As time runs out on the 2017 NFL season, there remains a lack of quality po sible contenders among the second-tier of AFC playoff spots. Squads with little sizzle look set to battle it Jason Pierre-Paul Jersey out for the final few postseason tickets. With that being the case, all eyes once again turn to annual conference powerhouses Patriots and Steelers. Even Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was willing to look ahead to the matchup weeks in advance, an unusual move for someone in his profe sion, and even predicted a rematch. Tomlin pointed out the obvious in that "everyone in America knows" this is one of the biggest games of the season. The long-time Pittsburgh coach isn't wrong; the results of this game will not only have a say in who earns the No. 1 seed in the AFC but can also serve as a litmus test for where these two teams stand as they head to the postseason. The Patriots are coming off a big upset lo s the Dolphins, while the Steelers earned a big win over the division-rival Ravens. With both teams looking for a crucial victory in Week 15, these three matchups will go a long way into deciding who controls the AFC playoff picture. Ryan Shazier's absence In one of the most unfortunate moments of the season, the Steelers lost Ryan Shazier to a frightening spine injury during a Week 13 Monday night win over the Bengals. Shazier has officially been placed on Injured Reserve. It's hard to overstate the impact of Shazier on the Pittsburgh defense, even when simply looking at how often he was on the field. From Weeks 1 to 12, Shazier went out for a whopping 98.9 percent of the team's defensive snaps. He was the anchor, the linchpin and the rock of the Steelers stop unit. Over the last two weeks with him largely absent, Pittsburgh has allowed 29 points per game after ceding 17.5 in the first 12 weeks of the season. Shazier's absence showed up like a bright burning light on Sunday night against the Ravens, as Alex Collins ran all over Pittsburgh. Collins consistently eluded the first tackle attempt by the Steelers replacements at linebacker like Sean Spence and Arthur Moats, who both saw their playing time on the inside bump up. Collins gained an average of 5.82 rushing yards after defenders closed within one yard of him, the fourth-highest mark among running backs who had double-digit carries in Week 14. The Patriots have one of the most elusive running backs in the NFL on their side. Dion Lewis averages a whopping 4.84 yards gained after defenders close within a yard of him this season, ranking third among backs with 80-plus carries. Along with the versatile Rex Burkhead, Lewis could be in position to exploit a suddenly vulnerable Steelers front seven, unfortunately, dealing with the absence Saquon Barkley Men White Jersey of its defensive rock Ryan Shazier. Tom Brady vs. the Steelers pa s rush Tom Brady struggled on Monday night against the Dolphins, there's no getting around it. Coming into Week 14, Brady led all relevant quarterbacks with a 100.9 pa ser rating under pre sure this season and a sterling 8:1 touchdown to interception ratio. Against the Dolphins, Brady under pre sure on over 30 percent of his throws against Miami and completed just six of those attempts. Far worse, Brady faced the blitz on 17 of his throws and completed just six with a pa ser rating of 39.1, the third-lowest among quarterbacks in Week 14. Tom Brady went 6/13 under pre sure tonight and threw both interceptions on pa ses of 20+ air yards #NextGenStats pic.twitter.com/WrDRMmu3Ch Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) December 12, 2017 The Steelers rank 10th in the NFL with a 29.1 percent pre sure rate on the season. In terms of overall pre sures, Pittsburgh's best rushers are down linemen Cameron Heyward (36) and Stephon Tuitt (27). However, among players with 100-plus pa s rush attempts, rookie T.J. Watt leads the team with a 12.5 percent pre sure rate. He could be an x-factor in this contest. Watt takes most of his snaps from the right side of the Steelers defense and New England allows a 20.5 pre sure rate on the left side of their offensive line, the sixth-highest among all teams this season. Pittsburgh will need Watt and their pre sure unit to step up in Week 15, as recent history tells us their zone-heavy coverage concepts are just no match for the Patriots and Tom Brady. Last season in their playoff matchup, Brady and Chris Hogan utterly destroyed their zone defense. Brady threw just 2.4 percent of his pa ses into tight windows against Pittsburgh in that playoff win and Hogan racked up over 180 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns while averaging 4.0 yards of separation. In order to avoid another carving, the Steelers pa s rush needs to show up. The fruitle s task of slowing down Antonio Brown Over the last four games, Antonio Brown leads the NFL with 39 catches, 627 yards and six touchdowns. The always dominant receiver is in peak form right now and it even has him earning some buzz as a po sible MVP candidate. He would be the first wide receiver ever to win the award. Bill Belichick is known for taking away the opposing team's top threat but hasn't found much succe s doing so with Brown. Over their last two regular season meetings, the All-Pro wideout averaged eight catches for 119.5 yards. He caught seven pa ses for 77 yards in their playoff duel last season. In addition to him being generally unstoppable, Brown thrives in two areas where the Patriots struggle defensively. Brown leads all wide receivers with 229 yards gained along the boundary (within one yard of the line of scrimmage) this season. He and DeAndre Hopkins have been noticeably head and shoulders above the crowd operating in close quarters on the sideline this year. They are Brandon Marshall Jersey the only players with double-digit catches and over 80 yards gained on targets along the boundary. Antonio Brown leads all WRs with 229 yards gained along the boundary (within 1 yard of the sideline) #NextGenStats pic.twitter.com/dIKvXxE7af Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) December 15, 2017 The Patriots may struggle to defend the toe-dragging master on Sunday. Opposing quarterbacks have targeted New England 26 times along the boundary and they've allowed the sixth-highest catch rate in the league. Top-six catch rates allowed on the boundary Washington Redskins - 48 percent Oakland Raiders - 44.1 percent Houston Texans - 43.3 percent Los Angeles Rams - 42.8 percent Green Bay Packers - 38.5 percent New England Patriots - 36.8 percent NFL Average - 28 percent Odell Beckham Jr Royal Blue Game Jersey New England has deployed pre s coverage on 36 percent of their pa s defense plays this season, the fifth-highest rate in the league this season (NFL average - 26.6 percent). Teams have tried to pre s Brown all season to no avail. He's faced pre s coverage on 49.4 percent of his targets in 2017. Only Hopkins (51 percent) and Marvin Jones (54.3 percent) have been pre sed more this year. Naturally, this has done nothing to slow down the MVP candidate. Brown averages 2.34 yards of separation when facing pre s coverage, besting the 1.87 NFL average among wideouts with at least 10-plus targets when pre sed. Bump and run coverage doesn't stop Brown from making big plays, either. He averages 18.5 yards per reception when pre sed and leads all wideouts with 795 yards gained against those coverages this year. It will be a tall order to slow down Brown in this spot as the wideout builds on his all-time great resume. You can explore the charts and data provided by Next Gen Stats for yourself right here, as well. Matt Harmon is a writer/editor for NFL.com, and the creator of #ReceptionPerception, who you can follow on Twitter @MattHarmon_BYB or like on Facebook.