Your NFC Championship Primer

Calais Campbell and the stingy Cardinals defense will do everything in its power to corral NFL MVP-favorite Cam Newton.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Our AFC Championship Preview was published earlier today, so there's no need for an introduction here. Let's kick it off.

Arizona at Carolina (6:40 p.m. Sunday, FOX)

Opening Line: Panthers by 3
Current Line: Panthers by 3

By The Numbers:

Arizona: 
Record: 13-3 Overall, 7-1 Away; 9-7 Against the Spread; 6-2 Away
Average Score: 30.6 (2nd) - 19.6 (7th)
Average Scoring Margin: +11.0 (2nd); 11.9 "Expected" Wins
DVOA: +15.8% Offense (4th); -15.6% Defense (3rd); -4.0% Special Teams (29th); +27.4% Overall (3rd)

Carolina:
Record: 15-1 Overall; 8-0 Home; 11-5 Against The Spread; 6-2 Home
Average Score: 31.2 (1st) - 19.2 (6th)
Average Scoring Margin: +12.0 (1st); 12.1 "Expected" Wins
DVOA: +9.9% Offense (8th); -18.4% Defense (2nd); -2.4% Special Teams (23rd); +25.9% Overall (4th)

Your Saturday Divisional Round Primer

Tom Brady (12) and the Patriots will be welcoming back several players from injury this week, and perhaps none is more comforting to the star quarterback than big left tackle Sebastian Vollmer (76).

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

In the Wild Card round, all four road teams prevailed for the first time since the playoff format changed back in 2002.

Also, unusually, there were two underdogs who covered but didn't win (Minnesota and Cincinnati). Normally in the postseason, underdogs don't pull backdoor covers out of a hat, they normally win outright. So perhaps it makes sense that Minnesota and Cincinnati came within inches of winning outright before losing in heartbreaking fashion.

The Wild Card round split up the conferences on separate days, but the divisional round features one AFC game and one NFC game on each day. As such, we will be previewing Saturday's games today and Sunday's games tomorrow, as to give you, dear reader, two full days to digest all of our useful information and gamble (where legal) accordingly.

Last week, Joe went 3-1 straight up, 1-3 against the spread (only Kansas City saved him from embarrassment), Jeremy went 4-0 straight up, 2-2 against the spread. So, combined with regular season records (where Joe held a one-game lead), we are now tied. With that in mind, let's check out Saturday's games.

NFL Week 16 Primer (With Picks): Just the Picks, Yo

Tom Brady and the Patriots can lock up home field advantage this weekend against the rival Jets, but New York will be hungry for a win to keep pace in the AFC Wild Card race.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

We just finished up Christmas and we've got New Year's coming up quickly, so I'm not going to bore you with much other than our picks.

Sure, the AFC is still a jumbled mess, and it's possible than an 11-5 Broncos or Jets team misses the postseason, but things should shake out nicely once the weekend is finished.

Let's not waste any more time, here are our games of the week and picks.

Game(s) of the Week

New England at New York Jets (1:00 p.m. Sunday, CBS)

The Patriots will be looking to lock up home field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, while the Jets are just hoping to keep pace in the crowded AFC Wild Card race. These games are, seemingly, always close (assuming there are no butt fumbles), and both teams have something to play for. Should be fun.

NFL Week 10 Primer (With Picks): Halfway Done

Can Arizona wrangle Russell Wilson and the Seahawks to seize control of the NFC West?

  By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

At some point last Sunday, the NFL season officially hit the halfway mark. Every team has played at least eight games. Some have played nine.

The cream is starting to rise to the top, at least in the AFC. The Patriots, Bengals, and Broncos, based on their current records and the strength of their divisions, have all but wrapped up playoff berths, barring an epic, near-unprecedented collapse. (Football Outsiders lists all three as having a better than 90 percent chance of winning their divisions).

Indianapolis seems to remain the favorite in the South, if only by default, and a handful of other teams - New York, Buffalo, Miami, Pittsburgh, Oakland - will be left to duke it out for two Wild Card spots. You could try to talk yourself into Baltimore, Houston, or Kansas City, but you'd be very stupid.

The NFC is murkier. The only team with a real stranglehold on their division is Carolina, but really only because Atlanta has stumbled of late, and their 5-0 start may have been a mirage. The East and the West are both totally up for grabs, and the NFC North suddenly finds itself with a tie atop the division between Green Bay and Minnesota. The Packers are still the favorites (and a Week 17 head-to-head at Lambeau Field with the Vikings tilts the scales even more), but Minnesota's easy schedule should continue to benefit them.

Don't expect much separation to occur this weekend - only two games feature teams competing for (potentially) the same playoff spot, and one of them occurred Thursday night. As for the other one, it's one of our games of the week.

