The National Football League Conference Championship Game Preview

The NFL this week was one of the best weeks of football the game has ever had. #1 seed being dethroned. Tying the postseason record for most sacks in a game. Physical proof that yes, special teams CAN ruin a great team (just ask the 2010 Chargers). Tom Brady is not infallible and overtime is stupid. But one thing everyone can agree on is that every game was a nail-biter. And it looks like nobody knows who will get to the Super Bowl or not. All of these teams have gone so far to make it to this moment. It all comes down to this. Welcome to the Conference Championship Game Preview!

I will be going over the teams in each individual CCG and breaking down their playoff games. Since all of the #1 seeds were kicked out, there are only Wild Card Teams left. After I’ve broken the teams down, I will then predict the winner and why they will win.

Here we go.

AFC

Home Team: #2 Seed: Kansas City Chiefs (AFC West Champion)

W vs Steelers, 42-21

W vs Bills, 42-36 (OT)

The Chiefs are looking to be the NFL’s next dynasty with their 4th trip to the Conference Championship in a row. Since 2017, with the rise of Patrick Mahomes, they have won the AFC West every time. They have absolutely been dominant throughout this stretch (except for the first 7 weeks of this season, but we don’t really talk about it). They went in as the 2 seed due to a tough loss to the Bengals in Cincinnati. A quick overview of their offense shows that they have a great offense with Patrick Mahomes, professional taunter and Energizer Bunny Tyreek Hill, and undisputedly the best tight end in the league with Travis Kelce. But an overview of their defense leads to a weakness that I’ll get into later. In the playoffs, they DOMINATED their first game against the Steelers. The extent of the domination was so bad, that Arrowhead literally COULD NOT FIRE OFF THEIR FIREWORKS BECAUSE THEY RAN OUT DUE TO THE CHIEFS SCORING TOO MUCH. Needless to say, the Chiefs scored 42 against the lowly Steelers. But the Kansas City “please stop talking about how they are the best 2nd quarter team” Chiefs had another tall order to run into: Josh Allen, who just DISMANTLED the Patriots on route to a 47-17 victory where they scored a touchdown on EVERY OFFENSIVE DRIVE. This was not just against the Patriots, but a Patriots team led by Belicheck currently in the postseason. Pulling that off was amazing, and will probably never happen again. But the divisional game was probably one of the best games I have ever seen. After tying the game in halftime 14-14, the Chiefs improved to a 23-21 lead at the end of the third, and after punting the ball away, tweaked it to 26-21. But Josh Allen wasn’t going to give up. On multiple 4th downs, he converted in the face of defeat, and their second one was a strike to Gabriel Davis on 4th and 13, and after the 2 point conversion, they were put up by 3. But the Chiefs weren’t going to make a silly little thing like only having 1:50 left on the clock slow them down, and in 52 seconds, Mahomes trusted it to Tyreek Hill, who took it and went 65 yards against the Bills “#1 ranked defense” to score with 52 seconds left. But Josh Allen wasn’t going to give up either. He threw 40 yards in two plays, with one of them being 28 yards, both to Davis. After setting them up on the 19-yard line, with 13 seconds left Allen threw another strike to Davis, hitting him in the endzone to go up by 3. But Mahomes STILL was not giving up. After NOT SQUIBBING IT FOR SOME REASON, Mahomes and the Chiefs drove 45 yards in 13 seconds to kick a field goal to send it to OT. Kansas City won the coin toss, and the rest is history. This game sparked debate on whether the overtime rules were fair or not. In my opinion, they are not. But if you want the ball back, use your #1 defense to get it back. This was not a fraudulent win, both teams played absolutely amazing, but the defense choked like the Oilers in 1993. Giving up 45 yards in 13 seconds is absolutely inexcusable.

The Chiefs are the odds-on favorite to win the Chip, but to even get there, they will have to go through a team that NOBODY thought would get here, the Cincinnati Bengals.

Away Team: Cincinnati Bengals (AFC North Champion)

W vs Raiders, 23-16

W @ Titans, 19-16

9 TIMES! DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THE JOE BURROW GOT SACKED 9 TIMES AND THEY STILL WON??? HOW DOES A TEAM LIKE THAT FUNCTION?? Burrow got bailed out in the Divisional Round by Tannehill acting like it was week 11 against the Texans and throwing 3 interceptions. Cinci took the AFC North Division spot off the back of Joe “Shiesty” Burrow and his rookie Ja’marr Chase. Joe Mixon gives them some good reason to keep it on the ground and Evan “Money” McPhearson gives them a clean and consistent kicker, who won them the game against the Titans. Their game vs Las Vegas was very poorly officiated, but it wouldn’t have mattered, as the Bengals could beat the Raiders 99 times out of 100. The Titans game was a very close matchup, and even though he was sacked 9 times, they still won the game off of three interceptions and being able to shut down Tannehill and Derrick Henry. I want to say here that the Bengals DID NOT WIN THIS GAME. The Titans lost this game. But this is not a fraudulent loss because the Titans’ offense did the same thing the Bills’ defense did. This was a tough game for the Titans’ offense and they will obviously be focused on offense in the off-season. Before this year, the Bengals hadn’t won a playoff game in 31 years. The last time they won was against the Houston Oilers. They had a streak of 5 years where they lost the Wild Card, and now they are in the Conference Championship. They have never won a Super Bowl, and the last time they were in it was 1989, when they lost to the 49ers. Could this possibly be their year?

