South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Bengals make their return to ‘Burrowhead’ vs. Chiefs
The Chiefs have lost three straight games to the Bengals, including last year’s AFC title game, when they blew an early 21-3 lead in an overtime defeat before a sea of stunned fans inside Arrowhead Stadium.
Patrick Mahomes, who expects to lead the Chiefs against the Bengals on a sprained right ankle in Sunday night’s rematch, is likewise winless against Bengals counterpart Joe Burrow, the only quarterback to have beaten him three straight times.
In other words, there’s a reason the AFC North champions are imbued with a certain degree of confidence as they return to Kansas City, where the burgeoning rivals will once again determine who represents the AFC in the Super Bowl.
“Your preparation leads to confidence. That’s just what you see from Joe and all of our players,” explained the even-keeled Bengals coach Zac Taylor, who has somehow out-schemed, out-coached and gotten his team to out-execute Andy Reid and his Chiefs over the past 13 months. “So when they walk on the field on Sunday, they’re relaxed.”
In fact, the Bengals are so confident that some have taken to calling the Chiefs’ home “Burrowhead Stadium.”
Which, as you can imagine, doesn’t sit well with the AFC West champs.
“I’m sure a lot of guys are aware of the comments they’re making,” Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster admitted. “The Bengals have always been the rah-rah team, and they back it up. And they’re doing so again in the postseason.”
Yet it’s not as if the Bengals, who roared past the Bills in the divisional round, have dominated the Chiefs, who took care of the Jaguars despite losing Mahomes for most of a quarter following his injury.
All three of their meetings have been decided by just three points each.
“We know what team we’re playing, a team that has been to this game the last five seasons, and they’ve all been in that stadium,” Burrow said. “So to me, they’re still the team to beat and we’re coming for them, but we know it’s going to be tough. We know it’s going to be hard-fought, and we know the kind of players they have on that side.”
Their matchup in last year’s title game was a classic. Mahomes threw three first-half touchdown passes, then Burrow led a dramatic comeback for the Bengals. And when the Chiefs’ Harrison Butker kicked a 41-yard field goal with no time left to send the game to overtime, the Bengals quickly picked off Mahomes to set up Evan McPherson’s winning kick.
“Listen, they probably should be confident. They’ve won three games,” said Reid, who is trying to guide the Chiefs back to the Super Bowl for the third time in four seasons. “That’s OK. We’re still going to play the game.”
Besides, the Chiefs have a quiet confidence about them, too.
“I would say they know us. We know them. And we’re all searching for that little extra that you can throw at them,” Reid said. “We’ve played each other enough that I’m sure both sides feel the same way.”
Eagles, 49ers ride QBs Hurts, Purdy to brink of Super Bowl: The lategame meltdowns stick with the 49ers.
Take the Super Bowl against the Chiefs following the 2019 season. The 49ers became the third team in Super Bowl history to cough up a 10-point lead in the second half and lost to the Chiefs. Or last season’s NFC title game, when a 17-7 lead unraveled because of a dropped interception, a conservative fourthdown call and an interception on the final drive. Winner, Rams.
Another blown opportunity at a championship that’s hard to forget.
“As you go back to last year, we were a couple of plays away from making it to the Super Bowl again,” wide receiver Deebo Samuel said. “What’s it really going to take for us to get there? We just have to minimize the mistakes and everybody has to be on their assignments.” Near perfection.
That’s a pretty heady task for any team, much less one headed into Philadelphia, where the cold, an MVP finalist and the top-seeded team in the NFC await. It’s going to get crazy loud — or is it crazy and loud? — at Lincoln Financial Field.
The 49ers say they’re ready. They have won 12 straight games, including seven in a row since rookie Brock Purdy, a seventh-round draft pick, took over at quarterback after Jimmy Garoppolo was injured.
The second-seeded 49ers have been on the brink of adding a sixth Super Bowl for years, and their appearance Sunday in the NFC championship game is their third in four seasons. The Eagles may not have been a preseason favorite to get here, but a series of bold moves — notably the acquisitions of wide receiver A.J. Brown, linebacker Haason Reddick, cornerback James Bradberry and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson — have turned them into a team with a Super Bowl-orbust outlook.
Want near perfection? The Eagles know something about that in Pro Bowl QB Jalen Hurts’ starts, with a 14-1 record in the regular season and last week’s playoff victory against the Giants. Hurts is playing through the lingering effects of a sprained right shoulder that cost him two games. He is putting in overtime ahead of his biggest test of the season against the 49ers’ No. 1-ranked defense. “It’s in his DNA to be here at all times working on his craft,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “Whether that’s in the weight room, whether that’s in the training room, whether that’s in the film room, this guy is obsessed with getting better.”
Hurts had some doubters that he was the real-deal franchise QB headed into training camp. He wiped out any concerns pretty much after the opening-week win against the Lions and kept piling up big numbers and wins to the point where he was an NFL MVP finalist.
All that’s keeping Hurts from a Super Bowl, the Eagles’ second in six seasons, is the last pick of the draft.
Maybe it’s more than just Purdy’s play — he’s had a meteoric rise this season from “Mr. Irrelevant ” to undefeated rookie QB in the NFC title game — that helps the 49ers. He has no memory of the Super Bowl collapse. He played no role in the debacle against the Rams. Purdy just knows how to win. “He has a natural ability to play the position and that’s why he’s fun to coach because when he does make mistakes and do things, he can see it, he can know why, we can see it and we can all understand it,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said.