Game(s) of The Week

New England at New York Giants (4:25 p.m. Sunday, CBS)

New England is obviously the class of the AFC East, and probably the favorite to take the conference crown. The Giants are certainly in the mix in the NFC East, and have proven time and again that, once in the playoffs, they're capable of making inexplicable runs to the Lombardi trophy. These aren't your slightly-older-brother's Giants' teams - there isn't much of a pass rush, and they don't throw deep. Their success stems from short timing routes to quick, shifty receivers.

Kind of like, you know, the Patriots.

Joe & Daphne's Preview: The NFC West

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe) and Daphne Parello (@DaphnePup)

We took an extra long weekend, but Daphne and I are back to preview the NFC West, home of reigning conference champion Seattle, (mostly) involuntarily revamped San Francisco, and a pair of nasty defenses in St. Louis and Arizona.

Other than the Seahawks, major questions linger for each of these teams, and even Seattle comes into 2015 with something to prove after coming up one play short of back-to-back titles in last February's Super Bowl.

Will the Seahawks make it back to Super Sunday, or can somebody like Arizona or St. Louis possibly snatch the division from them? Daphne and I investigate.

NFC Wild Card Weekend Preview

The Dallas backfield combo of Tony Romo and DeMarco Murray has been lethal this season, but the Cowboys will face a huge test against Detroit's vaunted defense.

 By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

The Regular Season is dead. Long Live the Regular Season.

Jeremy went a clutch 10-5-1 to miraculously finish the season over .500 (127-122-7), but it wasn't enough to catch Joe, who finished 129-120-7. For the season, Joe beat Jeremy 35-33-2 on disagreements, and it came down to the wire - had the Patriots covered against Buffalo, the season would have ended in a tie.

(Also, worth noting that Jeremy is protesting the Week 17 picks method - he picked the games first and Joe decided whether he agreed or disagreed, which Jeremy feels gave Joe the unfair advantage, especially when defending a lead in Week 17. There were several picks that Jeremy was on the fence about, and had Joe made his picks first, Jeremy would have leaned the other way in an effort to make up ground. And Jeremy claims that the games he was on the fence about - namely Oakland at Denver and New Orleans at Tampa Bay were ones that would have resulted in a season victory had Joe picked first, thus allowing Jeremy to disagree with him. But everyone can agree that Jeremy just needs to quit his whining.)

So Joe is our regular season champion. Barely. But now Jeremy is prepared to exact his revenge in the postseason. After a grueling 256-game marathon, this 11-game sprint is all about the details. Like we did last year, we'll go into greater detail for these games, because we can.

We've split it up into AFC and NFC previews (as opposed to a Saturday preview and a Sunday preview), so this covers Saturday's tilt between Arizona and Carolina, and Sunday's showdown with Detroit and Dallas.

Lobel's Question of the Week: Would You Sign Ray Rice?

Every week, legendary sportscaster Bob Lobel wants to hear your opinion on something that caught his eye over the weekend.

Though the Patriots and teams like the Broncos have found ways to run the ball with castoffs, undrafted free agents and unheralded homegrown talent, there are teams in the playoff hunt that could use some help at running back.

Teams like the Indianapolis Colts, who are relying on first-round bust Trent Richardson to carry the ball, or the Arizona Cardinals, who have seen Andre Ellington's ineffectiveness amplified by the absence of starting quarterback Carson Palmer.

Those are just two of many teams within striking distance of the postseason that may be interested in a talented and experienced running back. Luckily for them, one is available.

Rich Gannon on the NFC West

Our Adam Lowenstein spoke with current CBS commentator, former NFL quarterback, and guy I always thought was going to bite off his own tongue, Rich Gannon.

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

Ed. Note- Correspondent Adam Lowenstein won the California Almonds Ultimate Bro Snack Sweepstakes he entered earlier this year at Gillette Stadium, and his prize was a 15-minute phone conversation with CBS Sports commentator Rich Gannon.

Adam spent most of that conversation talking football (duh), though the conversation did take place before yesterday's NFL action. Still, he got to speak with a former NFL quarterback, and we think that's pretty cool, so we're gonna run this a day after the fact and adjust records accordingly. Enjoy!

Earlier in the week, I had the pleasure of speaking with CBS commentator Rich Gannon about a lot of the goings on in the National Football League as we head into Week 10. The former quarterback and I discussed quite a few storylines, but the most intriguing conversation that we had was about what most deem the league’s best division, the NFC West.

Although the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers have both underachieved thus far this season, the Arizona Cardinals own the league’s best record at 8-1, and Rich does not think that this will change any time soon.

“The Cardinals are going to win the division” Gannon said when asked how he sees the NFC West shaking out.

He spoke highly of Arizona head coach Bruce Arians and defensive coordinator Todd Bowels, as well as Patrick Peterson. The Pro Bowl cornerback played so well in the Cardinals’ 28-10 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 9 that Gannon went so far as to say “(Peterson) owned Dez Bryant.”

