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Hobbled Steelers must stop Tebow; Falcons battle reputation

Playoff season kicks off with Saturday and Sunday's wild-card weekend, and that means four NFL teams dreaming of the Super Bowl have a chance to achieve greatness on the road. But which teams have the best chance to pull off the hardest feat of all, winning a road playoff game? We've boiled it down to two.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are facing the Tebow phenomenon, an occasionally phenomenal defense, and the mile-high altitude in Denver. Despite all that, the Broncos are still underdogs in most people's eyes. The reason for that is more than just Pittsburgh's won-lost record this year, it's the Steelers' track record over the last several years.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Falcons are somewhat harder to find on the playoff radar than they were last season, when they came in as the NFC's No. 1 seed. But Mike Smith's squad has enough of a chip on its shoulder, and the New York Giants are just erratic enough, to facilitate an Atlanta upset.

Considering the relative strength of the New Orleans Saints and Houston Texans, the other two home teams of wild-card weekend, the Steelers and Falcons are in the best position to get difficult playoff road victories based on matchups, injuries, history and other circumstances.

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Pittsburgh at Denver (Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET)

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Atlanta at New York (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET)

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