JohnnyV Pick – Conference Championship

The Conference Championship games have arrived which means that we are down to our last two games of the season. Both games this week are interesting in that neither one has a particularly close spread going into the game. As usual, a cascade of upsets in the early rounds took out a number of high profile teams that looked to be in contention leaving us with a couple of upstart teams in each conference going up against a heavy hitter.

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In the NFC, we get a rematch of a game that smacked us in the mouth just a couple of months ago as the Packers travel back to San Francisco to take on the 49ers where they were clubbed 37-8 in a game that was never close at any point. The big question that we need to grapple with is whether or not the 49ers can put the memory of that game behind them or if they will come into the game thinking that it will be another blowout.

I would have a hard time believing that this game will be another thrashing. Aaron Rodgers has proved throughout his career he can learn from a loss, dust himself off and get back to work. He has had some time to look at the 49ers defense now and the Packers will adjust to the pass rush that slowed its offense the previous game. Also of note, I expect the Packers to put more pressure on Jimmy G who really was not impressive last week in his playoff debut against Minnesota. The 49ers defense clamped down on the Vikings and outside of about 3 passes that were really well thrown, most of his 11 completions were ducks or overthrows. If the Packers can keep this game close and force it into the hands of Jimmy, he’s going to make mistakes like last week when he was picked off and had a couple of others that were nearly taken away.

I still like the 49ers to win this ballgame, but the Packers are not going to be embarrassed a second time this season and will keep it close throughout. I am looking at a final score of 24-20 San Francisco this week which means that the Packers will cover the spread with a little room to spare.

THE PICK – PACKERS +7.5

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