NFL: 49ers climb to top spot in rankings
1. San Francisco 49ers (13-3, 2-0, +1): The 49ers blew out the Minnesota Vikings, 27-10, in the NFC Divisional Round before taking down the Green Bay Packers in the NFC title game, 37-20. Both games looked to be a relatively easy victories for the 49ers as they jumped out to halftime leads before pulling away in the second half. Tevin Coleman had a game-high 105 yards versus Minnesota, before Raheem Mostert totaled 220 yards against the Packers.
2. Kansas City Chiefs (12-4, 2-0, +2): We’re not really sure where to start with the Chiefs as they fell down 24-0 to the Houston Texans and 10-0 to the Tennessee Titans at home. With that said, though, it never felt like they were in trouble. We’ve never seen an offense like this, partially because we’ve never seen a player like Patrick Mahomes, who threw for 615 yards and eight touchdowns in the two playoff wins.
3. Green Bay Packers (13-3, 1-1, +0): The Packers went to the NFC championship game for the third time in the last six years after defeating the Seattle Seahawks, but Green Bay is now 0-3 in those games. Aaron Rodgers shouldn't be solely to blame for the loss as he threw for 326 yards and two touchdowns on a 79.5% completion rate. However, he did turn the ball over far too much and that helped create a 27-0 deficit that they couldn't get out of.
4. Tennessee Titans (9-7, 2-1, +4): The Titans were the one team that wasn’t supposed to be here. We had three of the top four teams from the regular season, and one who clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season. No matter how they did it, the Titans pulled off two monumental upsets, the latter being a 28-12 domination of top seeded Baltimore. Unfortunately for Tennessee, they had their miracle run end with a 35-24 loss to the Chiefs.
5. Baltimore Ravens (14-2, 0-1, -4): The Ravens, who had been the best team in the league since the end of October, dropped the ball in their postseason opener versus the Titans, and will have to settle for fifth place in our rankings. But they’ll be back next year. Lamar Jackson wasn’t himself by any means, but he still went for 365 passing yards and 143 rushing yards. The loss isn’t all on him. Baltimore had seven dropped passes in the loss.
Photo Credit: SF Gate.
