And then, there were 4! Let’s see who can punch their ticket to Vegas and compete for a Super Bowl trophy. The NFL Playoffs march onto the Conference Championships!
AFC
The AFC, American Football Conference, will host its annual conference game to decide who will represent them in the Super Bowl! The two teams left are the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs.
They will clash head-to-head on the 28th of January as the Chiefs find themselves to be 4-point underdogs.
That is a rarity in the Patrick Mahomes era in Kansas City. In six years of being a starter for the team, this is only his second time not playing at home in the post-season.
The Chiefs are looking to make their way to their fourth Super Bowl appearance in the past six years!
This game is also critical to tight end Travis Kelce. With a down year in receiving yards and age starting to show a bit, this could be the last time we’ll see 87 on the big stage again.
Overall, this has been a down year for all Chiefs receivers as they struggled with drops all season long.
In the past couple of years, the Kansas City Chiefs were a lock to make the conference championships every year.
The 2023 – 2024 season proved to be harder than anticipated for last year’s Super Bowl Champions. At many times this season, that lock was put in doubt.
Credit: YouTube/KMBC 9
However, they walk into this game hungrier than ever to prove doubters wrong.
They march into this game with serious dynasty aspirations. Mahomes is just two wins away from his third Super Bowl Ring. This would put him above the Manning brothers, tie him with Troy Aikman, and place him fourth overall in all Quarterbacks in NFL history!
Standing opposed, Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens have similar aspirations to move on.
It looks like Lamar Jackson will win the MVP award this season, making it the second in his career. Notably, a deep playoff run would change up a lot of the narratives surrounding Lamar Jackson.
He is 2-3 in the playoffs in his career.
Before his previous game against the Texans, the only quarter in which Lamar Jackson scored a touchdown in the NFL Playoffs was the fourth.
Notoriously, this Ravens team finds a lot of success during the regular season but fails in the playoffs. This is their best chance to win a Super Bowl trophy in the Lamar Jackson era.
Credit: YouTube/Baltimore Ravens
They have the MVP at quarterback, one of the best defenses–if not THE best defense–in the NFL, and are playing at home. The Ravens should capitalize on this opportunity and need to beat the Chiefs this weekend.
This is Lamar’s opportunity to change the narrative surrounding him. With two MVPs and a theoretical Super Bowl ring, a lot of people will begin to talk about him differently on the all-time list.
NFC
Moving onto the National Football Conference, or NFC, the two teams left to see who will advance to the Super Bowl are the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions.
For the Detroit Lions, this is a Cinderella story come true. They held the longest playoff drought in the NFL for quite some time, but now they are here, and they won’t be denied.
Head Coach Dan Campbell took over this job three years ago. In that time, he has reshaped the culture in Detroit.
Standing in his way is the star-studded 49ers, who hold a 7.5-point favorite over the Lions. If the Lions were to win and make their way into the Super Bowl, it would be the first time that they would be featured in the game.
Just a Super Bowl appearance would be historic for the franchise, but Jared Goff and his team want more than just an appearance.
A Super Bowl ring would sneakily enter Jared Goff into Hall of Fame conversations. Similarly, Dan Campbell could expect to be the head coach for Detroit for a long while.
For the Niners, this is their third time making it to the conference championship in three years!
They hope to get over their losing hump finally. They have not made a Super Bowl appearance since their loss to Kansas City in 2019.
“Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy took the league by storm last year with his surprise start and success with the 49ers.
The last pick of the 2022 draft put his name on the map, taking the reigns of this team and never giving them back.
The 49ers are on a mission to prove that you don’t need a Quarterback on a max deal to win big games.
To read up on the last round of the NFL Playoffs, click here and read my last article about it!
