A TASTY MATCHUP
ATELEVISION commercial will morph into reality TV Sunday night when the Patriots and Steelers play in the AFC Championship at Gillette Stadium.
Last month, a TV commercial aired featuring Steelers star receiver Antonio Brown and Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler, showing the two players competing to stay one step ahead of each other.
The 60-second commercial for Visa Checkout and Papa John’s has Butler chasing Brown through the streets of Pittsburgh. Brown orders a pizza on his phone, and when it’s delivered to him, Butler intercepts it.
In the end, though, Brown gets the last laugh when the two are lined up across from each other on the field and Brown tells Butler he has some pizza sauce on his face. When Butler pauses to lick it away, Brown speeds past him down the field.
Whether that proves be a preview of what’s going to unfold Sunday remains to be seen, but what’s certain is this: Brown vs. Butler is the marquee matchup in this game and the winner of this mano-a-mano battle likely will lead his team to Super Bowl LI in Houston.
The Patriots, stealthy to their death, will never reveal their plan to attack Brown, but count on Butler “traveling’’ with Brown, shadowing him wherever he goes on the field.
“Wherever I line up,’’ Brown predicted, “he’s going to be there.’’
Plastering one cornerback on one receiver is not usually the Patriots’ strategy, but Brown has four consecutive postseason games of 100-plus yards receiving, tying a league record, and he must be stopped if New England is going to continue its pursuit of a fifth Super Bowl title.
Butler, who made his name with that infamous end-zone interception of Seattle’s Russell Wilson at the end of Super Bowl XLIX to clinch the Patriots’ most recent title two years ago, has emerged as one of the league’s top corners ever since. He had four INTs and 17 passes defended this season.
In the two previous meetings in which Butler has shadowed Brown, the Steelers receiver has 16 catches for 239 yards and a touchdown and has beaten him for gains of 51, 37, 33 and 25 yards.
Brown did have an interception in the Patriots’ Week 7 win at Pittsburgh, but Brown finished with seven catches for 106 yards that day.
In the 2015 season opener, Brown’s first game as the full-fledged starter after his Super Bowl heroics, he had nine catches for 133 yards and a TD.
When you l i sten to both players, there’s a clear mutual a d miration. In fact, Butler, while watching the Steelers rout the Colts on Thanksgiving night, was so taken by Brown’s three-TD performance in the game, he tweeted, “That dude something else…’’
“I definitely have respect for the guy,” Butler said. “I love to compete and he loves to compete also, but this game is bigger than me and him. We’ve got another 10 guys on the field, so it’s a team game.”
Brown said he has “a lot of respect for’’ Butler, calling him “a follow-type corner, finishes to the ball, puts hands on you like no other.’’
“They’re two competitive guys — very similar as far as athletic ability and quickness and speed … relatively around the same size,’’ Patriots safety Devin McCourty said.
Brown, who had 106 catches for 1,284 yards and 12 TDs in the regular season, is 5-foot-10, 181 pounds; Butler is 5-11, 190.
“They challenge each other,’’ Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “I think Malcolm understanding how good A.B. is and A.B. understanding how good Malcolm is [has] brought out the best in both of them.
“[Butler’s] skill set is incredible. He can cover down the field, has got speed, has got quickness to cover the underneath stuff. He can mirror guys. [We] assume maybe that he’ll follow A.B. around. He’s a guy that really has just come into the role of being pretty much a shutdown corner.”
Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower called Butler “a great competitor,’’ and added, “He takes this as a big challenge.’’
“We obviously know what Antonio Brown is; he’s arguably the best wide receiver in the league,’’ Hightower said. “We knowk whatht kikindd off matchup threat he poses.”
It’s a matchup neither Butler nor Brown had any idea was coming down the road when they filmed that clever commercial together.
“But,’’ Butler said, “it seems to have found it’s way here. Now it’s all about Sunday.”