Denver Broncos Early Favorites to Beat Steelers in Playoffs

The Denver Broncos are the early favorites in their divisional round playoff game with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

With home-field advantage, the Broncos are 6.5 point favorites over the Steelers who won an ugly game in Cincinnati on Saturday.

The odds could likely go down if it turns out quarterback Ben Rothlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown are able to play this week. Rothlisberger suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder against the Bengals, and Brown suffered a concussion.

Without their two biggest offensive weapons, the Steelers would be facing long odds to knock off the Broncos. With Rothlisberger and Brown in the lineup, the Steelers offense is as potent as any in the league, as they displayed just a few weeks ago when they rallied to beat Denver 37-24 in Pittsburgh.

Peyton Manning is scheduled to be the Broncos' starting quarterback, which is another factor the oddsmakers obviously like.

In the other AFC matchup, New England is an early five-point favorite over Kansas City.

In the NFC, Carolina is an early 3 point favorite over Seattle, which survived the frigid trip to Minnesota on Blair Walsh's missed 27-yard field goal attempt with less than 30 seconds to play.

Arizona is the biggest favorite of the week, being installed as 7.5 favorites over the Green Bay Packers, who looked fairly impressive against Washington.