The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons will play for glory and the Vince Lombardy trophy in Super Bowl LI when they square off at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on February 5.
The Patriots and Falcons clinched their Super Bowl tickets in what turned out to be dominant victories over the Steelers and Packers respectively.
The Patriots defeated the Steelers 36-17, while the Falcons won 44-21 as they thrashed an Aaron Rodgers-led Packers team that was uncharacteristically erratic and trailed 24-0 by halftime.
The Falcons explosive offense took advantage of the Packers miscues to jump ahead quickly and often, led by a Matt Ryan that performed yet again at an MVP-caliber level passing for 392 yards and four touchdowns, while running for one.
Julio Jones took advantage of Matt Ryan’s talents as he caught nine passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns. After scoring a 5-yard touchdown barely before halftime the talented wideout burned the Packers with a 73-yard score with just a little over a minute played in the third quarter that gave Atlanta a 31-0 lead.
In the second game, the Pats routed the Steelers led by Tom Brady’s three touchdown passes and the 100-yard plus performances from Chris Hogan (180) and Julian Edelman (118).
Hogan scored twice before haltime, while Edelman and LeGarrette Blount scored in the third quarter as the Patriots jumped to a 36-9 lead.
The Steelers needed seven quarters and over 12 minutes to score their first touchdown of the last two games (last week they defeated the Chiefs 18-16 with six field goals) after scoring four touchdowns against the Dolphins in the Wild Card game.
The Steelers lost to Tom Brady for the 10th time in 12 games since he took the reins of the Patriots, including three in the playoffs (all of them for the AFC Championship game).
This is the sixth consecutive season New England played in the AFC Championship, an instance in which they have 3-3 record and won the Super Bowl once (2015 against the Seahawks).
This is the seventh time New England reaches the Super Bowl in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era, putting together until now a 4-2 record. The Patriots made the Super Bowl two other times: once against the Patriots in 1985, when they lost to the Chicago Bears, and once in 1997 when they lost to the Packers.
This is the Falcons first Super Bowl trip for Matt Ryan and head coach Dan Quinn and the second for the Falcons. Atlanta lost in 1998 to the Denver Broncos.
