NFL Playoff Bracket 2011 Turns Bitter in AFC

The NFL playoff bracket 2011 has four second round games. However, the NFL playoff bracket 2011 for this weekend is mostly about the AFC side. While the NFC has the Falcons, Packers, Bears and surprising Seahawks, the AFC has even more powerful teams. All year, the Patriots, Steelers, Ravens and Jets have stood out over the pack, and now they are the last four teams standing in the conference. In an even greater twist of fate, the NFL playoff bracket will have those teams renew the bitterest rivalries in the league.

The Colts and Patriots have the most famed rivalry around at the moment. Yet the second and third greatest rivalries in the sport may also be in the AFC. What's more, those two rivalries make up both of the AFC's divisional games.

On one side of the NFL playoff bracket 2011 for the AFC, the Ravens and Steelers will hold their third bloodbath of the year. Not only do the two destroy each other in every meeting, they go down to the wire almost every time. Both battles this season were decided by three points, and by last minute heroics from the road team.

Therefore, although the Steelers are the home team and the AFC North champions, this clash is a pure toss-up. Given how anything can happen in this rivalry, and how the Ravens have been postseason road warriors, a Baltimore win would be no upset.

In contrast, the second AFC semifinal on the NFL playoff bracket 2011 has a clear favorite. The last time the Jets came to Foxboro, they were slaughtered 45-3 by the Patriots. This triggered a month long slump by the Jets, and cemented the Patriots' standing as Super Bowl favorites again.

Even if New England doesn't have another 42 point blowout in them, most expect them to win anyway. Yet that hasn't stopped Rex Ryan from fanning the flames, as he made things personal between him and Bill Belichick already.

These two rivalries on the NFL playoff bracket 2011 are heated, but different. The Jets-Patriots is more one-sided, as it is defined by talk, and connections between their coaches, rather than close play. The Patriots, after all, have three championships, while the Jets are still trying to back up Ryan's Super Bowl talk.

Technically, the Ravens-Steelers rivalry is one sided too, at least from a championship perspective. The Steelers have two in the last several years, while the Ravens haven't won it all in a decade. In their last postseason meeting, the Steelers knocked the Ravens out in the 2009 AFC title game. Now Baltimore seeks revenge, and to catch up to Pittsburgh's recent championship collection.

No matter what, the AFC is the big story of the NFL playoff bracket right now. In fact, given the history of the Ravens-Steelers, and Jets-Patriots, these showdowns could provide more brutal drama than the AFC title game - or even the Super Bowl.

Sources

NFL.com- "NFL Schedule: Playoffs"

Washington Examiner- "It's AFC's rivalry week"