Old AFC West foes will battle in Detroit

The Steelers and Panthers are nice stories, but they will end in Seattle and Denver on Sunday.Let’s get realistic here. All those experts who are falling in love with Pittsburgh and Carolina should just look at the facts for a moment.

Because to casually fall in love with the past few weeks of playoffs, and ignore the fact that the Panthers slept-walk through the last four weeks of the season, losing their final two home games; or that before they got their act together to defeat three mediocre teams on their way to the AFC’s last playoff spot, the Steelers dropped three crucial late November games in a row, would be irresponsible. Simply put, the odds of both (or either) of these two teams winning on Sunday are monumental.

What you are essentially asking, is for two teams who made the playoffs on the last weekend of the season, to win a THIRD consecutive road game,  traveling to hostile, hungry environments thousands of miles away, against the ONLY two teams in the NFL who did not lose a home game this year.

The aforementioned statistic has been totally under-reported by the media and serves as a crucial cog as to why I am selecting Denver and Seattle this weekend. The Broncos and Seahawks, after last week’s playoff wins, are a combined 18-0 at home this year. That is truly remarkable.

Seattle has never been to the big game, and Denver is eager to get back for the first time in the post-Elway era. Carolina was there just two years ago, and Pittsburgh, despite not having been in a decade, has the sorry history of losing numerous AFC title games, although all of them were at home. Thus, a road loss in the conference title game might be a nice change for them, and perhaps less embarrassing.

As a reporter of facts though, I would be derelict if I did not mention that the Panthers and Steelers were amongst the NFL’s best road teams this year, amassing a cumulative 12-4 regular season record, and now 16-4 including the playoffs. While winning 80% of your road games in the given season is extremely commendable, the odds don’t directly add up to that trend’s continuance. I’ll take the home field perfection of the Broncos and Seahawks this weekend.

It will thus be on to Detroit and Super Bowl XL for these two erstwhile AFC west combatants. Maybe Dave Krieg and John Elway will suit up for the sake of old times.