It's Conference Championship weekend and we have two of the best matchups we could have hoped for. I was watching the Chargers at Broncos and although I've developed something of a man crush on Philip Rivers, I was rooting for the Broncos to win, because the prospect of seeing the Pats head to Denver for a rematch of arguably the best regular season game of 2013 was simply too good to miss.
See? We didn't even mention Manning v Brady at all. Ok lets get this straight: Peyton may be the best straight up QB there ever was. Ever. But there's still a part of most people who would take Brady with a minute left on the clock, needing a TD to tie. The thing is, Brady hasn't massively needed to be much of a passer recently, and that's all people are talking about, but I'd just point out that in Foxboro, Manning didn't need to be much of a QB either, as Moreno ran for 200+ yards and the Broncos only needed to throw in the last few minutes.
What does this mean? Well, there's every chance that the perceived QB matchup of the season might come down to LeGarrette Blount vs Knowshon Moreno, a pair of guys who 2 years ago looked close to done as starters in the NFL.
Here's our rundown of how the experts have picked this one, and who has the best record picking the Pats and Broncos...
New England Patriots @ Denver Broncos (3:00pm)
**Matchup Difficulty: 66.21% **(the higher the score, the better the experts' success rate when picking these two teams. An 'average' matchup would be 62%)
Consensus: **Denver 68%**
Top Overall: **Denver 81.8**%
Best Pick Index:
The Best Pick Index tracks which experts have picked the two teams most accurately at home and away this season, before ranking them based on their overall accuracy.
(this table will be updated as picks come in)
New England
Denver
Rank
Expert
Affiliation
Road %
Home %
Overall:
Pick
1
Ty Schalter
Bleacher Report
87.50%
87.50%
87.5%
DEN
2
Frank Schwab
Yahoo
75.00%
87.50%
81.3%
No Pick
3
Marshall Faulk
NFL
75.00%
85.71%
80.4%
No Pick
4
Andrea Hangst
Bleacher Report
75.00%
75.00%
75.0%
DEN
5
John Breech
CBS
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
6
Pete Prisco
CBS
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
7
Prediction Machine
CBS
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
8
Mike Golic
ESPN
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
9
Joel Beall
FOX
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
10
John Halpin
FOX
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
11
Whatifsports
FOX
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
12
Chris Wesseling
NFL
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
13
Gregg Rosenthal
NFL
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
NE
14
NFL FAN PICKS
NFL
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
15
Michael David Smith
PFT
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
No Pick
16
Khaled Elsayed
ProFootballFocus
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
17
Nathan Jahnke
ProFootballFocus
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
18
Steve Palazzolo
ProFootballFocus
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
NE
19
Jim Corbett
USA Today
62.50%
87.50%
75.0%
DEN
20
Adam Rank
NFL
62.50%
85.71%
74.1%
NE
21
Steve Wyche
NFL
57.14%
87.50%
72.3%
No Pick
22
Brad Gagnon
Bleacher Report
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
23
Chris Hansen
Bleacher Report
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
NE
24
Erik Frenz
Bleacher Report
62.50%
75.00%
68.8%
DEN
25
Knox Bardeen
Bleacher Report
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
26
Matt Miller
Bleacher Report
62.50%
75.00%
68.8%
NE
27
Dave Richard
CBS
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
28
Josh Katzowitz
CBS
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
29
Ryan Wilson
CBS
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
NE
30
K.C. Joyner
ESPN
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
31
Pick ‘em
ESPN
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
32
Adam Meyer
FOX
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
No Pick
33
Ryan Fowler
FOX
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
No Pick
34
Dan Hanzus
NFL
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
35
Dave Damashek
NFL
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
NE
36
Heath Evans
NFL
62.50%
75.00%
68.8%
No Pick
37
Henry Hodgson
NFL
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
NE
38
Kevin Patra
NFL
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
39
Melissa Stark
NFL
75.00%
62.50%
68.8%
NE
40
Steve Mariucci
NFL
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
41
Mike Florio
PFT
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
NE
42
Gordon McGuinness
ProFootballFocus
62.50%
75.00%
68.8%
DEN
43
Neil Hornsby
ProFootballFocus
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
44
Rick Drummond
ProFootballFocus
62.50%
75.00%
68.8%
NE
45
Sam Monson
ProFootballFocus
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
46
Yahoo Users
Yahoo
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
47
Vinnie Iyer
Sporting News
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
NE
48
Simon Samano
USA Today
50.00%
87.50%
68.8%
DEN
49
Warren Sapp
NFL
50.00%
85.71%
67.9%
No Pick
50
Les Carpenter
Yahoo
33.33%
100.00%
66.7%
No Pick
51
Matt Smith
NFL
40.00%
85.71%
62.9%
No Pick
52
Matt Bowen
Bleacher Report
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
DEN
53
Michael Schottey
Bleacher Report
62.50%
62.50%
62.5%
NE
54
Mike Freeman
Bleacher Report
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
NE
55
Tyson Langland
Bleacher Report
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
NE
56
Zach Kruse
Bleacher Report
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
57
Jamey Eisenberg
CBS
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
58
Jason La Canfora
CBS
62.50%
62.50%
62.5%
NE
59
Adam Schefter
ESPN
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
NE
60
Mark Schlereth
ESPN
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
61
Mike Ditka
ESPN
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
NE
62
Ron Jaworski
ESPN
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
DEN
63
Seth Wickersham
ESPN
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
64
Tom Jackson
ESPN
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
DEN
65
Michael Fabiano
NFL
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
66
Chris Brockman
NFL
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
NE
67
Elliot Harrison
NFL
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
68
Kurt Warner
NFL
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
No Pick
69
Marc Sessler
NFL
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
NE
70
Michael Silver
NFL
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
71
Sterling Sharpe
NFL
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
DEN
72
Ben Stockwell
ProFootballFocus
50.00%
75.00%
62.5%
DEN
73
Black Tie
NFL
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
74
Don Banks
Sports Illustrated
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
75
Nate Davis
USA Today
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
NE
76
Lindsay H. Jones
USA Today
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
77
Pete O'Brien
USA Today
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
78
Accuscore
Accuscore
37.50%
87.50%
62.5%
DEN
79
Will Brinson
CBS
50.00%
62.50%
56.3%
NE
80
Chris Mortensen
ESPN
37.50%
75.00%
56.3%
DEN
81
Cris Carter
ESPN
25.00%
87.50%
56.3%
NE
82
Eric Allen
ESPN
25.00%
87.50%
56.3%
DEN
83
Keyshawn Johnson
ESPN
50.00%
62.50%
56.3%
DEN
84
Merill Hoge
ESPN
25.00%
87.50%
56.3%
NE
85
Chris Law
NFL
50.00%
62.50%
56.3%
DEN
86
Michael Irvin
NFL
25.00%
87.50%
56.3%
DEN
87
Rich Eisen
NFL
25.00%
87.50%
56.3%
DEN
88
Shaun O'Hara
NFL
50.00%
62.50%
56.3%
DEN
89
Pickwatch
Pickwatch
37.50%
75.00%
56.3%
NE
90
Jarrett Bell
USA Today
37.50%
75.00%
56.3%
DEN
91
Tom Pelissero
USA Today
25.00%
87.50%
56.3%
DEN
92
Brian Baldinger
NFL
33.33%
71.43%
52.4%
NE
93
Coin Toss
None
37.50%
37.50%
37.5%
No Pick
For more updates from Pickwatch, follow us on twitter or Facebook. Keep an eye out for further updates this weekend as we help you to decide who to trust in this week's Conference Championship games