Page 19 - Aruba Today

SPORTS A19
Friday 8 January 2016

NFL playoffs start with Texans-Chiefs, Bengals-Steelers

NEW YORK (AP) — The Kan-

sas City Chiefs are the NFL’s

version of a family car.

Practical. Efficient. Respon-

sible. Occasionally boring.

Still, they get the wild-card

playoffs started this week-

end as the NFL’s hottest

team, ripping off 10 straight

wins following a 1-5 start.

The one early win was a

season-opening 27-20 vic-

tory at Houston, where

the Chiefs go on Saturday

to face J.J. Watt and the

Texans. Following them,

the Cincinnati Bengals

have a shot at postseason

payback a decade later

against visiting Pittsburgh.

The resilient Steelers, mean-

while, are eyeing a familiar

path to a frequent destina-

tion.

The Chiefs take care of

the ball (they are plus-16

in turnover margin during

their current run), and keep

opponents out of the end

zone. It’s a formula as ba-

sic as coach Andy Reid’s Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant (10) is tackled by Cincinnati Bengals outside linebacker Vontaze Burfict (55) in an
NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 13, 2015, in Cincinnati.
game-day demeanor,
(AP Photo/Frank Victores)
yet a style that has argu-

ably made Kansas City to keep a quarterback there are no soft oppo- behind backup Jon Kitna, president.
healthy work anyway. The nents in the playoffs. and the Steelers rolled to a Pittsburgh has injury prob-
the least-flawed team in merry-go-round has come “I couldn’t honestly care 31-17 victory on their way lems of its own with running
full circle, with Brian Hoyer less about what anybody to a fifth Super Bowl title. back DeAngelo Williams
an AFC where weaknesses back in control of the hud- says outside of this locker Cincinnati won the division nursing a sprained right an-
dle, as Houston seeks to im- room,” tight end Travis with backup A.J. McCarron kle. The Steelers are already
abound. The Texans have prove to 3-0 in the wild-card Kelce says. “We know that after Andy Dalton broke his without star Le’Veon Bell,
round. Still, they haven’t when we line up against right thumb in a home loss lost for the year after injur-
plenty of them. They cap- really replaced running anybody, we’re confident to Pittsburgh last month. ing his knee against Cincin-
back Arian Foster since he that we’re going to get the McCarron is a respectable nati in November. The injury
tured the AFC South divi- got hurt, and they lost left job done.” 2-1 in Dalton’s absence, stemmed from a hit by line-
tackle Duane Brown to a The Bengals were on the but he was three months backer Vontaze Burfict that
sion crown by being the season-ending thigh injury rise in 2005 when they host- old the last time the Ben- spurred a war of words with
last Sunday. They face a fe- ed the Steelers in the wild- gals won a playoff game, Steelers linebacker Vince
best of a mediocre bunch. rocious Chiefs pass rush. card round. Then Pittsburgh a drought that turns 25 Williams that spilled over
How long will the Chiefs’ defensive tackle Kimo this month and includes six into social media and pre-
Watt did Watt things, fin- luck hold? They won close von Oelhoffen crashed straight postseason losses. game warmups last month.
games during their remark- into quarterback Carson The Steelers haven’t gone The teams split their match-
ishing with a league-high able franchise-best winning Palmer’s left leg in the first more than five years be- ups in the regular season,
streak, taking advantage quarter, shredding Palmer’s tween playoff wins since with each winning on the
17 1/2 sacks while turning of a soft late schedule. But knee. Cincinnati struggled Richard Nixon was the U.S. road.q

each celebration into a

dance-off. Whitney Mer-

cilus had a career-high

12 sacks, and Jadeveon

Clowney became healthy

and disruptive again. The

defense allowed just 12.7

points over the final nine

games. Meanwhile, coach

Bill O’Brien made an of-

fense that couldn’t seem