Stop us if you've heard this before: the are headed back to the . With a 36-15 dismantling of the in Sunday's AFC title game, the Pats won their record ninth AFC championship and in two weeks New England will become the first franchise ever to appear in their ninth Super Bowl. This was the 11th AFC title game of both Bill Belichick's and 's careers, and that duo is now 7-4 in those contests -- and 2-0 against Pittsburgh, the team they Johnny Hekker Jersey also beat to head to their third Super Bowl back in 2005. Brady himself was simply masterful, spreading the ball around to nine different receivers in one of the most efficient performances of his playoff career. He finished the evening 32 of 42 for 384 yards and three touchdowns, good for a 127.5 pa ser rating -- the fourth-best of his storied postseason career. The 384 yards were a and he also moved into a tie with his childhood hero, Joe Montana, by throwing three-plus touchdowns in a postseason game for the ninth time in his career. Brady wasn't alone in his dominance. The New England defense -- the much-maligned defense that had neverthele s finished the regular season No. 1 in points allowed -- had Pittsburgh's offense in a stranglehold pretty much right from the jump. The Steelers averaged south of five yards per play for most of the game, only nudging over that mark once things had gotten out of hand. 's injury (more on that later) contributed to the subpar performance, but the Patriot defense was already balling when Bell went down. , , , and dominated up front, and by the end of the night, the Steelers had been held to just 2.7 yards per carry (six carries, 20 yards for Bell; 14 carries, 34 yards for injury replacement ). Malcolm Butler, , , , and were flying all over the field, and they combined to hold Big Ben to just 6.7 yards per pa s. Roethlisberger could not find a rhythm with , who was shadowed by Butler for most of the game (but not all; he was double-teamed on many of the snaps where Butler didn't follow him). They connected on seven of nine pa ses for 77 yards, but he was held in check for the most part until the game was already decided. and put forth admirable performances, but drops from (dropped a deep ball on Pittsburgh's opening drive and forced a punt) and (dropped a touchdown) took potential points off the board. Garbage time proved kind to the overall numbers, but the Pittsburgh pa sing game was truly out of sync for much of the evening. All of this is a long-winded way of saying, basically, that the Patriots took care of busine s at home, just like a No. 1 seed is supposed to. Winning in such convincing fashion may have been unexpected, but that this team -- which had been considered the Andrew Whitworth Jersey strongest in the AFC all year long -- is heading back to the Super Bowl yet again was not unexpected at all. They now have just one step left to complete. Here are five more things to know about New England's 36-15 win.1. Le'Veon leaves Le'Veon Bell had arguably been the best player in the entire postseason heading into this game. He carried 59 times for 337 yards in Pittsburgh's first two playoff games, continuing the insane usage and production levels he established over the final six weeks of the regular season. WEEK CAR YDS REC YDS TCH/GM YDS/GM 4-10 100 433 45 360 24.2 132. Torry Holt Jersey 2 11-16 161 835 30 256 31.8 181.8 Playoffs 59 337 4 3 31.0 170.0 He had been so good that we felt there was no other way to expre s the than to wonder whether the Patriots would actually be able to hold him in check. As it turned out, that didn't exactly matter. Bell suffered a groin injury on the Steelers' third drive of the game while doing his trademark dance behind the line of scrimmage. RB Le'Veon Bell sustained a left groin injury. His return to today's game is questionable. Burt Lauten (@SteelersPRBurt) He sat out the first of the series before returning on Pittsburgh's next po se sion, but he only lasted one play before ceding ground to DeAngelo Williams for the rest of the game. He ultimately played just 11 snaps. DeAngelo did the best Bell impre sion that he could, up to and including hesitating, Le'Veon-style, on a touchdown run:. are on the board... with the TD! NFL (@NFL) But it ultimately wasn't enough. The New England defense clearly did not fear Williams they same way they'd have feared Bell, and it's not out of line to draw a straight line from that lack of fear to 's relatively subpar performance.2. No rush The blueprint for beating the Patriots in the playoffs has been set over the years: you have to get pre sure on Brady without blitzing so that you can keep as many men as po sible in coverage. The Steelers, needle s to say, were Van Jefferson Jersey not able to accomplish that goal. got a key sack to hold the Pats to a field goal on their opening drive, but for the rest of the game, Brady had all the time in the world to sit in the pocket and pick the Pittsburgh secondary apart.In the regular season, Tom Brady was under pre sure on 30.9% of his drop backs.Tonight in the first half: 8% Pro Football Focus (@PFF) That figure did not improve much in the second half. Per PFF, the Steelers pre sured Brady on only six of his 45 drop backs. That's a rate of 13.3 percent -- not nearly good enough. 3. Hogan the hero Yeah. So, the biggest star of the game wasn't Brady or Ben or Brown or Bell, it John Johnson Jersey was . He absolutely decimated the Pittsburgh defense to the run of nine catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns. (In other words: .) How unexpected was his monster game? Well ... Chris Hogan
layed 3 yrs of lacro se at Penn StCaught 12 career pa ses at Monmouth Cut by 3 NFL teams Star of AFC Championship game Kevin Negandhi (@KNegandhiESPN) Chris Hogan's last multi-TD game came on Nov. 18, 2005, as a member of Ramapo High School. Chris Burke (@ChrisBurke_SI) First of all, shout out to Monmouth! I grew up in Monmouth County, about 15 minutes away from Monmouth University. I also had no idea Chris Hogan went there until today. Seriously, though, this dude was wide freaking open all game. Here's a stat from after his second touchdown (keep in mind that he was wide open on like four more catches after this):Chris Hogan currently averaging 4.22 yards of separation on his targets Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) There was basically nobody near him on any of his grabs. Check out how open he is on these: TB12 finds Hogan wide open in the end zone for the TD! NFL (@NFL) Brady to Lewis back to Brady...DEEP to Hogan!The PERFECT Flea Flicker! NFL (@NFL) And that's just the touchdowns. He may have been even more open on his catches over the middle of the field. With so many New England weapons to worry about, it can be ea
layed 3 yrs of lacro se at Penn StCaught 12 career pa ses at Monmouth Cut by 3 NFL teams Star of AFC Championship game Kevin Negandhi (@KNegandhiESPN) Chris Hogan's last multi-TD game came on Nov. 18, 2005, as a member of Ramapo High School. Chris Burke (@ChrisBurke_SI) First of all, shout out to Monmouth! I grew up in Monmouth County, about 15 minutes away from Monmouth University. I also had no idea Chris Hogan went there until today. Seriously, though, this dude was wide freaking open all game. Here's a stat from after his second touchdown (keep in mind that he was wide open on like four more catches after this):Chris Hogan currently averaging 4.22 yards of separation on his targets Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) There was basically nobody near him on any of his grabs. Check out how open he is on these: TB12 finds Hogan wide open in the end zone for the TD! NFL (@NFL) Brady to Lewis back to Brady...DEEP to Hogan!The PERFECT Flea Flicker! NFL (@NFL) And that's just the touchdowns. He may have been even more open on his catches over the middle of the field. With so many New England weapons to worry about, it can be ea