4 teams remain, and 2 tickets to Super Bowl LVI are on the line.

For the two winning teams and their respective fanbases, tomorrow will be full of unbridled jubilation. For the two losers, dreams will be crushed, and everyone involved will be left wondering “what if?”.

The success of a football team is almost always a byproduct of the success (or lack thereof) of the man under center. For the 4 remaining teams, the signal callers could not be any more different.

Is there anything Patrick Mahomes can’t do? Earlier this season, many thought that defenses had finally figured out how to stop the Chiefs offense. Some thought that Mahomes had lost some of his magic. Since their slow start to the season, Mahomes and the Chiefs have forced those people to eat their words. The Chiefs offense is still virtually unstoppable. In the divisional round, Mahomes completed 33 of his 44 pass attempts for 378 passing yards and 3 passing TDs, tacking on 69 rushing yards and a rushing TD in the process. Don’t ever doubt Patrick Mahomes again. He can utterly dominate every aspect of offensive production at will. With a win tomorrow, Mahomes can become the 4th quarterback in NFL history to start in 3 consecutive Super Bowls. He’s 26 years old.

Joe Burrow showed lots of promise during his rookie year before his season was cut short by an ACL tear. Due to the injury, there weren’t any real expectations for the Bengals this season beyond seeing him return to the field. They had a fun, young squad, but everyone assumed that they were still a few years away. Oh, how wrong we were. Burrow and rookie superstar receiver Ja’Marr Chase marched their way to the AFC North crown. The Bengals protected home turf as Burrow led the Bengals to their first postseason victory in 30 years. Last week, they upset the Tennessee Titans in a narrow victory, and the difference between those two teams was that one team had Ryan Tannehill in the pocket and the other had Joe Burrow. If Burrow can deliver 2 more victories and hoist the Lombardi Trophy, he will undoubtedly be given the key to the city of Cincinnati, eat for free at every restaurant in a 57-mile radius, and be handed a lifetime contract by the Bengals. The legend of Joe Burrow continues to grow, and he isn’t looking to stop now.

Of the 4 remaining quarterbacks, Matt Stafford is the only true veteran, and yet the NFC Championship Game is unfamiliar territory for him. Stafford was stuck in Detroit for his first 12 seasons, meaning that he had seen the playoffs just 3 times before he was traded to the Rams this offseason. In those 3 appearances, Stafford was 0-3. Stafford has been able to show off his cannon for an arm within the Rams’ offense, and he can truly make any throw from the pocket. He is one of a select few QBs in the NFL who can and will alter the angle of his throwing motion to fit different throws into different windows. This year, Stafford finally earned his first playoff win, and he notched his second by delivering a clutch downfield dime to Cooper Kupp against the Buccaneers last week. A third win would secure a Super Bowl appearance with home field advantage. Matthew Stafford will look to write his name in the NFL history books this postseason.

Jimmy Garoppolo is most definitely the odd man out in this group. He has shown throughout his career that he is a very average quarterback. He has some occasional great moments, but he also has some moments which leave you scratching your head, wondering how he is still able to hold a starting spot in the NFL. Garoppolo is in a very peculiar spot. He is still fighting for his job next season despite helping the 49ers reach the NFC Championship game. He isn’t technically a free agent until 2023, since he could potentially earn $24.2 million next year. However, none of that money is guaranteed, meaning that if the Niners were to release or trade him, they would only incur a cap hit of $1.4 million. With Trey Lance waiting in the wings, many suspect the Niners to either trade or cut Jimmy after this season, freeing up $22.8 million worth of cap space in the process. Is simply making the Super Bowl enough to save his job? Or does he have to go the distance to become the 49ers’ undisputed QB1 next season? Only time will tell.

Typically, the quarterback that outperforms his counterpart tends to be the one that pulls out the win in big games like these. Mahomes and Stafford have the advantage on paper. But as we know, winning on paper means nothing, and Joe Burrow and Jimmy Garoppolo won’t back down without a fight.

It’s time to dive into our game previews and predictions.

AFC Championship Game

Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs (KC -7.0)

Sunday, January 30th, 3:00pm EST on CBS

Ryan: Mahomes vs. Burrow. Much like Mahomes vs. Allen, I get the feeling that this is a matchup that we are going to see a lot throughout the coming years. In fact, these two teams met Week 16 in Cincinnati. The Bengals managed to achieve a 34-31 walk-off win and an AFC North title. Burrow and Chase were simply unstoppable in that game. Burrow threw for nearly 450 yards and 4 TDs, while Chase topped 250 receiving yards and has 2 TDs. This helps illustrate the nagging issue with the Chiefs. Their secondary is suspect. They did a great job of taking away Diggs last week, but they made Gabriel Davis look like Randy Moss. The Bengals will have no problem scoring on this Chiefs defense, as long as they can keep Burrow upright in the pocket, which is no easy feat for a Bengals O-Line which allowed 9 sacks last week.

