Chiefs
January 31, 2023
Just barely squeezing past the Bengals with a late field goal, the Kansas City Chiefs will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl for the third time in four seasons. With Mahomes still recovering from the high ankle sprain that left him limping against the Bengals, the next two weeks will give Mahomes time to rest ahead of Super Bowl weekend. Once he’s back on the field, however, he will need to watch out for Eagles LB Hasson Reddick, who single-handedly injured both 49ers 3rd-string and 4th-string QBs Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson. Reddick will be lining up against Chiefs OT Orlando Brown, who has been a successful left tackle as of late when guarding his blind side. It remains to be seen who will overcome the other, but Reddick and Brown will be an exciting matchup to watch.
To put it bluntly, although they scored 31 points, the Eagles’ offense sucked against the 49ers. A botched passing game and a mediocre run-game that took off near the red-zone but capped off almost everywhere else was the most the Eagles’ offense could muster against a spectacular 49ers pass-defense and stout defensive line. If not for Purdy and Johnson’s injuries, which skewed the playing clock against the 49ers defense and set the Eagles up close to the endzone, there was no doubt the Eagles would’ve lost the game unless they somehow turned around their sluggish offense. Thankfully, the defense they will face in the Super Bowl is nowhere near as good as the 49ers defense. Still, it’s too early to breathe a sigh of relief.
The Chiefs’ offense every week seems to be more and more centered around one man, TE Travis Kelce. Kelce has had his seventh straight 1,000 yard season and became the fifth tight end in NFL history to rack up 10,000 career receiving yards. With a 14-yard touchdown pass from Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Championship game, the two became second for most playoff TDs by a QB-pass catcher duo, passing Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, and now behind only Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. Being the focal point of the Chiefs offense this season, Mahomes and Kelce should be able to continue their postseason successes and score big against the Eagles.
There’s a hot take going around: the Super Bowl is destined to go into overtime. That’s because not only did both teams score exactly 546 points this year, including playoffs, but many believe both teams will score the same amount of points on Feb. 12, forcing the game to go into overtime. Last season, the Chiefs beat the Bills in overtime following a touchdown score on the first overtime possession. This boils down to luck. Whichever team wins the coin-toss in overtime would be the favorite to score first in overtime and win it all.
