2014 NFL Playoffs: Conference championship games set

The full list of inactives:

WR Kenbrell Thompkins, OG Chris Barker, LB Steve Beauharnais, DE Jake Bequette, DB Justin Green, DT Isaac Sopoaga, TE D.J. Williams

With a strong area of high pressure dominating the western half of the United States, the only action that fans and teams will have to worry about will be on the field and not from the sky. The first game of the 2014 NFL Conference Championship will be in Denver, Colorado as the Patriots come to visit the Broncos. It will be an unseasonably mild afternoon with plenty of sunshine. Temperatures during the game will be in the mid to low 60s. Winds are not expected to be a problem as their speeds will be between 5 and 10 mph.

In Seattle, for the showdown between Niners and the Seahawks weather will also be quiet. It won’t be as sunny and mild as Denver but precipitation is not expected and winds will not be strong. Temperatures will be in the mid to low 40s, which is not too cold for this time of year.

And then there were four.

Following two eventful rounds of playoffs, only four teams remain alive in the chase for the Lombardi Trophy. The Divisional round went mostly as expected, with all four betting favorites advancing. As a result, fans get a pair of excellent championship matchups, featuring arguably the two best teams in each conference.

The Divisional round didn’t give us some of the most scintillating individual performances, but there were a few bright spots.

Rivers played really well this season, despite the disappointing end. There’s a lot to build on moving forward, provided this team stays the course.

Three games remain in the NFL season and it feels like it all ended far too quickly. Somewhere in the near future you’ll need to remember these moments to get you through the drought, like the only magazine at a doctor’s office.

There’s a lot going on here.

A heavy winter coat can be really fun. It will keep you warm, you can pretend to be Batman on the sidelines, or when life gets a little too hard to accept you can hide within it’s comforting, non-judgmental walls.

Rivers will remain in this cocoon until he’s needed. Then Commissioner Weatherbee will shine the bolo signal from the top of the highest building in San Diego and he’ll emerge once again, ready to battle.

It’s a monster day of conference title games, given the quarterback star power in the AFC and the piping hot rivalry that’s developed in the NFC West.

New England Patriots at Denver Broncos, 3 p.m. ET

It’s likely a signal to his offensive line to kill a hard count and start the actual cadence, but that doesn’t mean we’re not taking notice. Even (you guessed it) Omaha is abuzz with the attention.

Peyton is a little busy, but we’ll say a hearty “You’re welcome” on his behalf.

It’s good to see that football players are just like the rest of us. They put their pants on one leg at a time and can’t travel on mass transit without having obscenities yelled at them.

(Original photo via @DonBanks)

• SB Nation’s 2014 NFL playoff coverage and brackets

• Beast Quake: The greatest TD run in NFL playoff history

What’s the sound of one hand clapping?

Now, what’s the sound of two of Philip Rivers hands clapping?

“Yes it was,” Rivera said in his postgame press conference. “Thank you.”

Rivera didn’t sugarcoat anything, though. The Panthers lacked composure at times, and Rivera admitted that.

Newton and the Panthers appeared to have the edge early on -- Kaepernick struggled to start, completing just 11-of-24 passes while Newton gave Carolina the lead with a 31-yard touchdown dart to Steve Smith. The Panthers held the 49ers to just 59 total yards with a few minutes left in the second quarter and looked to be going into the locker room with the lead.

Kaepernick woke up just before the half, though, leading a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that put the 49ers up, 13-10. The 49ers held that lead for the rest of the game while Newton went cold down the stretch. The Panthers held the ball four times in the second half, resulting in two punts, an interception and the end of the game. Carolina went away from the running game and Newton ended up leading the team with 54 rushing yards on 10 carries.

In a way, playing the first game of the season at Lincoln Financial Field has been good luck for every team besides the Eagles. In 2013, the San Diego Chargers were the lucky team. They beat Philadelphia, 33-30, back in Week 2 and went on to win nine games and sneak into the postseason.

