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

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