{"id":2688,"date":"2017-01-07T23:07:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T04:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2017-01-07T23:07:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-08T04:07:45","slug":"wildcard-weekend-afc-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2688","title":{"rendered":"WILDCARD WEEKEND- AFC (SUNDAY)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nfl-wild-card\"<\/a>Another AFC playoff game, another team starting a backup quarterback.\u00a0 Woof.\u00a0 Ginger King was right; can we just skip to the part where the Patriots win the AFC?\u00a0 And how long after Belichick retires until they change the name of the Lamar Hunt trophy?<\/p>\n

Miami @ Pittsburgh (-11), Sunday, 1:05 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n

This game is a rematch of Week 6, were the 7 point home underdog Miami Dolphins upset the Pittsburgh Steelers, 30-15.\u00a0 That game was the turning point of the Dolphins season.\u00a0 Entering the game with a 1-4 record, the Dolphins won 9 of the next 11 to secure a playoff berth.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are quite a few differences between then and now.\u00a0 For starters, it\u2019ll be about 70 degrees colder.\u00a0 The Dolphins can downplay the weather all they want, but they are kidding themselves if they think it won\u2019t affect them.\u00a0 Of far bigger concern is the Week 15 MCL injury that has sidelined starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill.\u00a0 Tannehill doesn\u2019t exactly scare defenses, but he was quietly putting together a solid season (3,000 yards, 19 TDs) under the tutelage of quarterback-whisperer Adam Gase.\u00a0 Next man up is journeyman Matt Moore.\u00a0 Best descripted as a \u201cgamer\u201d; meaning he isn\u2019t shy to throw it around…whether it\u2019s his guys or the other team catching it is another story.<\/p>\n

\"Where's<\/a>

Where’s the clipboard?<\/p><\/div>\n

The Steelers are going to be looking for redemption from the Week 6 matchup as it was their worst offensive game of the season.\u00a0 Ben Roethlisberger got knocked out of that game early and missed an offensive series before returning, but was never quite right.\u00a0 As a result, the entire offense was in a funk and never could snap out.\u00a0 These are highly uncharacteristic stat lines:<\/p>\n

Week 6<\/p>\n

Roethlisberger : \u00a019\/34, 189 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs<\/p>\n

Bell: 10 attempts, 53 yards, 0 TD<\/p>\n

Brown:\u00a0 4 catches, 39 yards, 0 TD<\/p>\n

The Steelers have been red-hot, winners of their last seven games.\u00a0 They are 6-2 at Heinz Field and average nearly a touchdown more at home as opposed to the road.\u00a0 They will move the ball on the Dolphins and score points.\u00a0 The Dolphins won’t be able to shutdown Ben, Bell and Brown this time around.<\/p>\n

Defensively the Steelers should sellout to stop the run and force Matt Moore to beat them.\u00a0 Jay Ajaji gashed them for over 200 yards.\u00a0 Ajaji has a bit of Beastmode in him and seems to get stronger as the game wears on.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The house that Ketchup built<\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t think the Dolphins can keep pace with the Steelers at Heinz Field.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got the Steelers cruising to victory, putting them in Arrowhead next week.<\/p>\n

Final Score: Pittsburgh 34, Miami 17<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Miami<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another AFC playoff game, another team starting a backup quarterback.\u00a0 Woof.\u00a0 Ginger King was right; can we just skip to the part where the Patriots win the AFC?\u00a0 And how long after Belichick retires until they change the name of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Bp3y-Hm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2692,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions\/2692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}