numberFire's 2012 NFL Conference Championship Central
There's three games in the NFL season left. Seriously. You can look it up and everything. I just made myself extraordinarily sad.
That's why we here at numberFire like to get as much of a football fix as we can. And we've been rolling out the football articles for this week to help get you pumped. Check them out!
49ers/Falcons by the Stats
"The Packers, though, had reason to believe that Kaepernick wouldn't be as deadly rushing the ball as he actually was. On the season, Kaepernick was only "successful" (meaning that his rush increased the Niners' chance of scoring more than the league-average play) on 49.2 percent of the times he took off. That's light years ahead of most running backs, who are usually successful on about 30 percent of their rushes on average. But it's still behind most other QBs with 50 rushes, including RGIII (58.6 percent), Michael Vick (54.1), Russell Wilson (53.2), Andrew Luck (51.1), and Cam Newton (49.2)."
Patriots/Ravens by the Stats
"In his 23 career playoff games, Tom Brady has topped a 100 QB rating in eight of them, or a 35 percent success rate. But given that number, it's a bit odd to see that in conference championship games, he usually dips a little: only the 2004 Pittsburgh matchup saw him even top a 90 QB rating. In the most recent two games, he threw a combined five picks and two TDs against Baltimore and San Diego, and those contests were the worst games that he put together in those respective playoff runs."
Why Tom Brady is NOT Better than Joe Montana
"All of this is to say that if Joe Montana's Ke$ha, with some legitimate hits that you couldn't get away from but nothing too groundbreaking, then Tom Brady's Carly Rae Jepsen, with some super-mega-ultra songs (see, now Call Me Maybe's stuck in your head) but the low points are much lower."
Conference Championship Roundtable: the numberFire Experts' NFL Predictions
"Keith Goldner, Chief Analyst: 49ers win in a back-and-forth close game, 28-27. Both teams are great in the passing game, but the Niners defense will outweigh the Falcons home field advantage. Plus, the Niners rushing offense ranks No. 2 in the NFL barely behind the Redskins thanks to both Frank Gore and Colin Kaepernick."
And one non-Conference Championship article...
The Lurking Behemoth: The Eagles Under Chip Kelly
"Additionally, a hallmark of Kelly's offense is to get skill players involved in a variety of roles; DeAnthony Thomas - ostensibly listed as a RB - this past year led the team in receptions and was third on the team in rushes. This is consistent with a trend that saw James and Blount get heavily involved in the passing game, which leads me to believe that Shady will remain extremely valuable in PPR-friendly leagues, as Kelly is likely to use McCoy's versatile skill set in a variety of ways."
