National Football League divisional round odds: Chiefs, Steelers are road underdogs in AFC

The New England Patriots open their 2015 playoff season with a home game in the Divisional Round against the Kansas City Chiefs. He is one of four quarterbacks who were picked No. 1 overall in the draft and will start for their respective teams during this weekend’s postseason action. But the Patriots dominated the rest of the season and won their fourth Super Bowl. They have a lot of good players, great defensive front, great group of linebackers, as good as any team we’ve faced in the secondary. “We issued a statement on that and really, I don’t have anything to add to it”. Despite coming off a bye, New England has been thrust into the spotlight for several matters off the field.

Belichick would not say whether Jones would be disciplined for his actions, or whether he might miss some, or even all of the game on Saturday. “Every time we play them it’s a battle”. If not, then the New England Patriots will be back in the AFC Championship game defending their title of AFC champions. Even before the league investigation that would find them guilty, the Patriots plugged up their ears and dug in their heels.

Smith’s only experience with the Super Bowl was as the backup to Colin Kaepernick with the 49ers when San Francisco lost to Baltimore 34-31 in Super Bowl XLVII. “So that’s what we’ll try to do”.

BRONCOS (-7) over Steelers, Under 39 ¹/₂: It’s the divisional round, but there are so many “wild cards” in the deck here.

Why they’ll win: Special teams and defense.

The hottest team at the moment takes on the hottest team in Boston as the Chiefs attempt to stretch their winning streak to 12 when they take on the Patriots. They all got back in and kind of got in the swing of things. The Chiefs are 0-3 at Gillette Stadium; the last time the Chiefs won in New England was 1990 at the old Schaefer/ Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium where they grabbed a 37-7 victory. Brandon Bolden, who has risen up the ranks in lieu of injuries to LeGarrette Blount and Dion Lewis, is averaging just 3.3 yards on 63 carries.

Seattle beat Carolina 31-17 in last year’s playoffs, then the Panthers avenged that with a comeback win in Seattle in October. I waited all year for the Pats to be in the playoffs and so far all I’ve gotten is disappointment, controversy and an opponent playing nice, and I need it to be over. Chiefs rookie WR Chris Conley had 9-yard TD catch in playoff debut…. He is expected to share carries with James White and Brandon Bolden for as long as his conditioning holds up.

“I’m going to go full throttle regardless”, Edelman said this week. “The last two or three weeks have been a whirlwind”.

“We just haven’t played the way we would’ve liked here these last six games”, Slater said.

There are two Kansas City games on Bill Belichick’s mind right now. “What a great challenge and an opportunity to play up there at Foxborough, great atmosphere, might be a little snow, it doesn’t get any better than that”. He’s had the better season than Aaron Rodgers and has a better team around him, too.

“They’ve made history, so both of them are Hall of Famers – future Hall of Famers”, Reid explained of Belichick and Brady this week. The other is New England’s previous encounter with them, when they beat the Patriots 41-14 in 2014, the second-worst defeat of Belichick’s coaching tenure with the Patriots. They lost their final two games to drop from first to second in the conference.