The NFL Conference Championships kickoff Sunday with the Atlanta Falcons hosting the Green Bay Packers followed by the New England Patriots hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship. Below is everything you need to know ahead of the two matchups.


NFC Championship - Packers at Falcons, Sunday 3pm et/Noon pt. on CTV

The NFC championship is quite a mismatch.

Not on the field, mind you.

The Atlanta Falcons are playing as well as they have all season. Ditto for the Green Bay Packers. It should be quite a shootout when they meet Sunday in the Georgia Dome's final game, with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

But when it comes to the tradition and history of the two franchises, the Packers have a decided edge.

It's a landslide, really.

Lambeau Field. Cheeseheads. Thirteen NFL championships. Four Super Bowl titles. The snow and the tundra. The green and the gold.

The Falcons?

Hmmm ... give us a minute.

In 51 seasons, they have played in only one Super Bowl and never won a championship. For much of their existence, the Falcons were burdened with cartoonish ownership, laughable draft picks and horrific personnel moves such as trading away a strong-armed young quarterback in the early 1990s.

Brett Favre went on to have a pretty good career with the Packers.

Favre's successor understands the significance of playing with such a storied team.

"It's like no other place in our sport," said Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who has guided the Packers (12-6) to eight straight wins. "As a football historian and someone who's loved the game since a young age, you realize how special it is to be part of this team, but also know that this team has been around since 1919, and it's going to be around long after you're done."

The Falcons (12-5) don't have that sort of legacy to fall back on.

But they do have the highest-scoring team in the league, led by MVP candidate Matt Ryan , and a home-field edge that really paid off last week.

The Georgia Dome , which will be torn down after this season and replaced by $1.5 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium, was as loud as anyone could remember for a divisional-round victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Green Bay's dramatic upset of the top-seeded Dallas Cowboys ensured one more game would be played at the 70,000-seat stadium with the big top-like roof.

These Falcons are only looking forward. They don't care what happened before.

"The guys who played here in 1999 aren't here," defensive end Dwight Freeney said. "The guys who played in Green Bay in 1995 aren't there."

Here are some things to watch for Sunday:

JULIO'S FOOT: All-Pro receiver Julio Jones was limited in practice after being sidelined at the end of last week's victory because of a lingering left foot injury. That's nothing new for Jones, but the sprained toe still raised concerns about how effective he'll be in the biggest game of the season.

Jones, who had 83 receptions for 1,409 yards and six touchdowns during the regular season, said it won't be an issue.

"No effect at all," he said. "I'll be ready to go."

JORDY'S RIBS: The prognosis for Green Bay's top receiver was a bit murkier. Jordy Nelson returned to practice at midweek, but he's still recovering from broken ribs that forced him to miss the victory in Dallas.

While Nelson said he's still a long way from a full recovery, he didn't rule out a possible return against the Falcons.

The Packers sure could use him. Davante Adams (ankle) and Geronimo Allison (hamstring) were also dealing with injuries that forced them to miss practice time.

DREAM MATCHUP: Ryan and Rodgers are leading MVP candidates, along with New England quarterback Tom Brady and Dallas rookies Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott.

It's easy to see why.

Ryan had the best season of his nine-year career, completing nearly 70 per cent of his passes for 4,944 yards and 38 touchdowns with just seven interceptions. He didn't let up in his first game of the playoffs, lighting up the Seahawks for 338 yards and three TDs . Ryan has gone five straight games without throwing a pick.

Rodgers had an NFL-leading 40 touchdown passes during the regular season, and he's thrown for more than 300 yards in his first two playoff outings.

His most recent pass might have been his best. Rolling to his left, he hit Jared Cook on a 36-yard completion right along the sideline, setting up Mason Crosby's 51-yard field goal on the final play to stun the Cowboys 34-31.

MATTHEWS VS. MATTHEWS: Keep an eye on the family matchup between Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews and Falcons left tackle Jake Matthews.

The cousins were denied a chance to square off during the regular season. Clay Matthews was injured and didn't play in Atlanta's 33-32 victory.

Both Matthews are ready to go in this one. Clay had five sacks during the season, while Jake is the chief protector of Ryan's blind side.

"Anytime you get to play with or against family, those are going to be the games that, when it's all said and done, I'll remember the best," Jake Matthews said.

SHAKY DEFENCES: If defence wins championships, these teams wouldn't have gotten nearly this far.

Both rank near the bottom of the league in most of the major categories, but their dynamic offences helped cover up the shortcomings.

The Falcons' defence has actually shown significant improvement late in the season, not unexpected for a young group that starts as many as four rookies. Against the Seahawks, Atlanta surrendered a long touchdown on the opening possession and then kept Seattle out of the end zone until the closing minutes.

Green Bay is dealing with a battered secondary that managed to contain Odell Beckham Jr. of the Giants in the wild-card game, but was torched by Cowboys star Dez Bryant.

