Sunday’s AFC Championship game is a matchup of NFL royalty.

The Patriots and Steelers have appeared in a combined 16 Super Bowls, winning 10 of them. The winner of this game will be heading to a record ninth Super Bowl. Since 2001, the AFC representative has been either the Patriots or Steelers 10 times (including this year).

It is a matchup that features two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL: Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, both future Hall of Famers. It features coaches who already have Super Bowl rings: Bill Belichick (4) and Mike Tomlin (1). But these two teams don’t have the history of the Patriots and Colts in the playoffs.

Surprisingly, this will be only the third time the teams have met in the AFC title game, and the first since after the 2004 season, which was Roethlisberger’s rookie year — the only time Brady and Roethlisberger have met in the playoffs.

“I have great respect for what they’ve done through the years,” Belichick said on a conference call with reporters Monday.

This is the sixth straight championship game appearance for the Patriots, but the first since the 2010 season for the Steelers. Overall, the Steelers are just 3-7 against the Patriots since Roethlisberger arrived in 2004. They are 1-4 in Foxborough, with the lone win coming in 2008, when Brady was injured.

The Patriots beat the Steelers 27-16 on Oct. 23, but Roethlisberger did not play in the game. After Sunday’s 18-16 win over the Chiefs, the Steelers have now won nine in a row.

“They’re really good,” Belichick said. “They’re a tremendous offense. Kansas City was able to make some plays in the red area, but I mean they could’ve easily been up in the 40’s last night. They do a lot of things well: Can run it, can throw it. [Antonio] Brown’s the main guy, but all of the receivers, tight ends, backs, I mean they’re all a problem. Roethlisberger is really good, can make all of the throws. It looks like his mobility is good. They’re doing a great job. They’re a good offense.”

That offense now faces a Patriots defense that finished the year ranked No. 1 in scoring defense and has given up more than 20 points just once in its last eight games.

“It should be fun,” Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell said. “It’s definitely going to be a showdown playing in New England. It will be another hostile environment, going against Tom Brady, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play this game. They’ll be a little different on defense, they don’t have Jamie Collins (traded away in October) anymore, it should be interesting. Obviously, these are the best two teams in the AFC, so it should be a showdown next week.”

One of the fascinating things to watch in this game will be to see how Belichick attacks the Steelers offense. He is known for taking away a team’s top option. The Steelers have Bell, who rushed for 170 yards on Sunday, and Brown, who had 108 yards receiving. Which way will he go?

Belichick was asked about stopping Bell on Monday.

“I think defensively he really forces you to be disciplined,” Belichick said. “You jump out of there too quickly then you open up gaps and open up space. Le’Veon has a great burst through the hole. He doesn’t really need long to get through there, runs with good pad level. He’s hard to tackle so if you don’t get a full body on him then he’ll run right through those arm tackles. [He] really forces everybody to be sound in their gaps. Like I said, getting off and jumping around blocks or trying to get to the hole too quickly just opens up cut-back lanes or stays in the front somewhere and he does a great job of finding it. I mean, team defense is the only way to stop it. There’s no one guy that can stop him. You’re going to have to have everybody doing a good job in a number of different areas all the way across the front and then do a good job of tackling.”