San Francisco at Atlanta: Matt Ryan got a huge monkey off of his back last week when the Falcons defeated Seattle 30-28. They won on a 49-yard field goal from Matt Bryant with eight seconds left to edge the Seahawks. However, the Falcons came into the fourth quarter of that game leading 27-7. The point is that Atlanta suffered a major fourth-quarter meltdown. The Falcons will be getting DE John Abraham for this game, but they won't be able to stop Niners running back Frank Gore. San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh will lead his boys to New Orleans.
Baltimore at New England: In what appeared to be a lost cause for the Ravens last week at Denver, Joe Flacco proved his value in the playoffs by throwing a 70-yard dart to Jacoby Jones with 31 seconds left to tie the game. What's more is that Baltimore was all out of timeouts at the time. They went on to upend Peyton Manning and the Broncos in two overtimes by a score of 38-35, giving Ray Lewis one more week of football. Flacco's 5-4 lifetime on the road in the playoffs. In fact, one of his losses was last year's AFC Championship game, which involved a Billy Cundiff shank that would've tied a game. Baltimore would've won that game in regulation had Patriots corner Sterling Moore not stripped Ravens receiver Lee Evans of the ball. In a AFC Championship rematch, Baltimore wins in a squeaker.
