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Since the Bengals beat the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots clinched the Nr.1 seed for the AFC, and therefore will have home field advantage for the entire playoffs, excluding the possible Super Bowl birth. The Patriots are the clear favorite to win the AFC and travel to Arizona for Super Bowl XLIX, Still the last AFC Nr.1 seed to win the Super Bowl were the Patriots in 2003. In the playoffs, things usually don’t go exactly the way we expect them to, so here are three teams that could upset the Patriots.
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1. Pittsburgh Steelers
To me they are the biggest threat to the Pats. If the Steelers have a good day, they can beat any team in the NFL, and they matchup well against the Patriots. The Patriots shut down offenses that are very focused on one or two good players, but the Steelers have depth at wide receiver and they have a good quarterback to get them the ball. I am also not convinced that Darrelle Revis can shut down Antonio Brown, as he has produced in every single game. E
ven if they are able to take him out of the game, the Steelers still have Martavis Bryant, Markus Wheaton and Heath Miller. The Patriots have struggled against receiving tight ends similar to Miller, as they gave up 100 yard performances to both Coby Fleener and Scott Chandler. Le’Veon Bell is a great complement to these receivers, as he is not only one of the best rushers in the league, but also a premier pass catching back, and receiving backs like Forte and Anderson/Hillman have also posted good numbers against this defense. If this offense is in synch with each other, they could put up a lot of points against any team.
While their defense does have their weaknesses and they only have 30 sacks this season, they have been getting more pressure on the QB lately. The Patriots have shown that their offensive line can be shaky, so if a team can put consistent pressure on Brady, it will throw off the rhythm of the entire offense. The Jets showed that they didn’t need to have a great secondary to keep the Patriots from scoring. Pittsburgh front seven is not as good as the Jets, but with good gameplanning, Pittsburgh could make this a tight game, so I think Patriots fans should be rooting for Pittsburgh on Sunday, so that they can shore up the three seed, so that the Pats wouldn’t have to face them until the AFC championship. To add to their talented personnel, Pittsburgh has been one of the few teams in the NFL, that hasn’t looked much worse on the road then at home.
Next: Denver Broncos