If you are trying to get tickets for Sunday's AFC Championship game, it'll cost you. Our boy Ben Kessler at Seat Geek wrote a solid post about the cost of tickets today on Huffington Post: 

If you're trying to get to the Heinz Field on a "budget" it would be best if you were already in Pittsburgh so you wouldn't have to pay for airfare or a hotel. If you are living in Pittsburgh, you can sit in the "cheap seats" for $246/ticket. However, if you're living in the Tri-State area, it's going to cost you a pretty penny to get to the game. The cheapest flight from New York to Pittsburgh is a nonstop Delta flight, which will cost you $367/ticket.

I'm lucky if I have enough for dinner at Applebees in my bank account so I'll be perfectly happy sitting on the couch for this one.

In that same article, I give some keys to victory for the Steelers on Sunday. Rex Sanchez chimes in with their keys to a Jets win as well. One interesting snippet:

Do NOT trust Nick Folk: I say this every week because it's true. It's a good thing the Jets found the end zone last week because had they needed Folk he would've choked.

Much more on the game coming this weekend.

To get you prepared for the AFC Championship game between the Steelers and Jets, we’re going deep into the advanced stats in three separate posts to see where each team has the advantage. As usual, Football Outsiders and Advanced NFL Stats provide all the number-y goodness.

Before I start into the charts, I want to note that when I went to these sites to look at the advanced stats, I was surprised how similar the Ravens and Jets are. Both have a top-tier defense (Ravens third by FO, Jets fourth), good special teams (BAL third, NYJ tenth), and a mediocre offense (BAL 15th, NYJ 19th). However, as you can tell by the rankings, the Ravens are better than the Jets in all three areas of the game, the only exception being Advanced NFL Stats ranking the Jets defense third and the Ravens defense fifth. That doesn’t mean there aren’t intriguing matchups, as I will go into in this three-part preview.

The only updates made to the posted efficiency stats during the playoffs are Football Outsiders’ overall, offensive, and defensive DVOA. Everything else, including o-line and d-line data, are from just the regular season. I have also substituted in a different stat from Advanced NFL Stats.

Overall Efficiency

For new readers, DVOA is a stat measures the value per play compared to an average team. So, the Steelers offense is 21.5% better than the average offense, and the Jets defense is 14.2% better than the average defense (DVOA is always measured from the standpoint of the offense). EPA stands for Expected Points Added. It is a stat that is based on the concept that at any down and distance from a certain place on the field, a team can be expected to score a certain number of points on average. EPA measures the difference in expected points after a play is made. I am 99% sure the data for rushes includes sacks, which would explain the negative average EPA for those plays.

Again, the Jets are very similar to the Ravens last week. They are a very good defense, with a great rushing defense and a solid pass defense. The performance of their pass defense will greatly help determine the outcome of this game. If they can force Ben Roethlisberger into interceptions like they did with Tom Brady, it will be a long day for the Steelers.

Situational data after the jump!
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Much of the talk this week has been about the New York Jets defense and rightfully so. The unit has helped lead the team to road victories over the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots, two of the most prolific offenses in recent history. It has been a run through the AFC that few predicted and the Jets have to be thrilled. 

Conventional wisdom says that the Jets are going to be able to shut down a Steelers offense that hasn't set in all-time records in recent years and doesn't feature a poster boy at quarterback. But conventional wisdom is wrong.

While the Steelers offense isn't as sexy and has never had its own section on ESPN's bottom line, the unit has been more effective in the playoffs than both the Colts and Patriots for a long time. Don't believe me? Jump it for the proof. 

The Pittsburgh Steelers will be playing the New York Jest Jets on Sunday in the AFC Championship. Anyone going to that game knows how a fanbase should treat the visiting team (hint: badly). However, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be playing the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. That's an opportunity to invade the same fanbase and make our presence felt.

The Pensblog has issued a call-to-arms: If you can make your way to that hockey game, bring a Terrible Towel. Make those New York fans feel the tenacity of Pittsburgh fans before the Jets even get into the state.

Tickets are crazy cheap because Devils fans have all killed themselves. Get in on the action if you can make the trip.

