Chiefs, 49ers to meet in final
Kansas City ride on Mahomes’ heroics
LOS ANGELES: Patrick Mahomes ended the Kansas City Chiefs’ 50-year wait for a return to the Super Bowl on Sunday as the San Francisco 49ers routed the Green Bay Packers to advance to next month’s NFL showpiece.
Mahomes helped the Chiefs overturn a 10-point deficit to complete a convincing 35-24 win over the Tennessee Titans to take the American Football Conference Championship at Arrowhead Stadium.
The reigning NFL MVP threw for three touchdowns and danced into the end zone for a superb individual score as the Chiefs successfully neutralised the threat posed by Titans running back Derrick Henry.
It is the first time the Chiefs have advanced to the Super Bowl since their victory over the Minnesota Vikings in 1970.
“I’m lucky to be a part of this team with all these guys — it makes my job a lot easier,” said Mahomes, who finished with 294 passing yards and 23 completions.
The win came one year after the Chiefs suffered an agonising home overtime loss to the New England Patriots at the same stage of the play-offs.
“It’s amazing, to be here to do it at Arrowhead, these people deserve it. We’re not done yet,” Mahomes said. “We’re going to get it.”
Mahomes said the Chiefs — who had fought back from 24-0 down to rout the Houston Texans in the divisional round last week — had kept their cool after falling behind early on against the Titans.
“We just stayed with the process. It was like last week, we just stuck with the game plan and knew it was going to work out,” he said.
The Titans had reached the brink of the Super Bowl after a giant-killing play-off run which included wins over the New England Patriots and the topseeded Baltimore Ravens.
But despite starting strongly the Titans ran out of ideas once the Chiefs defence contained powerhouse rusher Henry, who helped Tennessee forge early leads of 10-0 and 17-7 before the Chiefs rallied.
Henry had few complaints after being restricted to a relatively paltry 69 yards and one touchdown after 19 carries.
At Santa Clara, meanwhile, the 49ers clinched the National Football Conference Championship with a 37-20 rout of the Green Bay Packers that was more one-sided than the scoreline suggested.
Niners running back Raheem Mostert rushed for four touchdowns and a whopping 220 yards as the run-oriented San Francisco offence punched hole after hole through a porous Packers defence.
The game was effectively over by half-time with Mostert crossing for three of his four touchdowns — a record in an NFC championship game — in the opening two quarters as San Francisco opened up a 27-0 lead by halftime.
“I just woke up like it was any other game,” Mostert said of his stellar display. “It was just one of those games where once we all got in the groove we were like ‘Hey, let’s keep it riding, keep it rolling’ and that’s what we did.”
But it was another disappointing outing for Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who once again fell short in his pursuit of a second career title.
The 36-year-old signal caller, regarded by many as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, finished with 326 passing yards from 31-of-39 attempts but also had two interceptions and was sacked three times.
Niners counterpart Jimmy Garoppolo was barely called upon as he made just eight passes throughout the entire game.
Super Bowl LIV is at Miami on Feb 2.
RESULTS
AFC Championship At Kansas City: Titans 24 Chiefs 35 NFC Championship At Santa Clara: Packers 20 49ers 37