{"id":2731,"date":"2017-01-21T22:32:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-22T03:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2731"},"modified":"2017-01-21T22:32:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T03:32:45","slug":"afc-conference-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2731","title":{"rendered":"AFC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/logo01.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2733\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/logo01.jpg?resize=584%2C438&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"logo01\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/logo01.jpg?w=696&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/logo01.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/logo01.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><strong>Pittsburgh @ New England (-6), Sunday, 6:40 pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Playoffs are back!!\u00a0 Hot damn!\u00a0 Those Divisional Games were awesome.\u00a0 Aaron Rodgers moved from \u2018Elite\u2019 to \u2018Legendary\u2019 status with one throw.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 Moving to his left, throws a 37 yard rope along the sidelines to a sliding\/kneeling Jared Cook.\u00a0 Nice catch too&#8230;but that throw!<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers-Chiefs game was compelling in its own right; what with the touchdown, made-two-point-conversion-called-back-due-to-holding followed by a failed two-point conversion in the last two minutes.\u00a0 Good stuff.\u00a0 But the highlight came about 7 minutes after the game, when Antonio Brown (genius) decided to Facebook Live the Steelers lock room.\u00a0 Thanks for this gem AB:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NpuhCdQv6iw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s mostly just AB running his hands through his hair, flashing the \u201ccall me\u201d sign and showing teammates bragging, dancing, swearing, undressing and just goofing around.\u00a0 15 of the 17 minutes basically goes like this&#8230;.\u201dGod is good man&#8230;.we at fucking 42k&#8230;..bang bang bang&#8230;.we live&#8230;God is the greatest\u201d&#8230;Oh, and Antonio thought it\u2019d be a great idea (which it was) to keep the video rolling during coach Tomlins postgame address.\u00a0 You know, the one where he calls the Patriots a bunch of assholes (more on that in a bit) among other things.\u00a0 But the best part is Tomlin literally telling the guys to \u201ckeep a low profile&#8230;.be cool on social media\u201d and \u201ckeep your mouth shut\u201d.\u00a0 At one point LeVeon Bell turns to Brown and snickers something about keeping it cool on social media.\u00a0 Brown is unfazed, continuing to stream away.\u00a0 It\u2019s ridiculous and glorious at the same time.\u00a0 Social media is going to be a torn in the NFLs side for a long time to come.<\/p>\n<p>Tomlin, Brown and the Steelers went to work on damage control.\u00a0 But honestly, the comments were pretty harmless and much ado about nothing.\u00a0 Seriously, how can that be considered \u201cbulletin board material?\u201d\u00a0 The Patriots <em>are<\/em> assholes!!\u00a0 I know it, you know it, hell even they know it. <a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/tom-bradys-apparently-been-spending-his-suspension-tann-1787117235\">Tom Brady<\/a> is a giant asshole, but he\u2019s just following the lead of his lying, cheating asshole <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2007_New_England_Patriots_videotaping_controversy\">coach<\/a>.\u00a0 But it starts at the top; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/espn\/wire\/_\/section\/nfl\/id\/6019825\">Bob Kraft<\/a> is a walking, talking live-action asshole.\u00a0 Come to think of it, the city of Boston is filled with only assholes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2734\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2734\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2734\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01-1024x838.jpg?resize=584%2C478&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"And you thought that foul smell was from all the beans they eat!\" width=\"584\" height=\"478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01.jpg?resize=1024%2C838&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01.jpg?resize=300%2C246&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01.jpg?resize=768%2C629&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01.jpg?resize=367%2C300&amp;ssl=1 367w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01.jpg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01.jpg?w=1168&amp;ssl=1 1168w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ba01.jpg?w=1752&amp;ssl=1 1752w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2734\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">And you thought that foul smell was from all the beans they eat!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>With all that said, on to the game!<\/p>\n<p>What a matchup.\u00a0 Two prolific offenses.\u00a0 Two HOF quarterbacks.\u00a0 Two dynamic running backs.\u00a0 Two bend-but-don\u2019t-break defenses.\u00a0 While everyone is expecting a shootout between the Packers-Falcons, this one certainly could go down that road.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2735\" style=\"width: 790px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ab01.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2735\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2735\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ab01.jpg?resize=584%2C328&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The matchup to watch\" width=\"584\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ab01.jpg?w=780&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ab01.jpg?