Championship form
More Carter: Six Points on the NFC | Divisional playoff breakdowns
They have saved their best football for the postseason. And they finally are healthy.
Are the New England Patriots looking like a scary team or what?
With their 28-3 blowout of the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Patriots have won 10 straight playoff games under head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Everything the defending champs are doing now is similar to the blueprint they followed in their three previous Super Bowl title runs.
New England has to go on the road to play the Denver Broncos in the divisional playoffs, but the Patriots will be fine. What's the difference between that challenge and having to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road in the AFC championship game, a task the Pats accomplished last year? Nothing.
The fact remains that New England is more apt to winning on the road than any team in the NFL.
CARTER'S SIX AFC POINTS
GO ROUTES
1. The Patriots' pass rush. New England recorded six sacks against Jacksonville – 4½ by Willie McGinest to set an NFL playoff record. When the Patriots can put pressure on the quarterback like that, it takes away the opponent's ability to expose New England's weakness, which is its secondary. But it doesn't matter how bad your defensive backs are if you can come up with a pass rush like that.
2. Steel tough. Like New England, the Pittsburgh Steelers are an experienced team. And like New England, they won on the road with their defense. Pittsburgh played the kind of game it wanted to play and didn't have the Bengals dictate the style in its 31-17 victory. The Steelers didn't have the regular season that they wanted, but having a healthy Ben Roethlisberger, Jerome Bettis and Willie Parker in the playoffs could make up for it.
3. Tom Terrific. Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes against the Jaguars, but the most impressive thing about him is that he doesn't make the mistakes which losing quarterbacks in the playoffs make. He never will do anything to hurt his team. You can say the same thing about his play after every playoff game; he just will not make a mistake that will cause the Patriots to lose.
FADE ROUTES
1. Bungled opportunity. The Cincinnati Bengals had a great regular season, beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh and then winning the AFC North title. But they lost their last two regular-season games and got manhandled in their first playoff game in 15 years.
Cincinnati lost twice to the Steelers in its own stadium. If the Bengals can't beat their own division rivals at home, they don't deserve to advance to the divisional round.
What about Carson Palmer's injury? Look, everybody has injuries. So no, I'm not going to give Cincinnati any slack. It wasn't like Jon Kitna was playing terribly. He had the Bengals leading 17-7 in the second quarter.
2. Cold cats. I thought the Jaguars were better suited to play in the cold of New England, and I thought their defense matched up well with the Patriots. But Jacksonville's overall performance was really surprising and disappointing. Byron Leftwich was hobbling around on a bad ankle, but I think with the way New England was pressuring him, a healthy Leftwich wouldn't have made a difference.
3. Cincy's defense. The Bengals just couldn't stop the run against Pittsburgh. Cincinnati makes big plays on defense – it led the NFL in turnover ratio – but it's amazing how bad the Bengals' run defense is. There really is no excuse, either – not when you know what the other team is going to do.
