2016 NFL Divisional Round Predictions

Here are my predictions for the divisional round of the 2016 NFL Playoffs.

Saturday, January 16th
(A5) Kansas City Chiefs (11-5) vs (A2) New England Patriots - 4:30, CBS: This should be a very interesting game considering that the Chiefs destroyed the Patriots in week four of the 2014 season. Kansas City is coming off a very impressive shutout victory in Houston against the Texans in the Wild Card round. New England was 2-4 in their final six regular season games largely due to injury. Well, it does look like the Patriots are getting healthy at the right time and they are poised to go on another Super Bowl run so they are the pick here to go to the AFC Championship game for the fifth straight season.
Prediction: New England 27, Kansas City 20.

(N5) Green Bay Packers vs (N2) Arizona Cardinals- 8:15, NBC: Here we have a rematch of week sixteen, which was when the Cardinals destroyed the Packers by thirty points. Green Bay is coming off a nice win in Washington in the Wild Card round in which they played a terrific second half on both sides of the ball. Arizona has been playing terrific football down the stretch with the exception of week seventeen against the Seattle Seahawks. I do think this will be a closer game than it was a few weeks ago and arguably the leagues best team in the Cardinals will move on to the NFC  Championship game.
Prediction: Arizona 30, Green Bay 24.

Sunday, January 17th
(N6) Seattle Seahawks (10-6) vs (N1) Carolina Panthers (15-1)- 1:00, FOX: These two teams met earlier in the season and the Panthers came from behind and won a thriller in a Seattle. Now we have an intriguing rematch here. Seattle (lets face it) got lucky to win in Minneapolis against the Vikings since Blair Walsh missed a cheap shot field goal that would have likely won the game for the Vikings. Carolina only lost one game in the regular season and that's remarkable. This was a very tough call but something tells me that Russell Wilson and the Seahawks take advantage of a banged  up Panthers secondary and make their third straight NFC Championship game.
Prediction: Seattle 26, Carolina 24.

(A6) Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6) vs (A1) Denver Broncos (12-4)- 4:40, CBS: These two teams met up in week fifteen and the Steelers came from behind to beat the Broncos and Brock Osweiler. Pittsburgh was also fortunate since they won a nasty one in Cincinnati against the Bengals in the Wild Card round in which the Bengals were penalized down the stretch, Ben Rothlisberger hurt his shoulder and Antonio Brown had gotten concussed. Denver has home field throughout the playoffs and Peyton Manning came back and looked decent after replacing Brock Osweiler. Manning is the biggest Wild Card of the playoffs because he looked done before he missed time and than he came back and looked decent against the San Diego Chargers. My pick for this game is solely on whether both Ben Rothlisberger and/or Antonio Brown will play or not. My guess is that Rothlisberger and Brown both play and they'll lead the Steelers to the AFC Championship game for the first time in five seasons. This pick will change if Rothlisberger doesn't play.
Prediction: Pittsburgh 27, Denver 23.