Ralph Vacchiano's post on New York Giants | Latest updates on Sulia

After a split last weekend I’m 3-5 in picking playoff games. Here are my picks for the AFC/NFC championship games …

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP – My preseason pick to win it all was the New England Patriots, so I’ve got to stick with that. They were a couple of dropped passes away from beating the Texans by much more than 13 points last week. And Tom Brady went for 344 yards and three touchdowns and barely broke a sweat. That Patriots’ offense is as loaded as the one that went 18-0 before running into the Giants back in the 2007 season. Yes, the Ravens have a better team (and defense) than the Texans. But it’s not the same Ray Lewis and these aren’t the same Ravens, so expecting them to stand up to Brady is just too much. It’s not like they had an answer for Peyton Manning last week until Manning (with John Fox’s help) stopped himself. So the Patriots will score and while I like Joe Flacco and think he can put up some points and maybe cover a ridiculously large spread, I’ll take Brady in a quarterback dual with Flacco any day. … Patriots 45, Ravens 38. NFC CHAMPIONSHIP – When the Falcons took that 20-point lead on Seattle last week, I thought the world might be wrong about them, that they really were a contender and not a fraud. But the way they let Russell Wilson and the Seahawks come back on them and take the lead in the final seconds certainly was alarming. Making it even more alarming is that the 49ers have a similar attack to the Seahawks and a similar – but better – quarterback in Colin Kaepernick. We all saw the show that Kaepernick put on against the Packers last week. I see no reason why he can’t do the same against the Falcons. The Falcons defense was soft and they had no answer for Wilson, who had plenty of time in the pocket and lots of room to run. I suppose maybe the Falcons were sitting back and protecting what they thought was an insurmountable lead. They better hope so, because if that was their real defense they were playing they’re going to be in a lot of trouble on Sunday afternoon. … 49ers 31, Falcons 20.