Super Bowl 57 Is Set

By: Garret Kryzanowski

Conference Championship weekend in the NFL has come and gone and now we are left with only two teams vying for the title "Super Bowl Champions", the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.

I'll be the first to admit when I am wrong. My prediction of an Eagles vs Bengals Super Bowl was half correct but still wrong. So for the sake of admitting my prediction wasn't fully correct we will start with how the Kansas City Chiefs booked there ticket to Arizona for Super Bowl 57.

The Chiefs were hosting there fifth consecutive AFC Championship game in a row but were being doubted more than they ever had been since Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback. Why? Because one man had never lost to Mahomes. That man, Joe Burrow. Burrow and his Bengals were 3-0 against Mahomes and the Chiefs since Burrow became the starting quarterback for the Bengals in 2020, including a road win in last years AFC Championship game. This type of success against Mahomes was unheard of and led to the Bengals being more confident than ever, prompting Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton to call Kansas City's Arrowhead stadium "Burrowhead".

However, this was a dangerous thing to do. This quote gave something the Chiefs something they hadn't had since Mahomes stormed onto to the scene in 2018, bulletin board material. Now, for those of you who are or were athletes, bulletin board material is. dangerous thing to give a team, especially a team who has dominated the NFL the past five seasons. The result? The Kansas City Chiefs started the game controlling every aspect of the game, sacking Burrow four times in the first half and bottling up an offence that had seemed unstoppable a week earlier. While the Chiefs defence led by Chris Jones dominated the Bengals offence, Patrick Mahomes went to work picking apart the Bengals defence and despite being limited by a high ankle sprain Mahomes was able to lead the Chiefs to three scoring drives in the first half, including a 14 yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, after all that dominance the score was only 13-6 for the Chiefs at halftime.

As many people expected, the Bengals came storming back in the second half of the game to tie the game 13-13 on a Burrow 27 yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins. Even when Mahomes responded with a 19 yard touchdown pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling to regain the lead, Burrow and the Bengals didn't flinch. They responded on a two yard touchdown run from Samaje Perine early in the fourth quarter, tying the game 20-20. For anyone familiar with the Joe Burrow Bengals is that they always hang in long enough to win and this game didn't feel any different. Later in the fourth quarter as Mahomes dropped back to pass something happened that had never happened to Mahomes before in the playoffs, he dropped the ball as he went to pass, resulting in a lost fumble and the Bengals ball around midfield. But unlike years of the past, the Chiefs defence bailed out on the offence multiple times, including a Chris Jones sack on third and eight to force the Bengals to punt. Giving Mahomes 30 seconds to try and go win the game. With help from an unnecessary roughness call, Mahomes and the offence only needed 22 seconds to set up Harrison Butker for a 45 yard field goal. When it was all resting on Butker to send the Chiefs to Super Bowl 57 he didn't disappoint, hitting the game winner with three seconds left and securing a Kansas City Chiefs 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

After the win, the Chiefs let there voices be heard on how fired up the Bengals comments had made them all week. This included an all time Travis Kelce soundbite as he interrupted a Patrick Mahomes interview to state, "Burrowhead my ass! This is Mahomes house!" Needless to say that they felt disrespected but in the end they got the last laugh, claiming there third Lamar Hunt trophy and third Super Bowl appearance in the last five years.

In the NFC Championship game the storyline was a little different. It didn't read "top two teams in NFC go head to head in a close game" like everyone expected, but instead read, "49ers injured as Eagles steamroll there way to Super Bowl 57."

After the Eagles took a quick 7-0 lead on a Miles Sanders six yard touchdown run, Brock Purdy took the field for his first drive of the game. On the sixth play of that drive Purdy stepped to pass and was hit before he could get the pass off, resulting in a fumble recovered by the Eagles. A nightmare start for the 49ers, but the worst was yet to come as Purdy was injured on the play resulting in fourth string quarterback Josh Johnson to have to step in and play.

With Purdy out everyone thought the game was over, but someone forgot to tell Christian McCaffrey as he stormed through the Eagles defence for a 23 yard touchdown in the second quarter to tie the game 7-7. Unfortunately for the 49ers that was all the scoring they had in them. After the McCaffrey score the Eagles took over on both sides of the ball resulting in another Miles Sanders touchdown run of 13 yards as well a 10 yard touchdown run from Boston Scott right before half to give the Eagles a 21-7 halftime lead over the 49ers.

The second half didn't get much better for the 49ers as Johnson couldn't get anything going as the Eagles defence swarmed him on every play, eventually leading to a concussion and leaving the 49ers with no healthy quarterbacks. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan had to dip into his bag of tricks using Christian McCaffrey as a wildcat quarterback who even attempted a pass, resulting in one of the worst incompletions seen in a long time. After that, Purdy came back in throwing short little screens as it was obvious he could barely grip the ball and use his arm. No amount of trickery could help the 49ers on this day as the Eagles added a one yard touchdown from Jalen Hurts and a 31 yard Jake Elliot field goal to secure a 31-7 win over the 49ers.

It has been announced that Brock Purdy tore is UCL in his right elbow during the NFC Championship game and most San Francisco 49ers fans are left wondering, what if? For the Philadelphia Eagles and their fans they are Super Bowl 57 Bound after winning their first George Halas trophy since the 2017-18 season.

The stage is set, Philadelphia Eagles vs the Kansas City Chiefs. Some are calling it the Andy Reid bowl as current Chiefs coach Andy Reid coached the Eagles from 1999-2012. Some like myself are calling it the Kelce bowl as it will be the first time two brothers will face off in the Super Bowl when Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce faces his brother Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. One thing's for certain, it is going to be a great game and a perfect way to end the 2022-23 NFL season.

A preview and prediction article will be coming during Super Bowl media week. Stay tuned.