Kansas City @ New England

I'll start off by saying that I want Kansas City to win this game. Not because I believe that the Broncos will lose if they end up playing the Patriots, but I want Manning to to able to have revenge against the team that sent him to the bench two months ago.

The Chiefs have more of chance to win this game than many people believe they do. The Patriots didn't really inspire confidence in anyone by losing their last two games to end up as the 2nd seed. However, they still need to deal with Gronk, which is a difficult task for any defense, even a good one like Kansas City. Julian Edelman will be back for the Patriots. He makes the offense better even if he does not create many explosive plays.

The Patriots are going to run into problems if they fail to run the ball effectively. If they faced with multiple long down situations, the Chiefs defense should be able to feast.

Kansas City's pass rush will punish Tom Brady if he cannot get rid of the ball quickly. The rush from the inside is every bit as important as from the outside against Brady because it limits his ability to step up into the pocket and make throws.

The entire game lies on the Chiefs defense. If they are not able to contain the Patriots offense, they have absolutely no chance to win the game because I cannot expect Alex Smith to win a shootout against Tom Brady. If they are able to keep the score low and the offense is not expect do to too much, they could pull out the W.

The Chiefs cannot expect Alex Smith to go out there and win them this game. He is not that type of quarterback. They need to get the run game going in order to have any type of success. Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware need to get the offense in short yardage situations on second and third downs. Then Smith can be effective at moving the sticks, which is all they can reasonably expect him to do in the playoffs.

Jeremy Maclin might not play and even if he does he will be limited, which forces the Chiefs to keep the passing game short. Travis Kelce will have to be a big part of the offense if they expect to move the ball.

I think that the Chiefs will win this game 20-17, but I would not be surprised if they lose. Expect the game to be within three points either way.