushing Yards Over/Under 1.5: Brady isn’t going to openly run the ball all that much, and he only had 23 rushing attempts all year long. That being said, especially in these short yardage situations when the team is running the hurry up offense, Brady has been known to get up under center and sneak it straight forward. He faked that a couple of times against the Texans last week and get the ball on the edge to his running backs instead, but we know that the option is still there for him to do so. The numbers suggest that Brady will end up with exactly zero yards rushing. We think that he is going to end up with at least a few yards when push comes to shove. Tom Brady Over 1.5 Rushing Yards (-115)

Will Shane Vereen Score a Touchdown?: Let’s be realistic about Vereen here for a second. He only scored four TDs all year long in the regular season. Yes, Brady loves to keep the offense out there in the form that it is in, and yes, Vereen did score three times last week and caught some big time passes out of the backfield, but he still has five games with a touchdown scored out of 14 games including the regular season, and that just isn’t going to cut it with us. Get last week’s game out of your mind and play this one by the numbers. Shane Vereen To Not Score a Touchdown (-135)

Ray Rice (-4.5) Rushing Yards vs. Stevan Ridley: It’s an interesting comparison for sure. Ridley rushed for more yards in the regular season, accounting for 1,263 yards on the ground, and he is the one going against a defense that allows a lot more yards on the ground than the Patriots do. Of course, what we saw last week out of the Texans is that RB Arian Foster was able to move the ball against this unit on the ground when he was given the opportunity to do so, especially as the game wore on. Don’t think that Caldwell wasn’t looking at that and thinking that he had some real opportunities. Ridley isn’t also necessarily the only back that is going to touch the football. Rice will split some with RB Bernard Pierce, but he is still the horse that the team rides upon. Go with Rice here to outdo Ridley with an experience-driven game.

Who Will Score First New England Touchdown?: This is a sneaky one for sure. The team scored 59 touchdowns this year in the regular season, and Brady threw 34 of them, so there is a good chance that it’s going to be a passing score. TE Aaron Hernandez is the receiving favorite at 4 to 1, but there are a lot of other great options as well. But instead, the man that we are going to be keying in on is Brady. Remember how we talked about his rushing yards earlier? Brady had four rushing scores this year, which is only two fewer than WR Wes Welker (who is 9/2) and the same as WR Brandon Lloyd (13 to 2). We know we’re losing more often than not, but it’s still a great play to make on Brady to score first for the Pats more than one out of 15 times. Tom Brady To Score First New England Touchdown (+1500)