Steelers, Saints look to avenge early-season losses vs Jags,Vikings
Here is a breakdown of the two Sunday Divisional Round duels:
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS AT PITTSBURGH STEELERS
When: Sunday, 1:05 p.m. ET Where: Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field Line: Steelers by 7½ Injuries: For the Jaguars, WR Marqise Lee (ankle) was questionable and played in the wild-card game, but he did not catch a ball on only one target and had just one carry for 5 yards. So even if he can go next Sunday, he may very well still be hampered. The Steelers enjoyed a first-round bye, but WR Antonio Brown (calf) has missed two games, C Maurkice Pouncey (hip) did not play in the regular season finale and CB Coty Sensabaugh (shoulder) has missed two games. CB Artie Burns injured his knee in practice Wednesday, and his status is unknown.
Three things to know
1. Return of AB? Steelers receiver Antonio Brown, the only player who was a unanimous first-team allpro, has been sidelined with a partially torn calf suffered in Week 15. Since then, Brown has been posting
videos to his social media accounts showing progress. When healthy, he’s arguably the toughest cover in the league (with an NFL-best 1,533 yards and nine TDs in 14 games). Jacksonville’s corner tandem of Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye have shut down dynamic receivers all season long, so Brown’s presence would be a huge boost for Pittsburgh’s offense. But even if Brown can’t go, the Steelers might just weather the storm. Since Brown went down, no receiver in the NFL earned more yards than rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster’s 332 in that span.
2. Inconsistent Bortles: Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles became just the second passer in the past 25 seasons to finish a playoff game with more rushing yards (88) than passing yards (87), joining Michael Vick of the Falcons in 2005. Against the Bills, that was enough to win in the wild-card round. Not only is the Steelers defense stronger than Buffalo’s, but with Pittsburgh’s offense ranking eighth in scoring (25.4 points a game), the Jaguars are going to have to get far more consistency in the passing game from Bortles.
3. Repeat performance? In a Week 5 30-9 loss against the Jaguars at Heinz Field, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had an abysmal performance. It was the only time in his career that he has finished a game with zero touchdowns and four or more interceptions (he threw five). Many wondered if that defeat was a sign of an imminent decline, but the 35-yearold passer quickly answered those questions. He rested in the regular-season finale, but his touchdown-to-interception ratio since the loss to Jacksonville is 22:7. In fact, since Week 11 he has scored 16 total touchdowns, averaged 325.5 yards a game and committed just four giveaways.
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS AT MINNESOTA VIKINGS
When: Sunday, 4:40 p.m. ET Where: Minneapolis’ US Bank Stadium Line: Vikings by 4 Injuries: The Vikings’ O-line was beat up late in the season, and C Pat Elflein missed two of the last four games. But he’s back at practice. So is Minnesota QB Sam Bradford, who missed most of the season with a knee injury. Saints G Andrus Peat was carted off the field Sunday and landed on injured reserve with a broken fibula and high ankle sprain.
Three things to know
1. *Rematch: The Vikings handled the Saints 29-19 on the first Monday night of the season. Disregard that result almost entirely. Bradford and RB Dalvin Cook formed Minnesota’s starting backfield at the time. Meanwhile, RB Adrian Peterson was still a member of the Saints, his presence hindering what would eventually become the dynamic duo that is Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram following Peterson’s trade. New Orleans’ defense also got burned for 470 yards (and 555 the following week), offering little indication it would eventually settle in as one of the league’s better units with rookie DBs Marshon Lattimore and Marcus Williams playing huge roles behind defensive player of the year candidate Cam Jordan.
2. Who dat? Fellow Pro Bowlers Kamara and Ingram, the first pair of running backs to each exceed 1,500 yards from scrimmage for the same team in the same season, were effectively held in check Sunday by the Panthers, who limited them to a collective 68 yards. Carolina’s defense is good. Minnesota’s D, which allowed both the fewest yards and points in the league this season, is special. And the loss of Peat makes life easier for the Vikings while simultaneously hurting the Saints.
Granted, selling out to stop Kamara and Ingram is tantamount to daring QB Drew Brees to beat you, which is exactly what he did to the Panthers (376 yards, 2 TDs). But Brees won’t be in the friendly confines of the Superdome this time, and No. 1 WR Michael Thomas will likely have a much harder time being productive against allpro CB Xavier Rhodes.
3. Purple reign: Another matchup to monitor is the pairing of Lattimore and fellow Saints CB Ken Crawley against Vikings WRs Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, who combined for 155 catches, 2,125 yards and 12 TDs this season. (No other Minnesota wideout had more than 20 grabs.)
Vikes QB Case Keenum has had a breakout campaign, perhaps even one that will allow him to cash in during free agency if he’s convinced enough teams that he might be a poor man’s Brees.
But if the Saints can contain Thielen and Diggs, they’ll probably be more than content to let Keenum try and beat them by going to TE Kyle Rudolph, RB Jerick McKinnon and/or WR Laquon Treadwell as his secondary reads. (USA Today/TNS)
Super Bowl ads almost sold out
US broadcaster NBC said on Thursday it has sold out all but a handful of TV spots for the Super Bowl and expects ad sales revenue to exceed $900 million for this year’s Olympic Winter Games, both of which take place next month.
NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp., is charging on average more than $5 million for 30-second spots for the Super Bowl on February 4, said Dan Lovinger, executive vice president of advertising sales at NBC Sports Group.
NBC expects to hit nearly $1.4 billion in ad sales revenue from the Super Bowl and Olympics combined, Lovinger said.