LaDarius Gunter, an undrafted free agent, drew most of the assignments on Beckham and Bryant. He likely will be the one trying to defend Jones on Sunday.

 

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AFC Championship - Steelers at Patriots, Sunday 6:40pm et/3:40pm pt. on CTV

There are few things that Bill Belichick respects more than history in the NFL.

And few teams elicit as much praise from the Patriots coach as the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Part of it is the reverence that Belichick holds for the way Steelers founder Art Rooney and his family has operated a franchise that's remained among the league's best, winning multiple Super Bowl titles more than 30 years apart. It is a model emulated when Robert Kraft bought the Patriots in 1994 and six years later hired Belichick, who has nurtured a "Patriots Way" that has helped bring four Lombardi trophies to New England.

Those histories will collide when two of the most successful programs of the 2000s meet in Sunday's AFC championship game.

"They've been tough to deal with going all the way back to coach (Chuck) Noll in the '70s," Belichick said. "They were pretty consistently tough to deal with through that entire period of time, which has been all of my years in the league."

Either New England or Pittsburgh has been a part of nine of the 17 Super Bowls since 2000, winning six championships between them.

"They have a lot of wins over there," said Patriots receiver Julian Edelman. "It's nothing but respect for the Steelers. I went to school in Steelers Country over in Kent State. Half the school was in a Steelers jersey. I've known about that whole faithful for a while now."

But for all their individual successes, the teams have met only four times in the playoffs. The Patriots have won three of those matchups, including the last two in the AFC title games in 2005 and 2002 at Heinz Field. Both times New England went on the win the Super Bowl.

Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been a part of both of the Steelers' recent championships, but the 34-year-old's only playoff meeting with the Patriots was the 2005 loss when he was a rookie.

He has spoken often about his respect for the Patriots and Tom Brady , which included him requesting a jersey from Brady prior to Pittsburgh's loss to New England back in October . Big Ben missed that game because of knee surgery. This is the latest opportunity to play in "the lion's den," he said.

"They are the best in the world," Roethlisberger said. "They are the gold standard, if you will. So you want to have that opportunity to go up to play the best."

Brady is 6-2 in head-to-head matchups with Roethlisberger, but Roethlisberger didn't play in the Patriots' Week 7 win in Pittsburgh because he was recovering from surgery on his left knee.

Including the two playoff wins, Brady is 9-2 overall against Pittsburgh, including a 4-0 record at home . Roethlisberger is 3-6 all-time against New England.

History aside, Brady said he is expecting to get the best from Pittsburgh, which started the season 4-5 but has won its last nine.

"(Roethlisberger's) been a leader for that team for a long time and they've won a lot of games with him behind the centre," Brady said. "It's going to be a great game."

Here are some things to watch for in Sunday's game:

WHAT VIDEO?: Most of the early part of the week was consumed by the fallout from video of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin using an expletive to describe the Patriots during a postgame speech to his team following its divisional-round win over Kansas City. Unbeknownst to Tomlin, the speech was aired on a social media livestream by receiver Antonio Brown.

But Patriots special teams captain Matt Slater said it wouldn't provide any extra motivation.

"We're playing in the AFC championship game. If you can't get motivated to play in this game, then you're in the wrong sport," he said.

RED MEANS STOP: Pittsburgh's high-octane offence ran into some serious hiccups in the divisional round against Kansas City. Seven trips inside the Chiefs' 30 — and four inside the 20 — resulted in no touchdowns, an interception and an NFL playoff record of six field goals from Chris Boswell.

"We just didn't execute in critical downs," Pittsburgh offensive co-ordinator Todd Haley said. "We had opportunities to make plays in that game. A couple that probably would have been touchdowns, we didn't make. We were able to come out on top."

BUD NOT SO LIGHT: Steelers outside linebacker Bud Dupree might be the team's lucky charm. Pittsburgh hasn't lost since Dupree recovered from surgery to repair a sports hernia. The team's first-round pick in 2015 has five sacks in nine games while playing opposite veteran James Harrison.

Though Dupree typically lines up wide of the tight end, he's more than happy to try and go up the middle in an effort to get in Brady's face, something Houston did with limited success last week.

"You've got to do anything you can to try and get in his face," Dupree said.

PLAN B, C & D: Pittsburgh reached the title game despite missing wide receivers Martavis Bryant (suspended) the entire season and Markus Wheaton, Sammie Coates and Darrius Heyward-Bey for long stretches due to injury. In their place are the likes of seventh-round pick Demarcus Ayers, practice squad graduates Xavier Grimble and Cobi Hamilton, as well as undrafted free agent Eli Rogers.

"So, we have a lot of guys that I think can make plays for us, outside of the usual suspects," Roethlisberger said. "Even if it is one or two big plays a game, sometimes that can be enough, if the play is made at the right time."