A meeting of familiar foes: Tom Brady vs Peyton Manning in the playoffs, stop me if you’ve heard that one before. Sunday will be the fifth meeting between the two in the playoffs. The meetings being split 2-2. At the other end of the league, Cam Newton will clash with Carson Palmer in Carolina.

For Tom Brady, he will try to repeat what he did last year in that crazy Super Bowl win. The Patriots took down the Chiefs in Foxborough on Saturday night. Brady threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns. He picked apart a very good Kansas City defense and did it with ease for the most part. One area of concern for New England is their ground attack. They are not very successful when they try to run the ball. They must find a way to get it done on the ground against Denver because it’s very hard to beat the Broncos defense being one-dimensional.

Peyton Manning and company edged the Pittsburgh Steelers at Mile High Stadium on Sunday night. Peyton Manning isn’t the Peyton Manning we all know, but he’s doing just enough to get by. Manning finished with 222 passing yards without throwing a touchdown. Manning himself will tell you that he has to be better in order for the Broncos to stand a chance against a very good New England team. His defense has been a huge reason as to why they are where they are. Much like the Patriots, the Broncos rushing attack isn’t good and there needs to be some improvements. However, the Broncos will feel much better about their chances to succeed even without a ground game because of how good their defense is.

After a bye week, Cam Newton picked up his first career playoff win, withstanding a second half comeback from Seattle. The Panthers came out with some swagger right out of the gates, while it took Seattle a while to get in their groove. Jonathan Stewart had a huge game running the ball. He had 106 yards and added 2 touchdowns. The great thing about this Carolina offense is that they’re very versatile. A mixture of pass and run installed with some trickery that will keep defenses on their toes throughout the whole game.

What we learned from Sunday’s game against the Packers is that Larry Fitzgerald still has it. A huge game from Fitzgerald helped the Cardinals survive what would have been a miracle of a win by the Green Bay Packers. Larry Fitzgerald had 8 catches for 176 yards and scored the game winning touchdown in overtime. Carson Palmer has to keep the turnovers to a minimum for the Cardinals to stand a chance against Carolina. You can’t make a lot mistakes against the Panthers and expect to win the game. The Panthers are just too lethal on all sides of the ball.

All things considered, I see the Broncos beating the Patriots in Denver and the Panthers defeating the Cardinals in Carolina.

Prediction:

New England Patriots 20-24 Denver Broncos
Arizona Cardinals 17-21 Carolina Panthers

Photo Credit MCT Campus: Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton (1) breaks past Indianapolis Colts’ D’Qwell Jackson (52) and Jerrell Freeman (50) for a first down during the first quarter on Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. (David T. Foster III/Charlotte Observer/TNS)