This will probably be an offensive battle. Both the Chiefs’ and Bengals’ defense is not that good while their offenses are. Kansas City’s defense is probably a little better, but as long as Burrow doesn’t throw any interceptions (which doesn’t seem to be too hard for him) he should be fine. The same goes for Mahomes. I do think the Chiefs offense is better, but like their Week 17 matchup, this will most likely be a high-scoring game between two of the scariest teams in the NFL this year. The reason Cinci hasn’t scored that much was that they had to go up against good defenses like Las Vegas and Tennessee. But Kansas doesn’t really have a lot of big names on their team. Neither does Cincy, and the lack of pressure for both teams are dangerous. Any 3&Out for either team could be fatal. This will be a high-scoring and very exciting game, but I still think that Kansas City will take this game, and move on to the SuperBowl for the third straight time.

NFC

Home Team: Los Angeles Rams (NFC West Champion)

W vs Arizona Cardinals, 34-11

W @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 30-27

The Rams have looked really unstoppable (for six out of eight quarters). Their defense is led by All-Pros Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald (although the former has looked shaky in recent games, I still know he has immense talent) and their offense is led by veteran QB Matthew Stafford and star WR Cooper Kupp. In the Wild Card, they had to go up against a division rival, which was an absolutely fiery game that was given its own day just because of how hype this game would be. The Los Angeles Rams and the Arizona Cardinals meet one more time to settle the score and, what’s that? It’s already over? Oh. Kyler Murray had a 30 passer rating? Oh. They got curb stomped? Oh.

It’s safe to say that that game was a disappointment, but the next game definitely wasn’t. After going up 27-3 in the first half, the Bucs rallied back. At 27-20, it looked like the Bucs may have a chance to be stopped on a pivotal fourth down, but Leonard Fournette ran it right into the endzone, and it looks like we might have “National Los Angeles Rams Day” on March 27th. But with SECONDS remaining, Matthew Stafford threw a missile downfield to Cooper Kupp, who caught it around the 14-yard line. They then kicked a field goal as time expired to take the win.

Their regular season has been very good, sporting one of the best records in the NFC. They have also been a very consistent team this year. But one thing they’ve also been consistent at is losing to the next team on this list.

Away Team: San Francisco 49ers (NFC West 3rd Place)

W @ Dallas Cowboys 23-16

W @ Green Bay Packers 13-10

The 49ers have definitely been the dark horse of the playoffs this year. After going 10-7, they were counted out by most analysts (and me), but they rallied, holding the #1 offense in the league to just 16 points, including THREE in the first half. But a potential comeback by the Cowboys was squandered when Dak Prescott SCRAMBLED WITH 10 SECONDS LEFT. And after a universal outcry by Cowboys Twitter, the ref bumped into Dak while trying to spot the ball, wasting the rest of the time on the clock. Luckily for them, it didn’t turn out to be BottleGate 2 as the refs sprinted off the field faster than you can say the words “maybe don’t scramble when you’re trying to save the clock.”

Anyways, although it was nice to revel in the Cowboys losing, we’re probably gonna lose to the Packers. But their defense absolutely stepped up, blocking a field goal and a punt and returning the latter for a touchdown, and holding Aaron “how did you guys win TWO SUPER BOWLS in 30 years of HOF quarterbackery” Rodgers to just 225 yards on 29 attempts. They are the team that nobody expects to win. Their defense has been absolutely stellar. It almost feels illegal that, if they can beat a #1 offense team and the #1 team in the league, they are not ranked higher. But their offense really isn’t that good. Jimmy G is good, but not great. On top of that, he had a nagging injury to his thumb, making his efficiency worse. They will have to play the ground game, but the Rams’ defensive line could make this a difficult game for them.

The Game

The 49ers play the Rams in LA on Sunday. This could be a very defensive battle. We’ve seen what both teams can do to each other’s mediocre offenses (sorry to Cooper Kupp and Deebo Samuel). The name of the game here will be turnovers. If either team can give themselves a good field position through fumbles or turnovers, that could lead to major points on the board. You might be saying “Why are you comparing Matthew Stafford’s offense to Jimmy Garapollo’s?” And while he is good, it’s San Francisco’s defense (ranked third in the NFL) that might just be a little bit better. The objective for San Francisco (hopefully) will be to keep it on the ground with Deebo Samuel while making a couple of passes here and there.

Obviously, they shouldn’t just stick to running, as they need to mix it up a little, especially if Ramsey is still playing like he was against Tampa Bay. He is the ringleader of that potent secondary and was part of the reason they gave up so many points to the Bucs in the second half. If San Francisco is able to exploit that, they have a real shot. But I think, just off of power alone, the Rams are the clear favorite. They have everything riding on this, and they are a genuinely scary team, despite what I’m making them out to be. However, San Francisco is a dark horse, an underdog if you will, and while I don’t think the Rams will be doing any underestimation, crazier things have happened. 

By the way, if the Rams win, the team will have played a Super Bowl in their stadium for two years in a row.

The Conference Championships start on January 30th, at 3 PM EST with the Chiefs facing off against the Bengals, and concluding at 6:30 PM EST with the Rams taking on the 49ers. With underdogs, potential dynasties, proven and unproven, and those who desperately want a taste of victory, this Sunday will have it all.