The fate of Super Bowl LVII will be decided on Sunday, January 29th in the form of the NFC and AFC national championship titles.
The final four teams are fighting for their division titles and for their spot to play in Super Bowl LVII. Coming from the AFC, the Cincinnati Bengals facing the Kansas City Chiefs at the Chiefs’ home stadium. Whoever wins this will be named the AFC Champions for this year.
The teams vying for the NFC title are the Philadelphia Eagles versus the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers are led by a rookie quarterback and Mr. Irrelevant (the last pick of the NFL draft) who is on a mission to prove he is anything but.
As for the Chiefs and Bengals game, the young quarterback Joe Burrow who was the star quarterback for LSU for two years and a winner of the Heisman Trophy has a 3-0 record against the Chiefs. That record includes last year’s AFC championship.
Many fans have been circulating messages highlighting the fact that Patrick Mahomes, the Chief’s QB who has one Super Bowl win under his belt, seems to have a kryptonite named Joe Burrow.
In the regular season, Cincinnati secured a 12-4 record and won the division title for the AFC North.
However, having played one more game than the Bengals, the Chiefs’ record still has them on top of the Bengals in terms of win-losses. The Chiefs came out of the regular season with 14 wins and only 3 losses, one of those losses being to the Bengals.
Much like the Bengals, the Chiefs won their division title for the AFC West
As for the playoff game on Sunday, the Chiefs are already at a disadvantage. Last week, Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain injury against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Even though Mahomes keeps insisting to the press that he will be fine and is recovering much faster than expected, some fans are worried this injury will only make him more likely to lose again to Burrow. Other fans are excited and think the injury has given the conference title to the Bengals.
Mr. Irrelevant, originally a third-string who’s now starting rookie quarterback for the 49ers, aka Brock Purdy, has started in 7 games and led the 49ers to victory in each one.
Because the starting quarterback and the first backup suffered season-ending injuries, the team has looked to Purdy. He had to finish the game versus the Dolphins when the starter, Jimmy Garoppolo, went down.
The first game that Purdy started in was against the seven-time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady, who is often referred to as “the GOAT” or the “greatest of all time”. And yet he won.
Many debate whether Purdy’s success is due to his talents or the team around him. If Purdy wins a Super Bowl, it’ll be harder to claim that the last pick in the draft is the worst. Or at the very least a Super Bowl win could prove that Purdy is a force to be reckoned with.
However, the team the 49ers are going to have to beat is the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles’ record stands at 14-3 with two of those losses coming when the team’s quarterback, Jalen Hurts, was unable to play. Since 2001, the Eagles have made more appearances in the NFC title game than any other teams in the NFL.
Many top NFL analysts are split in their decisions on who they think will win the game. Like the professionals, I’m split as well. I’m hoping to see the Bengals and 49ers in the Superbowl, but ultimately the only way to find out will be to tune in.
The 49ers and Eagles game will kick off Sunday, January 29th at 2:30 PM. The Bengals vs the Chiefs follows them at 5:30 PM.
