Conference Championship Match Up of the Week

We've got an interesting match up here, folks.

One the one side, there's Hellcat -- a Super Bowl winner who faced down Warren in the last two big games in Madden '13. Hell's put up consistently good numbers and has five Super Bowl appearances in his long tenure in EOTP. That's not a great success rate, but don't mistake that for a lack of competition -- his three Madden '13 losses were by three points against Warren (twice) and Lone. Can Hellcat get it done this time around against Lone in a big game?

Lone's a two-time champ, but he very well could have brought home a couple more Lombardi's if not for a prolonged absence following his back-to-back wins in the middle of EOTP's Madden '13 run. In case you can't count, that's two for two in the big game -- so Lone's got a bit of an advantage in the numbers game here. Let's not forget that Lone just took out Warren to reach the AFC Championship -- something Hellcat's been falling short of for a few seasons now.

What's to watch here? Well, Lone's a defensive minded player -- that's how he won in Madden '13 -- so he may be at a disadvantage in a Madden where offense is the name of the game. There's a flip side to this, as the other half of Lone's game plan is to keep the turnovers down. 28 interceptions may look like a big number, but it's not all that high up in the league when you look at the number of picks some people have been throwing out there. The number one tip for Hellcat? Watch out for the A.J. Green connection, where Lone put up 111 receiving yards against Warren's stout defense.

Hellcat's high powered offense produced some gaudy numbers this season under the Bills' new star quarterback E.J. Manuel (44 touchdowns and 4774 passing yards). Stevie Johnson is the big name to watch here, as he led the league across the board. However, Hell's done a great job of spreading out the receptions among his receiving corps -- he's managed 20-plus receptions to his top five wide outs, including 30-plus to Hakeem Nicks and Robert Woods. While Lone may focus more on A.J. Green, Hell's offense is well balanced between running and passing and should create problems for Lone on defense.