“NFL Playoffs-Big Plays-Big Letdowns”

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The Chiefs and the Eagles are headed to the Super Bowl, after heart-stopping wins in the AFC and NFC championship games.

The 49ers and Bengals headed home, heart broken over the way they lost the games.

it was a Sunday shootout at Arrowhead Stadium, a slaughter in Philadelphia.

The Gunslinger duel of the kid QBs was something to behold, Patrick Mahomes, limping all night long, and playing without 3-wide receivers, who were out with injuries, was relentless driving his team to the (23-20) win, a victory on a 45-yard field goal into the bitter cold KC night.

Mahomes finished with (326Y) passing, 2-TDs, a lost fumble and 3-sacks.  He ran for a desperate first down and was aided by a penalty on a brutal out of bounds hit that got Butker into field goal range.

it was a grind of a win with Cincinnati double teaming TE-Travis Kelce, and with JuJu Smith, Mecole Hardman and Kadarius Toney all sidelined with injuries during the game.

It was the fanatical play of DT-DE-Chris Jones , making two pancake sacks that got a beleaguered Chiefs defense finally off the field.

It was a brutal loss despite the heroics of Bengals QB-Joe Burrow (270P-1TD-2 Int-5 sacks.  But KC took the big plays out of the Cincinnati offense.  Outside of a marvelous 45Y-catch from JaMarr Chase and a 29Y-TD to Tee Higgings, there was not alot there.

The Bengals defense slowed things down for a while, but it is a 60-minute game, and Cincy could not overcome 4th quarter mistakes in the end.

The brutal hit out of bounds in the final minute on Mahomes was crushing.  So was a defensive hold penalty that wiped out a 4th down sack, and a Burrow grounding penalty that resulted in a loss of a key down late in the game.  KC’s pass rush crushed Burrow with 3-sacks early in the game.

They might still be playing had it not been for costly penalties by Cincinnati, but that is part of the game.

Superman outgunned Joe Cool, a Chiefs win sending them to the Big Show.

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In Philadelphia, it was an equally crushing blow to the 49ers, losing both their quarterbacks, and then the game in an awful (31-7) bashing by the Eagles.

Goodbye 12-game winning streak, goodbye Super Bowl hopes, hello hopeless feeling.

The Eagles relentless pass rush crushed Brock Purdy, knocking him out in the first half with a possible torn elbow ligament.  The journeyman backup QB-Josh Johnson came on, struggled, and went down with a concussion on a second half hit.

How bad was it?  The Niners threw only 2-passes after the Johnson injury, when Purdy returned to try and play.  San Francisco had only 48-yards in the 2nd half, despite the heroic efforts of RB-Christian McCaffrey.

It was an ugly finish to a scintillating season too.  The Niners wound up with 11-penalties for 81-yards.  They lost 3-fumbles.  They gave up 3-sacks, 6-hits,6-pressures to the Mean Green defense.

Brutal penalties too, a violent horse collar hit that led to an ejection; a punching incident…. a roughing the kicker penalty; a bad facemask, and a body slam hit.

Jalen Hurts threw for just (121Y) but the Eagles did chew up (140Y) rushing as they took control early.

If there was a way to run single wing formations, the Niners might have tried that because they had no one left to throw the football.  A really sad way to end what was a special season Kyle Shanahan put together.

But when you are playing your 4th string quarterback in the most important game of the season, you have no chance.

I said all week, the Bengals-Chiefs game would be a ‘Star Wars’ battle of quarterbacks.  The Mahomes-Burrow show delivered.

I said all week, the 49ers-Eagles war would be a street fight, Trench Warfare, and a war of attrition.  I guess I was right there.

So we have two weeks now to wait for Super Bowl Sunday in Arizona…Andy Reid’s new team-the Chiefs-against his old team the Eagles.  The battle of the brothers’ Kelce.  And more importantly a chance for these two battered teams to get healthy.

Sunday in the NFL…’no place for the timid’..and what we saw in Philly and KC proved the point.  Somebody had to lose, just an awful finish for Mr. Irrelevant and Joe Cool.

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