The January playoffs have brought laughers and nail-biters, expected winners and stunning upsets. The postseason drama was capped off in Minnesota on Sunday with one of the most improbable, incredible finishes in a playoff game since Franco Harris’s “Immaculate Reception”, leaving fans giddy at what this week’s Conference Championships have in store.

With the field of 32 finally whittled down to a somewhat unlikely foursome, the weekly Unanimous AI NFL Swarm has some interesting insight into how this weekend’s games might play out.

As you look at that chart, you’ll be tempted to wonder why the New England prediction (at “High confidence”) is placed in the proceed with caution category. The reason is simple: Tom Brady’s hand. At the time of the swarm, the group knew that Brady was injured, but also fully suspected he’ll play given the long history of New England engaging in gamesmanship with its injury reports. As one member of the group put it, “I’ve heard everything from it being a minor inconvenience to him, to Brady having his hand amputated.”

With multiple reports from veteran NFL journalists suggesting that Brady will play – and Vegas not pulling the game from the board – the swarm was fairly confident that the Hall of Famer will indeed be behind center on Sunday. That was certainly the swarm’s working assumption when it made this prediction.

That is a fascinating replay, showing a group of NFL fans in great conflict with one another. Even though the group predict the Pats with “High confidence”, it’s tough to ignore that little bloc of magnets pulling to the Jacksonville side of the hex, (or pulling down to “Low Confidence” on the New England side). That makes it a tough black and white call. If, early on Sunday it appears that Touchdown Tom is going through normal pre-game warmups and throwing the ball decently, move the Pats up to a Best Bet, higher confidence prediction. If Brady’s status remains murky, however, it’s difficult to put a very high degree of confidence here. The best approach here is therefore a more cautious one, even though this pick might have been labeled “High Confidence” were Tom Brady’s status not in question .

Though Tom Brady’s hand is certainly cause for drama, it’s possible that the more interesting story will unfold in Philadelphia, when the red-hot Vikings will take on the Eagles and their backup QB.

The NFL Swarm’s view of the NFL matchup is a little more consistent. As those two replays show, the swarm thinks the Minnesota defense will control things, allowing the Vikings offense to put up just enough points to carry the game. Even with the expectation that Minnesota should be able to win, however, this is a road playoff game that will be played in a raucous, partisan environment in Philadelphia, and the Minnesota offense certainly has some of its own issues with moving the ball.

The thing that jumps out from this replay compared to the New England replay earlier, is that although the NFL Swarm makes the Vikings a “Low confidence” winner here, there is more consensus on display here than in Patriots pick. There are many ways to interpret that, but it’s likely all related to that huge variable at QB in the AFC game. For this matchup, the $76 hypothetical wager suggests that the NFL Swarm sees this as a very close game, but one that it fully expects the Vikings to prevail in.

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