Who Can Win the Super Bowl in the AFC
By Matt Quinn
As we enter into the next round of the playoffs, the picture has begun to come clear as to who can win it all, and who will have their hearts broken. Every team in the playoffs by definition can win the Super Bowl, but not all teams are expected to. So for this article, I want to explore how each team that is remaining in the AFC can potentially win the Super Bowl, and what one thing might prevent that dream from coming true.
Houston Texans
The Texans come off of a fantastic defensive performance, picking off Justin Herbert four times en route to a big time 32-12 victory at home in the wildcard round of the playoffs. This team can win a Super Bowl if the defense consistently plays that way. They also need consistent and dynamic performances from talented QB C.J. Stroud. He took the league by storm last year, running away with Rookie of the Year honors and taking a Texans team with a lot of young pieces and a rookie head coach at the time, to the playoffs. If they can get that kind of play along with the same kind of defensive effort they had against the Chargers, they can shock the world. Preventing them from winning the title would be a revert back to how alot of this season has gone, not much answers on offense and not making enough big plays on defense. C.J. Stroud hasn’t had a bad year but he’s certainly not been playing like he did his rookie season and if he plays like that, the Texans have no chance.
Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens are coming off of a huge performance in the first round, taking down the arch rival Steelers in a dominant performance. For the Ravens, winning the Super Bowl will require continued dominance from RB Derrick Henry, and more MVP level play from Lamar Jackson. It’s really that simple for the Ravens, they can run the ball better than anybody in the league. The two-headed monster that is Derrick and Lamar are incredibly difficult to stop when at their best and with the defense playing much better than they were earlier in the year. If they get the same effort paired Lamar and Derrick, they can absolutely get to the Super Bowl. If the so-called “Playoff Lamar” shows up and begins to struggle, that would put their Super Bowl aspirations in jeopardy.
Buffalo Bills
The Bills walked over the Broncos pretty easily last week, winning 31-7 after spotting the Broncos an early 7-0 lead. Josh Allen has been playing at an MVP level this season and if he continues to do so, the Bills will be tough to beat. For them to win the Super Bowl they have to overcome their past demons. They fair well against the Chiefs in the regular season typically, but as what has always been the case, they can’t seem to get past them when it matters most. This is ultimately what they have to do to win the Super Bowl. There’s not really an X’s and O’s thing about this one. They have the talent, they know they can beat this Chiefs team because they’ve done it before, now they just have to go out and do it when it matters. What would stop them from winning is difficult to quantify. They have played seemingly perfect games against the Chiefs and still lost because they missed a field goal or they left 13 seconds on the clock for Patrick Mahomes. These are small things that have become large things just because of the stakes of the game. So in short, a heartbreaking play or missed field goal would do them in because that’s just what happens to the Bills in the playoffs unfortunately.
Kansas City Chiefs
This might be the shortest part of this entire article since the Chiefs just always win. In all seriousness though, the Chiefs were seemingly scraping by alot of games earlier in the season. Many people called them lucky or said the NFL wants them to win, or they’ve got the refs in their back pocket. Though they did play in alot of close games this year, this is still the best team in the NFL. You don’t luck your way into a 15-2 record as back to back defending champions. This is a championship team that knows how to win and knows how to take advantage of any little mistake the other team makes. That’s what great teams and well-coached teams do and they are coached by the best coach in the league in Andy Reid. So there’s not much really they can do to not win a Super Bowl unless Patrick Mahomes were to get injured or something like that. They are just too experienced and too well-coached. The only thing that could cause a tiny bit of concern is the long layoff they have had. Since resting their starters on the final week of the season and of course, having the first round bye thanks to having the number one seed, it will be a long time since they’ve last played by the time the game against Houston happens this weekend. If there’s any rust in that game against a suddenly very good Houston defense, it could cost them.
So there you have it, all of the remaining AFC teams all have a puncher’s chance to go all the way. Each team is different in their own way and it should be a fascinating weekend watching all of these battles go down. I’ll be back on Friday with the NFC side as well as some picks for the Divisional round.