Top 10 storylines leading up to AFC and NFC Championship

Okay, let's get a little ahead of ourselves: The Patriots will beat the Broncos by a touchdown and the Panthers will beat the Cardinals by a field goal in Sunday's conference title games and then Tom Brady separates himself from Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw by winning his fifth Super Bowl in an easy 10-point victory over the Panthers in Super Bowl 50, causing seizures throughout Jets Nation.

Now, let's backtrack and look at the Top 10 storylines for Final Four weekend:

1. Brady-Manning XVII is really Brady-Manning LXXVII, as in they are a combined 77 years old. Actually, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, they will be a combined 28,603 days old Sunday, the highest combined age for starting quarterbacks opposing each other in a playoff game in NFL history. The current record is 27,704 days by John Elway and Dan Marino in the 1998 divisional playoffs. Manning will be 40 in March. Brady will be 39 in August.

2. Manning has a chance to change the narrative of his career. He is the greatest regular-season quarterback of all time, but is just 12-13 in the playoffs and his team has been eliminated in its first postseason game nine times, a record for quarterbacks. If Manning can beat Brady and then win Super Bowl 50, it will give him two titles and end a lot of the criticism that he's been an underachiever in the playoffs. It will also move him ahead of Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson, among others, in Super Bowl victories.

MYERS: MANNING, BRADY RETURN IN GREATEST RIVALRY ^[1]

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Tom Brady must get past Peyton Manning and the Broncos for a chance to win his fifth Super Bowl.

3. Brady has an insurmountable lead on Manning in their head-to-head meetings: 11-5, which includes a 2-2 standoff in the playoffs. But if Manning wins Sunday, he will have won the last three playoff meetings, all in the AFC Championship Game. Although he will still trail 11-6, it won't look quite as lopsided. Brady is just 2-5 in Denver, including 0-2 in the playoffs.

4. This will be the 15th Super Bowl since Brady took over as the Patriots starting quarterback in the third game of the 2001 season. Regardless of who wins Sunday, it will be the 10th time Brady or Manning represents the AFC during that time. Ben Roethlisberger did it twice, Rich Gannon and Joe Flacco once apiece.

5. The NFC quarterback matchup of Carson Palmer vs. Cam Newton is the first time Heisman Trophy-winning QBs will meet in the playoffs. Palmer is 37 years old and last week picked up his first playoff victory in only the third playoff game of his 13-year career. Newton is the baby of the bunch: He's 26 years old and about to win his first MVP.

MYERS: PEYTON MANNING LOOKS FINISHED, BUT STILL HAS A CHANCE ^[2]

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Peyton Manning can change the narrative of his legacy by beating Brady en route to his second Super Bowl ring.

MYERS' BOOK REVEALS UNTOLD STORY OF BRADY VS. MANNING ^[3]

6. If either of the games Sunday go to overtime, will the coin actually flip?^[4]

7. First, the NFL changed the rule that if a team gets a field goal on its first OT possession, the kicking team gets last licks. Now, after the Cardinals scored a TD on the third play of overtime to beat the Packers,^[5] there's an outcry to play a full quarter of overtime. Is there a rule that says the team kicking off can't play defense? By the way, when the Cardinals beat the Packers in overtime in the 2009 playoffs, they also scored the winning TD on the third play. That time it was a fumble by Aaron Rodgers that Arizona returned for a TD.

8. Clearly, Packers coach Mike McCarthy has to put the Hail Mary in as a regular part of the offense for Rodgers. If the Packers had managed to win, Rodgers' two throws at the end of regulation would have been instant classics. Even in defeat, they were pretty great. He completed a 60-yarder to Jeff Janis on a fourth-and-20 from his own 4. Two plays later, running to his left and letting it fly without being able to step into the throw, Rodgers launched a 41-yard TD to Janis. Janis had two catches during the regular season.

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Cam Newton and the Panthers look to extend their home winning streak vs. the Cardinals in the NFC Championship game.

Enlarge ^[6] Carson Palmer hopes this is finally the year after his first career playoff win on Saturday.

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Carson Palmer hopes this is finally the year after his first career playoff win on Saturday.

Enlarge ^[7]

Cam Newton and Carson Palmer will be the first Heisman Trophy winning QBs to face each other in the playoffs.

FOLLOW THE DAILY NEWS SPORTS ON FACEBOOK. "LIKE" US HERE.^[8]

9. It's astounding how bad some coaches are in the clutch. Arizona's Bruce Arians ordered an all-out blitz on Rodgers on the Hail Mary and had only two players around Janis. Earlier this season, on Rodgers' Hail Mary to beat the Lions, coach Jim Caldwell played to stop laterals rather than a deep throw. And what was Arians doing having Palmer throw with 2:34 left and the Packers out of timeouts and the Cardinals up 17-13 rather than running the ball and getting the clock down to the two-minute warning? Palmer's pass was incomplete and it saved the Packers 40 seconds. Arians must have been watching Andy Reid butcher the clock earlier in the day in New England.^[9]^[10]

10. It was easy to feel sorry for Larry Fitzgerald after Kurt Warner retired. He had no one to throw him the ball. But with Palmer playing a full season, Fitzgerald had 109 catches for 1,215 yards and nine TDs. He's also one of the all-time best playoff performers: 8 games, 53 catches, 912 yards, 10 TDs. Let's see what Josh Norman can do with him. Who do you think OBJ is rooting for in this matchup? One of the classiest players in the league or a player who clearly is an agitator?^[11]