Jan. 28–NFL Championship Weekend brought two very interesting matchups to the table. The Kansas City Chiefs faced off versus the Baltimore Ravens and the Detroit Lions played the San Francisco 49ers. The Ravens and the Lions are both fairly new to the games. The last time the Ravens played in the AFC Championship was 2012 and the Lions hadn’t been to the NFC Championship since 1991. That was their first and only appearance until last week. The 49er’s last appearance was in 2019. They won that game and faced the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. The Kansas City Chiefs are the reigning champions and have made the AFC Championship every season since 2019.
Most people believed that the Ravens would take care of the Kansas City Chiefs beforehand, but Patrick Mahomes and co. proved many people and experts wrong. Sitting on a 17-7 for most of the game until the fourth quarter, when the Ravens would make it a one-possession game with a field goal, but it was too little too late as the Chiefs would hang on to win 17-10 in a defensive stalemate. Travis Kelce put on a show for Taylor Swift who was in attendance with 11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown. The Chiefs are looking to be the first back-to-back champion since Tom Brady and the Patriots did it back in the ‘04 and ‘05 Super Bowls.
The 49ers and the Lions was a highly intriguing matchup where no one seemed to know what was going to happen. The Lions jumped out to a 24-7 lead going into halftime. Head Coach Dan Campbell is known for his tendency to be crazily over-aggressive on fourth down attempts, but he turned down an opportunity to do so on a fourth and goal from about the three-yard line with ten seconds left in the half. He took his points, and they went to the locker room with a 17-point lead, but the mistakes started piling up to start the half. The Lions dropped a fourth down conversion, let an interception bounce off the head of a defender that turned into a 55-yard gain for the 49ers, fumbled a handoff, and dropped another third downplay (it was the same receiver, Josh Reynolds), and missed an opportunity to down a punt on the one-yard line. This allowed the 49ers to take control of the game and ultimately win 34-31 after a failed onside kick attempt.
The Chiefs and Niners will meet again in the Super Bowl. They met in 2019 when the Chiefs came back and won 31-20.
