The NFL Roundup: The AFC Championship

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

There's really one thing on every single football fan's mind before a playoff game kicks off...please don't be a blowout. We want nothing more than a highly competitive game where both teams are forced to dig deep and play their best before one of them advances to the next round and tonight's game perhaps stands the best chance of giving us exactly what we want. 

I say that, because the AFC has quickly become the most competitive conference in the game in recent years, and for proof, look no further than this year's playoff seedings and how long it took for several teams to lock up their division. The teams in this conference want to win and despite a couple of blowouts in this particular round of the playoffs over the past few years, we've also seen some fierce games that have come down to the wire and with that in mind here's our in depth analysis as to why today's AFC Championship game could turn out to be quite the thriller.

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American Football Conference Championship
Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots
​Gillette Stadium - 6:40 p.m. EST - CBS

THE BUZZ
There's plenty of chatter surrounding this game and with good reason, there's some bad blood brewing between New England and Pittsburgh. There's been a war of words in the days leading up to this game, with Steelers WR Antonio Brown capturing some choice words from Head Coach Mike Tomlin on what he thinks about the Patriots, which led to some smarmy remarks being traded between Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger and Patriots WR Julian Edelman. But this game goes deeper than smack talking, these teams also have something to prove. Pittsburgh would like nothing more than to cement in everyone's mind that they are the finest team in the AFC by avenging their week seven loss to the Patriots and New England would like to continue to remind everyone that they are the AFC's elite by continuing the Tom Brady Revenge Tour and securing yet another trip to the big game.

KEYS TO THE GAME
This game has the sheer potential to become a shootout simply because both of these quarterbacks possess the ability to light it up on command...but despite their prowess with the deep ball, both of these QB's are beatable. If the Patriots want to slow down the Pittsburgh offense, they need to make it one dimensional by neutralizing the passing game. That means tight coverage from the secondary and working as a unit to disrupt the passing routes that the Steelers like to employ. As for New England it's no secret at this point that Tom Brady doesn't like to be touched and that he relies heavily on his tight end to open up the passing game. So a heavy dose of blitzing and blanketing Martellus Bennett will be critical for Pittsburgh and whichever defense pulls off their respective game plan, is the one that secures the Lamar Hunt trophy for their team...and plane tickets to Super Bowl LI.