Championship Sunday, Pt. II

Each season, six out of the total 16 teams in each conference qualify for the postseason. Of the twelve teams in the postseason, eight are division winners, the other four qualifiers making it based on record. With just two teams remaining in each conference, this Sunday is one of the most anticipated days of each year in football. Nearly every year, one of the two games played on this day is considered “the actual championship game.” Will that be the case this year? Will one of these games be the most competitive game of the year? Or will this be just to great games leading into the ultimate Super Bowl matchup? The winners of these two Conference Championship games will play for the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XLV. Let’s take a look at the matchups.

Game 2:

Sunday, January 23, 2011
6:30pm – CBS

New York Jets @ Pittsburg Steelers

This is the game I am most looking forward to this Sunday, not so much because I think it will be a particularly exciting game, but because I find it the most intriguing matchup.

Both teams are coming off Divisional Round games against division rivals, the Steelers came back to beat the Ravens in what is often the most physical rivalry game the NFL sees two or three times each year and the Jets recovered from being trounced 45-3 during the regular season to earn a 7-point win over the Patriots in New England, the first time the road team won in their rivalry since Rex Ryan became New York’s head coach.

The Jets have one of the best ground games in the NFL; the Steelers have one of the best run defenses. I think the Jets may actually have the advantage here. Though the Steelers have some great defenders, and Troy Polamalu, though playing from the safety position, can be anywhere on the field in the blink of an eye. However, with two really good running backs in LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Green able to split the carries in the game, the Jets may be able to wear down the Steelers run defense.

The problem facing the Jets is that they cannot afford to be one-dimensional against the Steelers. But Pittsburgh poses a problem on the other dimension. New York is coming off a game in which they faced one of the worst pass defenses in the league. Now they face one of the best and if the Jets cannot make the necessary changes to adapt from one to the other, and make those switches from the get-go, the Steelers defense will force a lot of early three-and-outs and the Jets will never get a chance to break through the Steelers run defense.

My favorite matchup for this game will be the Steelers offense against the Jets defense. The Steelers have a really good pass game, and Mendenhall adds a solid run game to the mix. The Jets seem to be better defending the pass and I think the Steelers have a pretty significant advantage on the ground. The Patriots didn’t seem to press the run that hard, and the Colts don’t have a ground attack, the Jets are coming off a couple of games where they relied very heavily on defending against the pass. Their rush defense may be a bit rusty. They’ll have to shake that off to stay in this game in the early going.

This is the toughest game I’ve had to pick this postseason, and my pick early in the week was Pittsburgh. But I’m switching it to the Jets. The Steelers have what it takes, they’ve won this game twice in the past four seasons and will look to make it three in five, but the Jets are here for the second season in a row. They haven’t been in the Super Bowl since upsetting the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. In addition, they are coming off back-to-back wins against the Colts and the Patriots, the first team to do so since Manning and Brady have been the quarterbacks of the two teams. In doing so, the Jets beat two of the three teams/quarterbacks to represent the AFC in the past seven Super Bowls. The other of those three teams is what stands in their way as they try to get to Super Bowl XLV.

Emotions will be running high on both sides, but I think they may be a bit higher on the Jets sideline and I think they are better prepared to use that emotion positively.

My pick: New York beats Pittsburgh, 27-23