Both AFC wild card games will be played on Saturday, meaning by Saturday night the Denver Broncos will know who they face on January 17.
Because the Broncos are the top seed in the AFC and the New England Patriots are the second seed, the Broncos will play the lowest seed team that wins today and the Patriots will face the highest seed team that wins today.
For the Broncos, that means facing the 6-seed Steelers, 5-seed Chiefs or 4-seed Texans.
GAME ONE: Texans (9-7) v Chiefs (11-5)
The Chiefs might be the NFL's version of a family sedan. Practical. Efficient. Responsible. Occasionally boring. Still, Kansas City enters the playoffs as the NFL's hottest team, ripping off 10 straight following a 1-5 start, and the one early win was a season-opening 27-20 victory at Houston.
The Chiefs take care of the ball (they are plus-16 in turnover margin during their current run) and keep opponents out of the end zone. It's a formula as basic as coach Andy Reid's game-day demeanor, yet a style that has arguably made Kansas City the least-flawed team in an AFC where weaknesses abound.
The Texans have plenty of them. They captured the AFC South crown by being the best of a mediocre bunch. J.J. Watt did J.J. Watt things, finishing with a league-high 17 1/2 sacks while turning each celebration into a dance-off. Coach Bill O'Brien made an offense that couldn't seem to keep a quarterback healthy work anyway. The merry-go-round has come full circle, with Brian Hoyer back in control of the huddle as Houston seeks to improve to 3-0 in the wild-card round.
Coverage starts on Denver7 at noon MT on Saturday. The game starts at 2:35 p.m. MT.
GAME TWO: Steelers (10-6) v Bengals (12-4)
A decade later, the AFC North champion Bengals have a shot at postseason payback. The resilient Steelers, meanwhile, are eyeing a familiar path to a frequent destination.
The Bengals were on the rise in 2005 when they hosted the Steelers in the wild-card round. Then Pittsburgh defensive tackle Kimo von Oelhoffen crashed into quarterback Carson Palmer's left leg in the first quarter, shredding Palmer's knee. Cincinnati struggled behind backup Jon Kitna and the Steelers rolled to a 31-17 victory on their way to a fifth Super Bowl title.
Cincinnati won the division with backup A.J. McCarron after Andy Dalton broke his right thumb in a home loss to Pittsburgh last month. McCarron is a respectable 2-1 in Dalton's absence, but he was three months old the last time the Bengals won a playoff game, a drought that turns 25 this month and includes six straight postseason losses. The Steelers haven't gone more than five years between playoff wins since Richard Nixon was president.
Pittsburgh has injury problems of its own with running back DeAngelo Williams nursing a sprained right ankle. The Steelers are already without star Le'Veon Bell, lost for the year after injuring his knee against Cincinnati in November. The injury stemmed from a hit by linebacker Vontaze Burfict that spurred a war of words with Steelers linebacker Vince Williams that spilled over into social media and pregame warmups last month.
The teams split in the regular season, with each winning on the road.
The game is at 6:15 p.m. MT.
