A good year to be a wild card in NFL playoffs

If they both come through with road wins, the Chiefs would play at New England in the divisional playoffs, while the Steelers would play at top-seeded Denver.

The game was Ben Roethlisberger’s first back from a knee injury that wiped out a quarter of his season, and it showed, throwing three interceptions, including two rather poor attempts in the fourth quarter, but he was more consistent in the second meeting, even without a touchdown pass.

The kickoff time has been set for the Steelers AFC Wildcard Playoff game at Cincinnati. Cincinnati won the AFC North title, as they started the year with a 10-0 record but stumbled to a 2-4 record down the stretch and lost quarterback Andy Dalton to a broken thumb.

ESPN has the Chiefs-Texans game with a simulcast on ABC, while CBS has Steelers-Bengals. In fact, the Bengals have gone 2-1 with A.J. The Steelers won the most recent meeting, 33-20, December 13 in Cincinnati. The question is will; injured running back DeAngelo Williams be ready to play against the Bengals?

Pittsburgh and Cincinnati split the season series, with each club winning on the road.

Home and away games against three division opponents (six games).

On the surface, the Packers got a decent consolation prize for losing to the Vikings with a game against Washington, the champions of the weak NFC East. The Packers had the same record on the road (5-3) as they did at Lambeau Field. This year’s team might not have that luck.

Win or lose, the Bengals would have the No. 3 seed and would host the Kansas City Chiefs on either Saturday, January 9 or Sunday, January 10.

Even if Williams is unable to suit up and even if Andy Dalton does in fact play, it is still hard to pick the Bengals to ever win a playoff game. These games will match a first-place team against the first-place teams in the two same-conference divisions the team is not scheduled to play that season. Kirk Cousins has had quite the breakthrough, with 12 touchdown passes and only one interception while averaging close to 300 yards during the streak.