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Originally Posted by Amnorix
Tonight's game should be a very interesting matchup. The Chiefs record, obviously, does not reflect how scary they are on offense. The battle between the Chiefs offense and the Pats defense should be very interesting indeed to see.
The Steelers' offensive line blew the Pats defense away, of course, but alot of the problems there were more technique than anything else and (according to Patriots coaches' quotes lately) correctable. The Chiefs offensive line is at least as good if not better than the Steelers, so if nothing else we'll see if our defense is able to deal well with an outstanding offensive line.
Unfortunately, it looks like the Chiefs are just playing for pride. As other threads have noted, victories yesterday by the Jets, Ravens, Colts, Broncos * (* Violated the salary cap during their championship seasons), Chargers and Steelers have sealed the deal for the Chiefs in terms of making the playoffs. 10-6 is the best the Chiefs can do, against a pretty tough schedule, and 10 wins won't get them a wildcard in the mighty AFC. The AFC West is also not likely to be winnable given that the Chiefs are pretty far behind not one, but two teams.
The AFC's domination of the NFC continued yesterday, and it's beyond clear that the balance of power that used to favor the NFC in the 80s, etc. is now clearly with the AFC. The Rams have 5 losses, 3 of which are to AFC East teams (including the cellar dwelling Dolphins and Bills). The Iggles were utterly crushed by the Steelers for their only loss, and squeaked by the Ravens by a 15-10 score, at home. The Colts only losses have come to AFC Teams, while they have beaten all of their NFC opponents, which includes the best the NFC North has to offer (Green Bay and Minnesota). The Patriots have steamrolled St. Louis and Seattle, beat Arizona in AZ comfortably, and have only the Niners left to play. Pittsburgh's only loss, of course, came to division rival Baltimore.
The AFC wildcard will require at least 11 wins to achieve, and the battle to go to the Super Bowl from the AFC will be extremely intense. I have little doubt that whoever wins the AFC Championship game will win the Super Bowl.
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