The San Francisco 49ers, in my opinion, are the best team left in the NFL playoffs. They lost in the NFC Championship game last year with a great defense, a really good running game and a lot of audacity.

This year they roll into the NFC Championship with all of that but also with one of the best and brightest young quarterbacks in the game in Colin Kaepernick. He has, seemingly, everything you could ever want in a quarterback. He is smart, aggressive, a leader, accurate, strong and capable. He is a quarterback that can punish a defense for not paying attention to him and he is only getting better.

The 49ers have the weaker of the match ups this week with Atlanta. This is just a bad matchup for the Falcons and the fact that the game is being played in Atlanta is the only thing that gives me pause from predicting a comfortable win.

The 49ers will play well from the start and push their way to New Orleans.

Chance of winning – 34%

The Baltimore Ravens come into this game and very well could have the most cheered for player left in the playoffs in retiring linebacker Ray Lewis. He came back from injury to join the team in the playoffs and the Ravens are playing with a different passion.

Before you think, “Yeah Sean but they are playing the Patriots,” in the last two meeting including the playoffs Joe Flacco has outplayed Tom Brady. In fact Flacco has thrown 5 touchdowns and two interceptions while Brady has one touchdown and two interceptions.

They say that players earn their paychecks during the season and cement their legacy in the playoffs. This will be a tough game for the Ravens against the Patriots and the ever growing legacy of Tom Brady.

Flacco is a great deep ball thrower and the Ravens will depend on him hitting the low percentage deep ball a couple of times to keep them in the game. Depending on the low percentage throw is why I’m giving them a lower percentage than two others to win.

Chance of winning – 23%

The New England Patriots are one of my favorite teams. They probably have the best overall coach in the game of football and one of the best quarterbacks to ever strap on football cleats. They seemingly have a different game plan for every team that they play and they are constantly innovating and pushing the envelope when it comes to advancing the game.

They never have the best talent but they get the most out of what they have and I feel safe in saying that they would be an average team without Tom Brady at QB. He does everything so well that he gets his players to play better than any other team was able to. He helps people perform at a level that they never attain against if they leave New England.

They are playing at home. They have not had large level success against Baltimore as of late. They play their best when the lights are their brightest and when they are being questioned.

If they get to the big game, all bets are off. They are that good.

Chance of winning – 28%

Atlanta came out of the blocks against the Seattle Seahawks like they were shot out of a cannon. While their defense played an average brand of ‘bend but don’t break’ against Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, they were able to keep them off the scoreboard. They led at the half 20 -0 and then proceeded to play terribly in the second half, finding themselves losing with less than a minute to go in the game. Matt Ryan hit two big passes and the Falcons kicked a field goal to beat the Seahawks.

The Falcons can’t count on Matt Bryant to bail them out against the 49ers.

That was the good news. The bad news is that the 49ers come to town now and they might be the best team in the NFL. Atlanta was exposed by an athletic and mobile quarterback. For a Falcons team that plays a bunch of man to man defense, Colin Kaepernick is a recipe for disaster with his ability to run for big yards after the defense is extended.Even when the Falcons had the best record I have always thought they had holes that would be exploited by the better teams in the NFL. Again, while any of the four could end up winning the whole thing, the probably of the Atlanta Falcons winning are lower than the others. They do not have the defense to win a championship.

Chance of winning – 15%