AP3 is in Vegas this week so your stuck with me for this special edition of NFL Power Rankings as we make our last real stop before the Super Bowl.

1. San Francisco

Wow is Kaepernick scary good. A lot of young QB's would have crumbled after throwing that pick six on his second pass of the game. Not him though, he only accounted for 444yds and 4 touchdowns. That included 181 on the ground, 263 through the air with 2touchdowns each. We are about to have one of the best Super Bowls of my lifetime if the 49ers and Patriots can win this week. As a Pats fan I'm scared to death of Kaepernick and this team. Sure you can say that the Pats scored all those points in the comeback but SF wasn't going all out. They were trying to limit the big plays and as soon as the Pats got back in it Kaepernick stepped on their throats and ended the game. The Patriots will be favored next week but that's mostly because they're a public team not because they're the better team.

2. New England

I'm not knocking the Pats they're clearly one of the two best teams this year and when you have Brady and Belichick you are never out of it. They just have so many weapons, even without Gronkowski they're still scary good. They can beat anyone on any given Sunday.

3. Baltimore

The Ravens are playing inspired football right now. They believe they can beat the Patriots so if they rise up and knock them off don't be surprised.

4. Atlanta

The team with the best record is far and away the worst remaining team. They choked the game away last week before Matt Ryan lead them down the field for a winning field goal with just 31 seconds on the clock. But there's no chance they will get that type of lead on the 49ers and they won't be able to overcome awful coaching mistakes that they always seem to make. Like how they didn't go for 2 to make it a 21 point game with basically just the 4th quarter left (do you really think there's time for Seattle to score 2 touchdowns and kick 2 field goals? No of course there was t time for that.). Or how they called timeout with 13 seconds left before kicking the field goal instead of waiting to make it the last play. Or the onside kick instead of the squib following that. Mike Smith is the worst coach remaining BY FAR. He's one of the worst in the league as it is. They can't overcome him this week.

mlz
Wednesday, January 16, 2013