Pittsburgh Steelers vs New England Patriots AFC Championship Prediction

Pittsburgh Steelers vs New England Patriots
AFC Championship Prediction by Nathan Powers of Precision Picks
Pittsburgh Steelers (13–5; 11–6–1 ATS; 6–12 O/U) vs. New England Patriots (15–2; 14–3 ATS; 7–10 O/U)
Kick Off: 6:40pm EST, Gillette Stadium
The Line: Patriots -6, 50.5

The AFC Championship will be the Sunday featured matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots. The Steelers took care of the Chiefs last weekend while the Patriots had no issues handling business vs the Texans.

Pittsburgh has been on a roll winning their last 9 games SU and going 7–1–1 against the spread. Pittsburgh needed six field goals from Chris Boswell to escape Kansas City with an 18–16 victory over the Chiefs as +2.5 point road dogs. From a fan’s perspective, it was a very dull game to watch. Pittsburgh’s offense was lead by Le’Veon Bell who rushed for 170 yards and Antonio Brown added 108 receiving yards on the night.

Pittsburgh will need more offensive output going up against the Patriots on Sunday. New England’s defense has been overshadowed by the Tom Brady show but the Patriots defense ranked #1 in the NFL allowing only 15.6 PPG.

Bill Belichick proved once again why he is one of the greatest NFL head coaches all time. The Patriots started the season without Tom Brady who served a 4 game suspension and went 3–1 during this span. Brady came back from suspension and played out the season throwing for 3554 yards, 28 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions. Brady is once again a legitimate MVP candidate despite missing 4 games.

The Patriots had little issue putting up points this season averaging 27.3 PPG and their defense has played extremely well. New England has gone 14–3 ATS their last 17 games and in addition, they have gone 11–4 ATS the last 15 meetings vs the Steelers.

The AFC Championship should be a classic matchup between two of the best teams in the AFC. Both of these teams seem to rise to the occasion and there is no question the Steelers have been impressive since early November. Before this line opened at -6 in Vegas, my thoughts were the Patriots should be favored by no more than -5. In the end, I see a FG separating these two teams which is why I am taking the Steelers +6 to cover as road dogs once again.

Steelers vs Patriots Prediction: Steelers +6

Nathan Powers went 21–11 over his last last 33 NFL spread picks