Its looking to be another great week of the NFL playoffs. This week features four teams that will be searching for redemption after embarrassing losses in recent meetings. Here is a preview and my predictions for each game.

(5) Kansas City Chiefs @ (2) New England Patriots, Saturday Janurary 16th

The first game of the weekend features one team that has won 11 straight in the Kansas City Chiefs and one team that somewhat stumbled into the playoffs in the New England Patriots. This will no doubt be an interesting game. Nobody seems to know forsure how good the Chiefs are, with a QB who is a game manager and a banged up supporting cast (no Jamal Charles and Maclin is listed as questionable with a high ankle sprain) they certainly seem vulnerable. The Patriots however have the injury bug as well. Rob Gronkowski is listed as questionable and had to get an injection in his knee earlier this week which is never a good sign along Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola who are also listed as questionable.

The Patriots will no doubt be looking for revenge in this game as the last time these two teams met the Chiefs embarrased the Patriots in a 41–14 victory at Arrowhead. Its intersting to note that in this blowout game, the Chiefs did not have Maclin (he was signed as a free agent this offseason) and Jamal Charles was not the Chiefs leading rusher in the game. Knile Davis who will be playing on Saturday lead the Chiefs rushing attack with 107 yards on 16 carries, New England as a team had just 75 yards on the ground. Another interesting thing from that game is that Gronk and Edelman combined for just 54 yards on 6 catches, this shows just how stout that Chiefs defense is. I like the way the Chiefs defense matches up with the Patriot offense, with Eric Berry in the middle and two giant corners outside (Marcus Peters who is 6'3" and Sean Smith who is 6'0") they can sufficate the smaller New England recievers and even match up with Gronk. It is still hard to imagine that Tom Brady in the playoffs at home will be shut down on offense so I think that the key will be the Chiefs offense and if they will be able to score on a solid New England defense lead by Bill Belichick. If the Chiefs get the running game established early and get some easy completions off play action I think they will win this game.

Kansas City 28 New England 24

(5) Green Bay Packers @ (2) Arizona Cardinals, Saturday January 16th

The second game of the Saturday games is a rematch of a week 16 mathup that saw the Cardinals embarrass the visiting Packers 38–8. This game is going to come down to the packers offensive not only giving Eddie Lacy (60 yards rushing week 16) a chance to gash the Cardinal defense as well as give Aaron Rogers time to throw down the field. Another key to this matchup will be whether or not the Packers receivers will be able to get open against one of the best secondaries in the NFL. On the other side of the ball the key will be whether or not Carson Palmer can continue his amazing year. Palmer has only reached the playoffs twice thus far in his career and has not won a single playoff game (injured in first game against the Steelers in 2005). This lack of playoff success doesn’t mean much to me, this is a new year and a new team and the Cardinal offense has been nothing short of dynamic all year. If this game was in Green Bay I would give the Packers a shot but I don’t see this team with no running game, a beat up receiving corps and offensive line, along with an average defense being able to get past this tough challenge.

Arizona 30 Green Bay 20

(6) Seattle Seahawks @ (1) Carolina Panthers, Sunday Janurary 17th

The first game on Sunday features two teams that will seemingly be playing eachother in playoffs games in the years to come and what I think could be a budding rivalry between two teams that love to talk as much as they love to play. In the previous matchup this year Cam Newton threw to a wide open Greg Olsen for a game winning Touchdown with 30 seconds left. This seemed to be a theme in a season in which the vaunted Seahawk defense gave up 5 (should have been 6 if Blair Walsh hit a 27 yard field goal) fourth quarter leads all ending up in losses. For Carolina the comeback victory was no surprise either Cam Newton lead the NFL in most 4th quarter comebacks this season. Some good news for Seattle they will be getting Marshawn Lynch back this week but I’m not so sure he will be vary effective, this is his first week back after having abdomen surgery on November 25th and in the last meeting he only managed 54 yards on 17 attempts against a very stout Carolina defense. I do not any running backs on either side being able to have a big day on the ground but with two mobile quarterbacks the rushing yards might be able to come off some read option plays. This game to me will be decided by key turnovers and good special team play. Each team has a reliable place kicker and returners (Ted Ginn and Tyler Lockette) that can make big plays. The game will be very close but I see the experiance of Seattle paying off in this game, I beleive that they will be the ones making the big plays down the stretch to pull off a win.

Seattle 27 Carolina 24

(6) Pittsburgh Steelers @ (1) Denver Broncos, Sunday Janurary 17th

The final game of the Divisional round will be a week 15 rematch between the Steelers and Broncos. The story of the game has to start with the banged up Steelers, Antonio Brown has been ruled out with a concussion and DeAngelo Williams is out with an ankle injury. If that news isn’t enough of a blow to the best offense in the league Big Ben is dealing with a torn ligament in his shoulder. You might think like everybody else that the Steelers have no chance, but to me although unlikely I do believe that the Steelers can win this game and here is how. All of the pressure has to be on the Broncos, they are at home and almost completely healthy coming off a much needed first round bye. If they somehow loose this game it will be either because Big Ben has an unusually amazing performance or because Peyton Manning has a terrible game. The Steelers come into the game with the 30th ranked defense against the pass (worst in franchise history) however the defense is opportunistic and can create turnovers when needed as we saw last week when middle linebacker ripped the ball from running back Jeremy Hill’s hands late in the 4th quarter. If the Steelers can create some turnovers against Peyton Manning who has thrown 17 INT to just 9 TD this season they may have chance. Manning also is 0–5 in games that are played in conditions colder than 40 degrees which favors the Steelers. If the Steelers can somehow jump out to an early lead it may put the Broncos on their heels a bit which could leave the door open for the Steelers. Everybody is giving the Steelers no chance in this one which is a situation the Steelers seem to thrive on and Peyton Manning historically has not especially late in his career and in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see if Manning can get his feet back under him against by far the worst pass defense he will see the rest of the season. Because this is a playoff game make no mistake the Steelers are going to give everything they have and with one of the best coaches in the NFL they have a chance. If Ben and Brown were healthy I would pick them to win but because of injury I have to give the Broncos the slight edge in this close game.

Written Jan 16 From quora