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49ers CAN JOIN PATRIOTS, STEELERS with six TITLES; CHIEFS CAN BECOME FIRST TEAM TO REPEAT SINCE 2003-04 patriots
The 32 things we learned from the 2023 NFL season’s conference championship games: 1. Super Bowl 58 will be the ninth “rematch” in the history of the game, set to occur four years after the Chiefs and 49ers clashed in Super Bowl 54.
2. And while NFL teams change significantly over any four-year period, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, TE Travis Kelce and DT Chris Jones and Niners TE George Kittle, DE Nick Bosa and WR Deebo Samuel are among the leading lights who also appeared in Kansas City’s 31-20 victory at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium to cap the 2019 season.
3. The other franchises that met in multiple Super Bowls? Steelers-Cowboys, Washington-Dolphins, 49ers-Bengals, Bills-Cowboys, Giants-Patriots, Patriots-Eagles and
Patriots-Rams.
4. One more win, and the 49ers will join the Patriots and Steelers as the only franchises with six Lombardi Trophies.
4a. One more win, and the Chiefs will become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the 2003 and 2004 Patriots.
5. The current 19-year gap between repeat champions is the longest of the Super Bowl era, which began in 1966.
6. The Chiefs are only the third team to reach the Super Bowl four times in a five-year period, a feat previously matched by the Bills and Patriots.
7. Kansas City can become the first team seeded third in the playoffs to win it all since the 2006 Colts.
8. Sunday was the first AFC title game not played at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium in six years.
8a. It was also the first to be played in Baltimore in 53 years.
9. San Francisco’s 19 appearances in the conference title round are three more than any other franchise.
10. The 49ers’ comeback from a 24-7 deficit to the Lions — which included a run of 27 straight points in the second half — tied the record for the largest overcome in the NFC Championship Game ... with the 2012 Niners, who survived the Falcons.
11. San Francisco’s seven-game winning streak at home is currently the longest in the playoffs.
12. Super Bowl 58 will pit the 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan and the Chiefs’ Andy Reid in Super Sunday’s fourth coaching rematch.
13. Good news for Reid, all of the previous ones — Pittsburgh’s Chuck Noll vs. Dallas’ Tom Landry, Dallas’ Jimmy Johnson vs. Buffalo’s Marv Levy and the Giants’ Tom Coughlin vs. New England’s Bill Belichick — resulted in sweeps.
14. Sunday was Reid’s 11th conference championship game appearance. Only Belichick (13) has more.
15. Reid next heads to his fifth Super Bowl, joining Belichick (nine) and Hall of Famers Don Shula (six) and Landry (five) as the only head coaches to achieve that.
16. Mahomes, 28, is set to become the first quarterback to start four Super Bowls before the age of 30.
17. He’s also the first to play in six consecutive postseason games without throwing an interception.
18. With 11 catches Sunday, Kelce blew past Jerry Rice’s all-time record for postseason receptions (151). Still going strong, Kelce now has 156.
19. Ravens tight ends Isaiah Likely and Mark Andrews weren’t nearly as potent, combining for four receptions and 31 yards.
19a. But props to Andrews for taking the field at all, returning just 10 weeks after suffering leg and ankle injuries the Ravens initially believed would end his season.
20. The Ravens managed only 81 rushing yards Sunday, the only time all season the NFL’s top-ranked ground attack failed to produce at least 100 yards.
20a. Baltimore running backs received only six carries against Kansas City.
21. Sunday’s highlight had to be Ravens QB Lamar Jackson’s 13-yard pass-and-catch, the longest postseason completion by a player to himself in the Super Bowl era.
22. Jackson, who ran the ball a team-high eight times for 54 yards, joined Steve Young, Josh Allen, Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick as the only quarterbacks to rush for at least 500 career yards in the postseason.
23. Niners QB Brock Purdy will try to become the third “Mr. Irrelevant” to win a Super Bowl, joining Marty Moore (2001 Patriots) and Ryan Succop (2020 Buccaneers).
24. Purdy also can match Ben Roethlisberger as the only players to win a Super Bowl and play in two conference championship games in their first two seasons.
24a. Purdy is 4-0 in playoff games he starts and finishes.
25. Whether it be an extra-point or fieldgoal try, Niners rookie Jake Moody has missed a kick in three consecutive games.
26. The Lions remain one of four NFL teams to never reach the Super Bowl. Yet they’re the only team in the league that has failed to get there despite being in operation for the entirety of the game’s existence.
26a. The other Super Sunday-less squads: Browns, Texans and Jaguars.
27. Detroit has not won a playoff game on the road since the 1957 season.
28. Home teams wound up with a 9-3 record in the 2023 playoffs. The Super Bowl is classified as a neutral-site game.
28a. The Chiefs, who had never played away from Arrowhead in the postseason since Mahomes became their starter, had two of the three wins by a road team.
29. The Lions’ Jared Goff, who helped the Rams reach Super Bowl 53, came up just short of becoming the fifth quarterback to pilot two franchises to the Super Bowl.
30. Better have that defense primed, Niners. The Chiefs have scored on their opening drive in eight consecutive postseason games.
31. Niners RB Christian McCaffrey’s 25 touchdowns this season, including the playoffs, eclipsed Rice’s previous club mark (23 in 1987, though that was a strike-shortened season).
32. And as we reach the end, Ravens WR Odell Beckham Jr. says he hasn’t. He caught three balls for 22 yards Sunday, which might have been his last in a Ravens uniform. OBJ, though, said in the locker room afterward that he plans to continue his career and hopes the team will re-sign him.