History at stake heading into Super Bowl 58
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 Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 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 (twice), Washington-Dolphins, 49ers-Bengals, Bills-Cowboys, GiantsPatriots, Patriots-Eagles and PatriotsRams.
4. One more win, and the 49ers will join New England and Pittsburgh as the only franchises with six Lombardi Trophies.
4a. One more win, and the Chiefs will become the first team to win back-toback 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. Jan. 28 marked 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 Detroit Lions – which included a run of 27 straight points in the second half – tied the record for largest overcome in the NFC championship game ... with the 2012 Niners, who survived the Atlanta Falcons.
11. San Francisco’s seven-game winning streak at home is currently the longest in the playoffs.
12. Super Bowl 58 will pit 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and Kansas City’s 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. Last 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 (9) and Hall of Famers Don Shula (6) and Landry (5) 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 seven consecutive postseason games without throwing an interception.
18. With 11 catches Sunday, Kelce blew past Jerry Rice’s all-time record (151) for
postseason receptions. Still going strong, Kelce now has 156.
19. Baltimore TEs 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 Baltimore Ravens initially believed would end his season.
20. The Ravens managed only 81 rushing yards in the AFC title game, the only time all season the NFL’s top-ranked ground attack failed to produce at least 100 yards.
20a. Baltimore running backs only received six carries against Kansas City.
21. Last Sunday’s highlight had to be Baltimore 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 teamhigh 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. 49ers 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 can also 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 field goal 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’s failed to get there despite being in operation for the entirety of the game’s existence.
26a. The other Super Sunday-less squads: Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans and Jacksonville 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 upcoming Super Bowl classified as a neutralsite 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. Detroit’s 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. San Francisco RB Christian McCaffrey’s 25 touchdowns this season, including playoffs, have 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 against the Chiefs, which might have been his last in a Ravens uniform. However OBJ said in the locker room afterward that he plans to continue his career and hopes Baltimore will re-sign him.