Everyone is now pulling for Cincy, with the hope that KC goes out & wins in Denver without Maclin. This seems unlikely to me.
The risk is that Cincy wins, gets Dalton back & Denver beats KC anyway. This gives us the worst case scenario of facing Cincy at home, then Denver on the road.
I like the Pats chances with KC. We would have beat Denver with a banged-up roster, if it weren't for a muffed punt. If the Pats are good enough to beat whoever comes out of the NFC in the Superbowl, they should have no problem beating a flawed Denver team on the road.