By Kevin Perez
Another exhilarating football season has come to a close as the NFL Conference Championship games are slated for this weekend.
Through broken records, power-balancing trades, and historic endings, the last five months of football have culminated in one of the most exciting seasons in NFL history. The playoffs so far have lived up to that standard.
In the Wild Card round, the Jacksonville Jaguars pulled off the third-largest comeback in NFL postseason history, rallying from 27 down to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers 31-30. The Buffalo Bills scraped by the Miami Dolphins who almost pulled off one of the largest upsets in history 34-31. In the NFC, the San Francisco 49ers blew past the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys put on a show in Tampa as they beat the Buccaneers.
In the Divisional Round, some team performances were the opposite of what was seen the weekend prior. The NFC’s number one seed, the Philadelphia Eagles, dominated the New York Giants in a rival matchup 38-7, while the San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys who made too many costly mistakes.
In the AFC, the Kansas City Chiefs came out on top versus the Jacksonville Jaguars where Patrick Mahomes exited the game with a high ankle sprain, but still returned in the second half. The Cincinnati Bengals traveled to Buffalo and beat the Bills in a snow game once again ending the Bills’ season early after being considered Super Bowl favorites for another season in a row.
With two of the final three games of the season up, it’s time to predict who will be playing to raise the Lombardi Trophy in Arizona on February 12th.
Starting with the AFC, it’s a conference championship rematch. Both teams met on the same exact stage last year where the Bengals won on a game-winning field goal 27-24 in overtime. The main focus coming into this game is Patrick Mahomes’s health, he won’t be at 100% due to his injury, but he will play, so how much will that affect the Chiefs’ game plan? In reality, Mahomes is still that elite so nobody is doubting they could win, but the Bengals do have their number.
Cincinnati is 3-0 against Kansas City in the last year. Behind Joe Burrow, the Bengals have proven they are one of the best in this league and their defense continues to make strides. One matchup to watch will be Eli Apple who has been trash-talking on social media after the Bengals won against the Bills versus the Chiefs’ wideouts Juju Smith-Schuster and Kadarius Toney among others. It’s also fair to ask how the Bengals will defend the league’s best tight end Travis Kelce, they held him to four receptions earlier this season, can they do it again?
In the end, I expect Burrow to be able to find holes in the Chiefs’ defense and hit Chase and Hurst among other weapons for big plays on Sunday. I believe the Bengals will make enough plays on both sides of the ball and advance to the Super Bowl for a second straight season. If they get past the Chiefs, Cincinnati will once again have their sights set on their first world championship in franchise history.
In the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles are set to take on the San Francisco 49ers in what could very well be a shootout game. The last time we saw Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy go head to head was in 2019 when Hurts led his Oklahoma Sooners with five touchdowns to defeat Purdy’s Iowa State University where he scored six touchdowns, 42-41. This game could very well be another high-scoring game between the two.
Hurts and the Eagles were second in total points scored this season and could light it up at any moment with Brown, Smith, and Goedert in the receiving corp and Scott in the ground game. The Eagles’ offense also led the league in rushing touchdowns during the regular season.
For the Niners, they have won twelve in a row even with third-string quarterback Brock Purdy being thrust into the starting position in Week 13. Their offense was top five in yards, passing TDs, and rushing TDs in the regular season
On the opposite side of the ball, both defenses have been elite this season. The Niners and Eagles both gave up the least amount of yards during the regular season and the Niners had the highest-scoring defense.
The Eagles like to dominate the game with the run, but that will be difficult against one of the best running defenses in the league. However, they will likely give Purdy different looks on the defensive end so we’ll see what Kyle Shannahan schemes up for his playmakers Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Deebo Samuel. This game is a toss-up, but since only one team can win, I’ll have to go with the 49ers beating the Eagles in a down-to-the-wire game and returning to the Super Bowl for the second time in the last four seasons.
Even if it’s not the matchup I predict between the 49ers and Bengals for Super Bowl LVII (57), any combination of the four teams remaining will give an exciting game for fans. From the return of Rihanna to a game that could cement legacies, February 12th will be an exciting day for sports and music fans alike.
I have gone 2-4 in predicting the Conference Championships in the last three years, hopefully, I can even it up one last time.
Don’t miss the AFC and NFC Championships this Sunday with the 49ers and Eagles at 3:00 PM EST on Fox and the Bengals and Chiefs at 6:30 PM EST on CBS.
