NFL playoff schedule 2016: Texans vs. Chiefs, Bengals vs. Steelers kicks off Wild Card round
The Texans, Chiefs, Steelers and Bengals will kick off the Wild Card round of the playoffs on Saturday.
The first week of the 2016 NFL playoffs is just hours away, as the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs are looking to get things started in the wild card round on Saturday. Houston is playing host to the Chiefs despite the latter team holding a better record due to the fact that Houston won the AFC South.
Kansas City narrowly lost the AFC West to the Denver Broncos, and finished the season at 11-5. The Texans, at 9-7, finished just ahead of the Indianapolis Colts. In the evening game on Saturday, the other wild card matchup will feature AFC North rivals in the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Cincinnati is playing host to that game after winning the AFC North by a couple games. Pittsburgh narrowly made it into the playoffs with a win in Week 17 after briefly losing their wild card spot to the New York Jets. Pittsburgh finished the season at 10-6, splitting the regular season series with the Bengals.
The two NFC games will take place on Sunday. We’ll take a look at both AFC games and what you need to know to watch them below.
AFC Wild Card Round Game 1: Houston Texans vs. Kansas City Chiefs
When: Saturday, Jan. 9, 4:20 p.m. ET
Where: NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas
TV: ABC/ESPN
Announcers: Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Lisa Salters
Online: WatchESPN
The Texans were a disaster for much of the regular season, but through huge injuries and a head coach potentially on the hot seat, the Texans still managed to scrape together enough wins to take the AFC South. Brian Hoyer was named the starter in Week 1, benched, then became the starter again before going down with injury. T.J. Yates and Brandon Weeden both had to start games at quarterback for Houston, but Hoyer is back and the Texans enter the playoffs on a three-game winning streak, with wins in seven of their last nine games.
Kansas City is riding a franchise-record 10-game winning streak on the back of strong play from quarterback Alex Smith. He is being very smart with the football and the Chiefs have primarily won games on the back of how well they protect the ball. Interceptions simply don’t happen for him and the Chiefs do just about everything well. They are not going to be easy to put down.
AFC Wild Card Round Game 2: Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
When: Saturday, Jan. 9, 8:15 p.m. ET
Where: Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio
TV: CBS
Announcers: Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Online:NFL GamePass
The Bengals and Steelers are AFC North rivals, so they have already played twice this season. Both games were very different than the other, however. The first game saw the Bengals on the road in Week 8, a game that Andy Dalton was available in. The Bengals won a low-scoring defensive battle, 16-10, but the story was much different the next time around.
The second time the teams played, in Week 14, saw the Steelers dominate most of the game offensively. They scored 33 points to Cincinnati’s 20 , and that has a lot to do with the two interceptions thrown by Cincinnati quarterback AJ McCarron. Dalton left the game due to injury and McCarron threw two touchdowns and two picks in relief. Dalton is likely to miss Saturday’s game as well.
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