Before we fully step in to analyzing the Jets/Steelers matchup for all the AFC marbles this week, I thought we needed one more post to close out the classic game between the Steelers and Ravens last Saturday. Regardless of what happens against New York, the thrilling victory at Heinz Field against the Ravens will be talked about for a long time. Here's 10 random thoughts about the game including Wiz Khalifa's relationship to the Steelers and addressing harsh criticism of Rashard Mendenhall. 

And it all comes down to this. Who would have ever thought the Steelers would be hosting the AFC Championship game in 2011? Despite all the issues in the offseason....the Roethlisberger suspension, the Holmes trade, the Colon injury...the road to the AFC title still travels through Heinz Field. 

Certainly, everybody thought the Steelers were headed up north to Boston next week so this is a plus. But the Jets are no joke. They've just defeated Indianapolis and New England on the road. They won't be scared at all.

A few storylines you are sure to hear a lot about this week:

- Ike Taylor vs. Santonio Holmes. Huge matchup.

- Can Mark Sanchez win a title game on the road in Pittsburgh? Is he good enough?

- Jets pass rush vs Steelers offensive line.

- Is Bart Scott sane?

- Darrelle Revis returns to his hometown. Who will he matchup against?

-  The impending "war of words" that Rex Ryan is sure to start. Who will be the first to take a shot at Pittsburgh? Will the Steelers retaliate. 

So much to talk about this week. Can't wait for Sunday. One win away from the promise land. Let's roll.  

What a game. That felt like 2008. Pretty high-scoring affair for a Steeler/Raven matchup, but it had 100% of the intensity we expected. We all hate Baltimore; if you don't, you probably came to the wrong website. But the Ravens, as a football team, get nothing but respect from us. And with a victory against the second toughest team in the NFL, the Steelers are on their way to the AFC Championship.

Not bad for a team that was supposed to finish 4-12 and last in their division after some early-season quarterback issues. Recap after the jump. no comments

When the Baltimore Ravens walked off Heinz Field at halftime, they were already warming the bus for a trip to Foxboro next week. Unfortunately for them, Steelers football is 60 minutes. 

Thanks to a Joe Flacco choke job that will be painful for Baltimore fans to talk about for years to come, the Steelers stormed back from a 21-7 deficit to edge the Ravens with a late Rashard Mendenhall TD 31-24.

This one felt like it was being played in an alternate universe in the first quarter. The opening kickoff featured some bizarre play where the refs never blew a whistle and Mike Tomlin was forced to burn a challenge less than 10 seconds in. The Ravens biggest play of the day came when 21 guys on the field stopped playing after Terrell Suggs swatted a ball out of Ben Roethlisberger's hands and some dude picked it up and scored.

The weird bounces in the second half went Pittsburgh's way though. Flacco throw a pick and had an inexcusable fumble on back to back drives. And Ben Roethlisberger found a way to turn those  into points. 

And of course the biggest play of all came on a 3rd and 19 with just over two minutes left when Antonio Brown got behind 8 Baltimore defenders for a huge play.

Man, so hard to get into everything that happened in this one. Lots more coming this week. We came break from the dead. Look out  whoever we play next week.

Black and yellow.  

The wildcard round is over, and like every year I am left with a couple of questions… Who knew Seattle had a football team? Who thought the Jets would have another game winning drive in them? But that was last week, now we have our divisional match-ups. The one match-up nobody should be too surprised about in the third game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. I am excited for this match-up, and I think the rest of the Blitzburgh Staff is too.

Jump for our picks on this week’s games…

STAFF PICKS

To get you prepared for Saturday’s big Divisional Round matchup between the Steelers and Ravens, we’re going deep into the advanced stats in three separate posts to see where each team has the advantage. As usual, Football Outsiders and Advanced NFL Stats provide all the number-y goodness.

For this third part, I’m focusing on special teams, along with a couple of other key factors in Saturday’s game, starting with everyone’s favorite subject to discuss, penalties!

The penalty rates (penalty yards per play) and the teams’ league rankings, according to Advanced NFL Stats, are:

While this number and ranking have been improving the past few weeks for the Steelers, it is still a big concern heading into the playoffs. They must control penalties, especially on offense, in order to win.

Special teams and key players after the jump!
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