We Simulated The NFL Conference Championship Games, And There Was One Giant Upset

The 2016-17 NFL Playoffs has found its final four with just the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers, and Atlanta Falcons remaining after a highly entertaining Divisional Round. I suppose saying a highly entertaining game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys would have been a more accurate statement, but I digress.

Fortunately for us, and our playoff-long series highlighting Madden 17’s prediction for each and every playoff game, Madden 17 has been shockingly accurate on the prediction front thus far.

If you take Madden 17’s Wild Card predictions from our simulation of the entire NFL Playoffs, coupled with our simulation of the Divisional Round individually, Madden 17 is sitting at a cool 6-2 heading into what should be a very interesting Championship Round.

We’ve got the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the New England Patriots, and the Green Bay Packers vs. the Atlanta Falcons this weekend. Let’s do this.

 

AFC Championship

 

Madden 17 has been predicting a series of less-than-stellar playoff performances by Tom Brady throughout the playoffs. To Madden’s credit, Brady wasn’t particularly sharp against a very impressive Houston Texans defense last weekend, and that trend didn’t stop in Madden 17’s simulation of the AFC Championship.

Madden 17 is predicting a major 37-24 upset win for the Pittsburgh Steelers at Gillette Stadium, a result that would shock just about everyone. The Steelers can beat the Patriots on Sunday, but a 13-point drubbing isn’t on anyone’s radar, especially considering Pittsburgh currently sits at 6-point underdogs. If Ben Roethlisberger has the sort of performance in the real AFC Championship game as Madden is predicting in the virtual one, the Patriots are in trouble.

Of course, Madden 17 doesn’t take into account the now-infamous ‘assholes’ speech Antonio Brown was kind enough to live stream from the Steelers locker room after their Divisional Round win over the Chiefs. In other words, if Madden 17 is wrong about this prediction and the Patriots win on Sunday, we can all play hot take artist and blame everything on that distraction, Madden 17 included.

 

NFC Championship

 

In the NFC Championship, Madden 17 is predicting an otherworldly performance by one of the games’ players, but it’s not Aaron Rodgers.

In our simulation, Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman tallies 185 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries, leading Atlanta to a 38-20 blowout of the red hot Green Bay Packers. Backup running back Tevin Coleman added 69 (nice) yards and 1 touchdown on 18 carries of his own, resulting in a dominant performance by Atlanta’s ground game.

We’ll see what the Falcons’ gameplan is on Sunday, but running the ball results in a running clock, and a running clock results in a rested defense, and anything that will limit Aaron Rodgers’ offensive opportunities is a sound strategy on paper. If the Falcons run the ball in real life like Madden 17 is predicting in the virtual world, they just might defeat the Packers on Sunday and meet the Steelers in the Super Bowl.