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Championship Sunday Preview

Championship Sunday Preview

By Matt Quinn

 

 

We’re down to the final four of the NFL Playoffs now after an exciting divisional round. It was filled with big plays and unexpected results. Now the four remaining teams will battle for a trip to New Orleans and a shot at the Super Bowl. Championship Sunday has shown in the past to provide games that are sometimes better than the actual Super Bowl itself. Here’s hoping we can get that type of play this weekend. Let’s dive into the two games.

 

Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles

In the third matchup between these two division rivals, expect to see some sparks fly. Jayden Daniels, the soon to be Rookie of the Year, has had the type of season that has begun putting him in conversations for best rookie season in NFL history. With last week’s win, he tied Ben Roethlisberger for most wins by a rookie in a season, taking down the number one seeded Lions. He has been Superman for the Commanders this year and throughout these playoffs so far and he will need to have his cape on again to beat the Eagles. The Eagles come in with arguably the best offensive player in the NFL in Saquon Barkley. He has been on an absolute tear this year and that has continued in the playoffs, going for over 100 yards against the Packers in the wild card round and then following that up with a 200 yard performance in the snowy victory against the Rams. If Saquon continues to roll, he could end up breaking the record for most yards run by a single player against one team in one season. If the Commanders can limit his damage, then questions will need to be answered as to just how healthy QB Jalen Hurts really is. He was hurt last week when he got tangled up on a scramble and hurt his knee. If Hurts is not 100%, expect to see a heavy dose of Saquon. If the Commanders can slow him down, coupled with another big time performance from Jayden Daniels, the Commanders could be heading to their first Super Bowl since 1991. I think they get the job done again and continue their Cinderella story. Commanders win 34-27.

 

Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs

Alot of recent history between these two teams makes for an enticing AFC Championship game. The Chiefs come in with pretty much everyone outside of Kansas City wanting them to fail. Chiefs fatigue has been talked about alot this year and that comes with being consistently successful like this Chiefs dynasty has been. The bottom line, no matter how many people hate the Chiefs or continue to be sick of seeing them in the Super Bowl, they will always be in the conversation because of their future Hall of Fame trio of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and head coach Andy Reid. They are always in this spot because they are extremely talented and well coached and that is no different this year. Sure they have had some breaks here and there but even if you take away all of that, they’re probably still in the AFC Championship game because that’s just what they do. This is the seventh consecutive AFC title game that has involved the Chiefs. Most of those runs have come at the expense of the Bills. Here we are yet again for another chapter in this modern rivalry. In the 2000s we had Brady vs. Manning every year and now we have Mahomes vs. Allen. This will be the fourth post season meeting between Mahomes and Allen and the second meeting of this year. The Bills were winners in that game but they know regular season matters very little when you get bounced by that same team every year in the playoffs. They have to get the monkey off of their back this year. Bills win 28-23.

 

So there we have it. My Super Bowl matchup is a rematch from the last time the Commanders won it. I’ve got the Commanders taking on the Bills in the Super Bowl America needs. Two great storylines this year and the Super Bowl storylines are just as intriguing. I’ll dive more into those storylines next week and hopefully these two games live up to the hype.