• SB Nation’s 2014 NFL playoff coverage and brackets

UPDATE: Here’s the latest look at the 2014 NFL Playoff bracket following the Broncos’ win over the Chargers on Sunday evening.

The game will kick off on Sunday, Jan. 19, at 6:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

Mathews was listed as questionable coming into the weekend and raised eyebrows when he departed from his typical mid-week schedule by missing practice on Friday. A sprained ankle has plagued him for several weeks, though it has yet to cost him any playing time.

Welker missed that game with a concussion and was held out of the final two regular season games as a precaution. He had just three catches for 21 yards in the two teams’ first meeting in Week 10.

Vernon Davis’s one-yard touchdown grab with just five seconds remaining in the half was the Niners’ first touchdown against the Panthers in six quarters of play this season and gave them a 13-10 lead heading into intermission. They were limited to just three field goals in a 10-9 loss in Week 10.

It was looking as though that trend would continue during the early going on Sunday. Both of the 49ers’ first two drives stalled in Panthers’ territory and they were forced to kick a pair of field goals, building a 6-0 lead. Colin Kaepernick’s incomplete pass on third-and-goal just before halftime looked as though it would lead to a third kick attempt, but a pass interference gave the 49ers new life and Davis converted for the go-ahead score.

I wrote last night that Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh are the undisputed top two GIF-able coaches in the NFL. The order depends on your personal preference for the coach freakout over a call, or the coach smug sideline strut. Carroll’s strut was in full effect on Saturday, and now it’s Harbaugh’s turn. The Niners coach was so apoplectic over a late incomplete ruling that he bolted onto the field and incurred a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct:

Harbaugh was so angry that even Anquan Boldin, the wide receiver who was just head-butting and jawing after almost every play on the drive, tried to calm down his coach on the sideline.

Ahmad Brooks went for the Troy Polamalu perfect-snap-count-read-flying-blitz play. He jumped juuuust a bit early, giving us this moment of unstoppable offsides hurdling glory. Textbook flop by Cam Newton, too.

YOLOOOOOOOOOO

Well, apparently 57 percent is still pretty good. Smith reeled in a 31-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to give his team the lead, then let everybody know the knee was feeling fine.

• SB Nation’s 2014 NFL playoff coverage and brackets

That flag is slightly more acceptable than the garbage call on Mitchell, but it was probably best to just let it go and separate the two players instead of impacting a playoff game.

In addition to those three penalties, there was also just persistent jawing and chippiness throughout the first quarter, whether is was Munnerlyn, Mitchell, or All-Pro Luke Kuechly getting into it with Boldin and Anthony Dixon on two separate occasions.

It’s been a wild ride for Cam Newton’s pre-game cleats this year. But on Sunday, before the Niners-Panthers Divisional Round playoff game, things reached a whole new level.

I’m just going to choose to believe this is an homage to the Snake Mountain toy from the Masters of the Universe line. Right, Cam? A little Skeletor shout-out? Because otherwise ... yuck.

Stewart missed the first seven games of the regular season after recovering from ankle surgeries, and after playing in six games, tore his MCL and has not yet returned. In those six games, Stewart received 48 carries for 180 yards, ranking second among the team’s running backs with 3.8 yards per carry. He was listed a questionable on the final injury report.

Carolina will have an important piece available, as Steve Smith will return after missing the regular season finale. The veteran has caught 64 passes for 745 yards and four touchdowns this season.

The betrayal of Ric Flair is well-documented at this point. He gave a pep talk to the Niners and supported them on Twitter against the Packers last week. Fans were crushed. Word got out he wouldn’t be at the Niners-Panthers Divisional round playoff game in Charlotte on Sunday. Many thought it was because of the threats he received after outing himself as a turncoat. The Charlotte Business Journal reports that there’s ... probably a different reason.

It has been a rough couple of decades for Flair, legally and monetarily speaking. Grantland put together a comprehensive timeline of Flair’s run-ins with the courts and the IRS in 2011.