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ab01.jpg?resize=768%2C431&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ab01.jpg?resize=500%2C281&amp;ssl=1 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2735\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The matchup to watch<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This game will be a rematch of Week 7&#8230;.sort of.\u00a0 The Patriots won, 27-16 in convincing fashion.\u00a0 Much has been made this week that Belichick used Malcolm Brown to shadow, and contain Antonio Brown (57.4 passer rating when thrown to, 0 TD, 1 INT &#8230;.@NFLReasearch).\u00a0 I\u2019m going to go ahead and take that game- and those stats- with a giant Himalayan rock crystal of salt for one reason: Ben Roethlisberger didn\u2019t play.\u00a0 Landry Jones was on the other end of those AB throws.\u00a0 And Brown still finish the game with 7 REC for 106 YDS.\u00a0 More impressive however was the Patriots containment of LeVeon Bell, whom only average 3.9 yards per carry.\u00a0 Bell did most of this damage through the air (as a result of playing from behind), adding 10 REC for 68 YDS.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Tom Brady was his ever efficient self, going 19\/26 for 222 YDS and 2 TDS.\u00a0 LeGarrette Blount carried the mail with 27 carries for 127 YDS and 2 TDS.<\/p>\n<p>Like I said, the Steelers were without Big Ben.\u00a0 And the Patriots had Gronk in that game.\u00a0 Week 7 was a long time ago.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2736\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbje01.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2736\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2736\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbje01-1024x686.jpg?resize=584%2C391&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"12 to 11, all day\" width=\"584\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbje01.jpg?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbje01.jpg?resize=300%2C201&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbje01.jpg?resize=768%2C515&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbje01.jpg?resize=448%2C300&amp;ssl=1 448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2736\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">12 to 11, all day<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Patriots have had an easy playoff run so far: bye week and a cakewalk past the Texans.\u00a0 On the other hand, the Steelers faced a feisty Miami team and a tough Kansas City team in hostile territory.\u00a0 The Patriots are going to try to wear the Steelers defense away with their intermediate passing attack that features Julian Edelman and a healthy Dion Lewis.\u00a0 I\u2019d be shocked if Edelmen doesn\u2019t catch 10 balls this week.\u00a0 Blount could be in for another heavy usage game if the Patriots can build an early lead.<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers do have weapons galore on offense, so they should be able to keep it within striking distance.\u00a0 But they aren\u2019t going to beat the Patriots by settling for FGs like they did against the Chiefs.\u00a0 I\u2019d expect Tomlin to be aggressive all day, particularly in the redzone.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve been crowning the Patriots the AFC Champs for 3 weeks now (it makes us nauseous too).\u00a0 It seems like a forgone conclusion.\u00a0 Bettors agree, pushing the line to NE -6.\u00a0 I think it\u2019ll be much closer than that and I won\u2019t be shocked if Pittsburgh wins this game outright!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pittsburgh 25, New England 27<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2737\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2737\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2737\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben-1024x725.jpg?resize=584%2C413&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Who ya got?\" width=\"584\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben.jpg?resize=1024%2C725&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben.jpg?resize=300%2C212&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben.jpg?resize=768%2C543&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben.jpg?resize=424%2C300&amp;ssl=1 424w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben.jpg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben.jpg?w=1168&amp;ssl=1 1168w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tbben.jpg?w=1752&amp;ssl=1 1752w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2737\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Who ya got?<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pittsburgh @ New England (-6), Sunday, 6:40 pm The Playoffs are back!!\u00a0 Hot damn!\u00a0 Those Divisional Games were awesome.\u00a0 Aaron Rodgers moved from \u2018Elite\u2019 to \u2018Legendary\u2019 status with one throw.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 Moving to his left, throws a 37 yard rope &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2731\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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-2731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Bp3y-I3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2731","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=2731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2738,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2731\/revisions\/2738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}