The problem for the Bengals will be getting stops. Patrick Mahomes is firing on all cylinders, and so are Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, his two elite weapons. That catch and run that Tyreek had in the 4th quarter against the Bills was absurd, and he even threw up the deuces as he waltzed into the endzone. I would embed the video, but the NFL doesn’t allow that. Classic Goodell. Mahomes will have 350+ yards and 4+ TDs in this one. The Bengals are a very mediocre defense, and they aren’t winning this one because of that fact. Although I don’t think it’ll be a blowout, I think there it’s more likely to see one than to see the Bengals leave Arrowhead with a ticket to the Super Bowl.

Score Prediction: Chiefs 42, Bengals 34

Ben: I’ll keep this brief and relatively free of salt. Yes, the Kansas City Chiefs broke my heart last week, but as a Buffalo Bills fan, there is no amount of soul-crushing pain that I haven’t felt before. While it’s easy to blame the overtime rules for that loss, Patrick Mahomes’ late game heroics earned that victory for his team. That game felt like the Super Bowl, it was undoubtedly one of the best playoff games in NFL history, and for those reasons I don’t think that the Chiefs are dreading a home game against the Bengals with the AFC Championship on the line. Respect to the Bengals where it’s due, but this team is not a Super Bowl caliber contender. They’re here because they’ve faced a weak schedule in the playoffs. The Raiders and the Titans were both illegitimate contenders. There is absolutely no reason why the Kansas City Chiefs shouldn’t steamroll their way to another Super Bowl after showing us what they’re fully capable of against the Bills. This will be a blowout win for the Chiefs. Better luck next year, Bengals.

Score Prediction: Chiefs 38, Bengals 17

NFC Championship Game

San Francisco 49ers at Los Angeles Rams (LAR -3.5)

Sunday, January 30th, 6:30pm EST on FOX

Ryan: I will not hide from the fact that I was 0-4 in my picks last week. I was horrible. And I apologize. I would like to give a special shoutout to Jarrett Markman. He was an impressive 4-0 last week. I firmly believe he just knew how cold I have been at betting on NFL games and he wisely took the opposite of my picks, but I can’t deny that his feat is impressive nonetheless. He told me to pick the 49ers this week, so that is what my brain tells me that I should do. However, my heart thinks differently.

I think that this will be a very tight game. On paper, it should be one of the better games that we have seen this entire postseason. We have absolute superstars lining up for these teams on both sides of the ball. Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Nick Bosa, Deebo Samuel, and Cooper Kupp will assure that this game doesn’t lack in star talent. Intuition would tell you that Jalen Ramsey is capable of shutting down Deebo, but even if Ramsey can limit his effectiveness as a pass catcher, Deebo will still have his fingerprints all over this one in the run game. For me, a game of this magnitude that is this even on paper will be decided by QB play. And given those circumstances, I just cannot pick Jimmy Garoppolo over Matthew Stafford. Stafford had never won a playoff game coming into this postseason, but now he is one win away from the Super Bowl. He wasted 12 years of his career in Detroit, and he isn’t about to let this opportunity slip through his grasp. Matthew Stafford will win this game late. On Sunday night, the Rams will secure home field advantage in the Super Bowl.

Score Prediction: Rams 20, Niners 17

Ben: This should be one of the most even games we see during the playoffs, but I expect the 49ers to win for a few key reasons. First and foremost, defense wins championships, and I believe that Kyle Shanahan’s dominant defensive unit matches up very well against Sean McVay’s offensive juggernaut. Second, I expect to see the massive San Francisco 49ers fanbase take over Sofi Stadium for the second time this season, meaning that the Rams are essentially playing an away game on Sunday, not a home game. Finally, the 49ers have beaten the Rams in each of their last 6 meetings, dating all the way back to October of 2019. I can’t argue against those kinds of consistent performances, but I can jinx them, so if the Rams win, I expect to receive a thank you card from all 5 Rams fans who will be at Sofi Stadium on Sunday. For now though, I’ll spend my time coming to grips with the fact that Jimmy Garoppolo, the NFL’s agent of averageness, is going to fluke his way to another Super Bowl appearance.

Score Prediction: Niners 20, Rams 17

Who’s moving on, and who’s going home? Comment down below!

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Authors: Ben Pawlak and Ryan Macdonald

Published: 1/29/22 at 3pm EST

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Sources/Works Cited:

Google Images, Google, https://images.google.com/imghp?hl=en.

Sports Reference LLC. Pro-Football-Reference.com – Pro Football Statistics and History. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/. 22 January 2022.

StatMuse, https://www.statmuse.com/.