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This NFL Final 4 is the most competitive in recent memory and perhaps the least ever. Any one of the four teams can win them all. This can also be seen in the small difference in Super Bowl odds between the favorite and his fourth highest odds.
This will give us great football for the rest of the postseason. It also makes it harder to pick games.
The AFC Championship Game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs is a great matchup with Patrick Mahomes’ ankle providing a key variable.
We saw Mahomes limping in the second half with a sprained ankle against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. He was still good enough for the Chiefs to win, but the Bengals aren’t the Jaguars. It looks like a team that is as confident and focused on winning the Super Bowl as they are. If Mahomes isn’t effective, they’ll be hard to beat, and he didn’t appear in the second half of last week’s game against the Jaguars.
However, reports about Mahomes are positive. He practiced fully on Wednesday. This is a great sign. He seemed fine. The last time Mahomes suffered an ankle sprain, in the opening game of his 2019 season, he scored his 443 yards and his four touchdowns against the Oakland Raiders the following week. The Bengals are much better than that Raiders his team, and this time Mahomes’ injury was to Plant’s ankle on his right side, not his left like in 2019.
Perhaps the Bengals’ three-game winning streak over the Chiefs is also exaggerated. Let’s take a look at all three games.
34-31 Bengals win in Cincinnati in the 2021 regular season: The Chiefs led 28-24 in the fourth quarter. Zach Taylor made the bizarre decision to score four goals at the one-yard line in the final-minute tie game, and was relieved twice by Chiefs defensive penalties (the first penalty being an offensive penalty). offset by a holding call) ).
2021 AFC Championship Game, 27-24 Bengals beat KC: The Chiefs famously led 21-3 and the game was tied until the fourth quarter. A first-and-goal at his 5-yard line in his last two minutes of regulation with the Chiefs held outside the end zone, settled for a field goal, and threw an interception on the first drive of overtime to lose .
In the 2022 regular season, the 27-24 Bengals win in Cincinnati: The Chiefs led 24-17 going into the fourth quarter. A rare Travis Kelce fumble and a missed field goal in the fourth quarter turned the game upside down.
The Bengals deserve credit for all those wins, but each was a 4th quarter coin toss. Does the fact that the Bengals beat all three of his mean they have the Chiefs’ number?
The Bengals are a very good team. They’re probably better than last season’s team, which nearly won the Super Bowl, but the injuries to the offensive line that were a big deal last week haven’t magically gone away. Even so, it’s still a problem.It’s a bit strange that one great game has caused us all to stop talking about it.
Line moves in the AFC Championship Game at BetMGM were also enticing. The Chiefs opened as his 1.5-point favourite, with all of the early money pouring into the Bengals, who continued to move toward the 2.5-point favourite. There was another row move to Chiefs +1, then back to Chiefs -1. You don’t see many line moves like that in such a large game.
The Bengals are a good team, but at home I support the Mahomes and Chiefs. Mahomes doesn’t think he’s 100 percent, but he’s very focused and levels up to overcome injuries. Cincinnati could also clearly win, but the tough conference rides Kansas City-1 on his championship weekend.
Eagles (-2.5) over 49ers
Another game that is hard to pick because it’s hard to play against either team. they are both excellent. But before the season started, I liked the Eagles as the best bet for the future of the Super Bowl.They did nothing to change my mind. , reminded me of how great they were last week.
Whatever you think about the New York Giants, they are a playoff team and the Eagles destroyed them. It’s hard for him to beat an opponent 38-7 in the NFL playoffs. Jalen Hurts has answered many questions about his shoulder. He may not be 100%, but he’s very few players in late January. If anything, 49ers injuries, especially Christian McCaffrey’s calf injury, will be the center of attention on Sunday.
The Eagles have shown all season, but Saturday again showed how balanced they are. They have great attack and defense. And there is balance in the offense. They can do it just like anyone else. It would be much harder to do that against a good 49ers defense, but the Eagles are an elite offense.
And we have to talk about Brock Purdy. It’s not fair to Purdy to keep the goalposts moving. It went from ‘he’s never faced this situation away from home’ to ‘he’s never been in a playoff atmosphere’ to ‘he’s never faced a defense like Dallas’. He keeps passing his tests. But it’s fair to wonder if he has at least one rough patch in the story of this great newcomer. Everyone else has, as evidenced by the fact that no other rookie QB has thrown more than 14 passes in the postseason without an interception. Purdy maxes out at 59 passes without an interception. Purdy is doing great, but will he be such a historic outlier? Maybe, but the 49ers probably won’t win in Philadelphia.
The 49ers are a very good team and capable of winning it all, but the Eagles have shown time and time again this season that they deserve legitimacy and respect as the best team in the NFL. Let’s go with the Chiefs and Eagles Super Bowl matchup.
last week: 3-1
Playoffs to date: 9-1
Seasons to date: 147-128-4
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