However, Gannon does see a weakness in Arizona’s rushing attack, which ranked 28th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA heading into Week 10.

SuiteSports' 2014 Midseason NFL Awards

His quarterback is getting more press right now, but Antonio Brown may be the best receiver in football.

By Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

Do midseason awards serve any purpose?

Of course not, but everybody does them, so I figured, why not? Now, here is a list of early season trends and standouts that could turn totally around over the next eight weeks.

MVP: Tom Brady, QB, New England

Rumors of Brady's demise were greatly exaggerated after a week 5 blowout loss in Kansas City. To be fair, the Patriots did look plenty sluggish on offense, but talk of rookie quarterback Jimmy Garoppollo getting the starting job… That was dumb at the time, and looks even more foolhardy given Brady's play the last five weeks.

In that span, the three-time Super Bowl winner has thrown 18 touchdowns to just one interception and the Patriots have won five in a row. On the season, Brady's 22-3 TD/INT ratio has him tied with Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger for the best in football, and his QBR has jumped from 11th to 5th the last month.

While Roethlsiberger edges him in several passing categories (completion percentage, YPA, etc), much of his production has come in two amazing games. For the whole body of work, and carrying his team to potentially the top seed in the AFC, Brady gets the nod over Ben and his nemesis Peyton Manning.

Well, so far.

Long And Suite Preview: The NFC West

Russell Wilson is poised to lead the Seahawks on another Super Bowl run.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

There is one common thread in the NFC West: Defense. Each of these four teams has a potentially elite defense - some of them have already established themselves as such (Seattle, San Francisco), others have been at that level without anyone really noticing (Arizona), and one has several budding superstars that could coalesce to be the best unit of the bunch (St. Louis). For the divisions playing the NFC West this year (the AFC West and NFC East), they'd better bring a lunch, because it's going to be a long fight.

The top of the division is a two-team race between the usual suspects: Seattle and San Francisco. The title very well could come down to scheduling. Both teams play the AFC West, but Seattle gets the Broncos at home. San Francisco has to travel to Denver for their matchup. As the first place team from a year ago, Seattle has the good fortune to play against Carolina (who will almost certainly take a step back from their NFC South Division Title last year), while San Francisco has to go on the road to play New Orleans, the second-place team from the South a year ago. This seems to point to Seattle being the favorite (and this is born out in Seattle's steeper odds for the division title), but as we've seen in recent years, especially in this division - weird stuff happens.

NFL Week 12 Primer - The Home Stretch

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning square off yet again this week.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

By the time Week 12 rolls around, the playoff picture usually becomes clearer. Not this year. The 2013 NFL playoff picture (or is it the 2014 NFL playoff picture because the playoffs will occur in 2014? This crap always confuses me - it's really the biggest upside baseball has, that the season is contained within one year) is murky and only getting murkier. 

Somehow, in Week 12, there are only two teams in each conference that seem 100% safe in reaching the playoffs - the 9-1 Broncos and 9-1 Chiefs in the AFC, and the 10-1 Seahawks and 9-2 Saints in the NFC. You'd think that the first-place Patriots in the AFC East would have separated from the pack by now, but if they lose to Denver Sunday night, and the Jets pick up a road win over the struggling Ravens (not out of the question), the Jets would suddenly be just a game back of the Patriots. The 7-3 Colts atop the AFC South have to travel to play the suddenly-frisky Cardinals on the road, and still have road games against Cincinnati and Kansas City.

And don't even get me started on the AFC Wild Card. One of the NFC West teams will grab the 5th seed (and will probably be 13-3 or 14-2 in the process). The other? Really, just roll a die. The Jets and Dolphins "lead" the way at 5-5, and then after that it's like Oprah's favorite things.

The Steelers are 4-6! The Ravens are 4-6! The Browns are 4-6! The Titans are 4-6! The Chargers are 4-6! The Raiders are 4-6! EVERYBODY IS FOUR AND SIIIIIIXXXXX!!!!

Long And Suite Preview: The NFC West

Pete Carroll (left) and Jim Harbaugh (right) already have the most intense coaching rivalry in football, dating back to their days in the Pac 10 (now 12). The stakes are even higher this year, as Carroll's Seahawks and Harbaugh's 49ers might just be the two best teams in the NFL.

 By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin) and Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

The transformation that this division has undergone over the last three years is pretty incredible. In 2010, A Week 17 matchup between the 7-8 Rams and 6-9 Seahawks actually decided which of the two teams would HOST a playoff game the following week. It was pretty embarrassing. Now there’s an argument to be made that it’s the best top-to-bottom division in the league. Even 2012’s last place finisher Arizona had wins over Seattle and New England.