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Sunday Debate: New England Patriots Win the AFC in 2016

By Mark Morales-Smith

Oct 25, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium. The New England Patriots won 30-23. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 25, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium. The New England Patriots won 30-23. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mark Morales-Smith and Brendan Pignataro have another Sunday Debate. This week they’ll be debating which team will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl in 2016. Mark will make his case for the New England Patriots in this article.

Welcome back to another addition of Mark beats Brendan or as it’s more formally called, Sunday Debate. This week is layup for me coming off a hard fought win last week. We will be debating who will win the AFC this upcoming season. Brendan has chosen the Pittsburgh Steelers. While I would much prefer the Pittsburgh Steelers won the AFC, I will be going with the obvious pick of New England Patriots.

Related Story: Sunday Debate: Steelers Win the AFC in 2016

They say “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” Well, it’s clear the Patriots win. Since 2001, they have only failed to reach double-digit wins once. That’s as many times as they’ve gone undefeated. They have won the AFC East all but twice, and one of those seasons Tom Brady tore his ACL Week 1 and they still won 11 games with Matt Cassel under center. They’ve won a minimum of 12 games for six straight seasons now and there is little competition in the AFC East.

The AFC East is so much easier to home field advantage than the AFC North. The East has the New York Jets, perennial losers who currently have Geno Smith penciled in as their starter. There’s kids allowed in PG-13 movies that aren’t old enough to have witnessed the Jets winning the division. If you think banking on a team whose last Super Bowl victory came in Super Bowl III is bad, the Bills haven’t been to the playoffs since 1999. Not even as a wild card. That’s the longest drought in the NFL. Then you have the Dolphins who just can’t get out of their own way and aside from 2008, haven’t seemed to ever bounce back from Ricky Williams‘ surprise retirement. They’ve only been above .500 once since 2005. The Pats are all but a lock to win the division.

Then in the North the Steelers have to deal with always tough Baltimore Ravens. Even when they’re down they aren’t down for long. They haven’t had back-to-back losing seasons since 1997-98. At that time they were still trying to clean all the Cleveland Browns off of them. Then you have the Bengals, who are an elite team in the regular season. While they can’t win in the playoffs, from a talent standpoint they are second to very few and they’ve had four straight double-digit win seasons. And the Browns. Well they can’t all be winners.

I actually think the Steelers had a real shot to take the AFC crown. That’s until Martavis Bryant was suspended for the entire season with no appeal. With Bryant not playing, the Steelers score a TD less per game. That’s with Markus Wheaton. The X-factor in this situation is Sammie Coates. However, that’s a lot to put on a virtual unknown on this level. In the end, the loss of Bryant may doom them. It doesn’t help that three of their top offensive players, Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Maurkice Pouncey all have health and durability concerns. On defense the, Steelers added a ton of talent to their secondary, nevertheless, they are all young and completely unproven.

The Pats, on the other hand, are more than proven. While I do believe Ben Roethlisberger is a top three, elite level QB, he’s not Tom Brady. The Pats are one of the few teams whose pass-catchers can matchup with the Steelers. Rob Gronkowski is a monster, much like Antonio Brown. However, I’m taking Julian Edelman and Martellus Bennett over Markus Wheaton and Ladarius Green. Right now you have to say the Pats defense is better than the Steelers on every level, although, without Chandler Jones you can make a case that the Steelers line is now better. Bill Belichick always seems to have a plan and a guy waiting to replace whoever he deems no longer a necessity.

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I do really like the Steelers this year, but the right answer to this debate clearly goes to the Pats. The same team that has been to six Super Bowls since 2001 and played in 10 conference championship games. They have arguably the greatest quarterback and coach of all-time. Like it or not, there is little case to make against the Pats. Still, check out Brendan’s article and see if he’s really wrong or just kind of wrong this week.

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