To call the two championship NFL football games this past Sunday disappointments would be an understatement. Both the Patriots and Falcons never trailed in their respective games. We had a couple of blowouts, adding to the fairly non-competitive NFL betting playoffs that we’ve had this year. That said, let’s look back at what we just saw on 2017 Championship Sunday.
NFL 2017 Championship Sunday recap
The Packers were the league’s hottest team coming in to the NFC Championship battle. Aaron Rodgers hadn’t thrown a pick or even looked mortal in a couple of months. But as we cautioned a couple of times in our DeadHitSports writings, they were doing it with a suspect defense and a wide receiver playing running back. Still, their role was absolutely epic – especially for if you had them in your NFL picks along the way.
In the end, the Falcons’ extremely aggressive offense went for the kill early – and often! They knew that Green Bay’s secondary was thin and the biggest weakness so Atlanta threw deep over and over. It really was a fitting way for the Falcons to win – with the offense making the biggest waves.
On the New England side of things, they shut down the Steelers from the opening possession. It was a case of limiting the big plays and not allowing the ground game to ever get going. It really hurt Pittsburgh not to have a healthy LeVeon Bell, who was injured early in the game.
For Tom Brady, this game was about exercising last year’s AFC Championship demons and bouncing back from a so-so game the week before. Never bet on number 12 to have two bad games in a row – it just doesn’t happen!
The offensive hero for New England was Chris Hogan, who played the Gronk role to perfection, splitting the D numerous times and using his size to his advantage.
This should be an epic offensive Super Bowl.
Matthew Ross is a sports commentator and a radio host on TSN 690 Radio in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Follow him @MatthewWords.