The AFC Championship title will be won in the NFL playoffs on Sunday night when the New England Patriots host the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. The winners of this match will head to Super Bowl LI so the prize is massive.
New England Patriots
There were times in their win over the Houston Texans last week when things were tighter than most thought they would be but when the push came to shove the Patriots kicked on and in the end ran out comfortable winners to set up this showdown.
Much is always made about their offense and when you have Tom Brady pulling the strings it is easy to understand why but their defence has been a real weapon this season. In seven of their last eight matches they have conceded less than 20pts and if they can do that again here they would have more than one step in the Super Bowl.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Heading into the season the Steelers were many people’s idea of the Super Bowl winners and here they are just two wins from justifying that position. Their offense has been the thing which has got them to this position with the triple B of Big Ben, Bell and Brown demolishing sides at will throughout the course of the campaign.
You don’t get to this stage of the playoffs if you can’t defend though and the Steelers showed they can definitely do that in their wins over Miami and Kansas City. This is an altogether different test but if they can get Brady under pressure and restrict Blount then they will be ahead of the game for sure.
Betting
Those who have followed our NFL picks throughout the season will already be on the Pittsburgh Steelers at 5/1 for this match as we took them to win the AFC but those who aren’t I certainly wouldn’t put you off taking them for this match or having the 6pt handicap on your side. This has a tighter feel to it than that.
In terms of a bet for me in this match I like the idea of Antonio Brown having a big game. He will need to have a big match and with New England’s focus potentially on stopping Bell it could be to the advantage of the wide receiver.
When these two met earlier in the season Brown managed 106 yards even though Landry Brown was in for the injured Ben Roethlisberger. With the usual trigger man back I’m expecting Brown’s output to be significantly better in which case going over a 95.5 yard receiving line would look to be a natural progression.
Tips
Back A.Brown – Over 95.5 receiving yards for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
