This Sunday, two teams will advance to the NFL Super Bowl! Who will they be? Steve Cook brings his 6-2 playoff record to Championship Weekend!

Hi, hello & welcome to Championship Weekend! I’m Steve Cook, and I hate to say it, but last week’s Divisional Round didn’t live up to the billing. The Chiefs only beat the Jags by seven, but it never really felt all that close, and was likely only that close due to Patrick Mahomes getting injured early in the contest. The Eagles blew out the Giants in a snoozefest. The Bengals blew out the Bills in another surprising snoozefest. Then the 49ers & Cowboys messed around and somebody had to win.

Is Championship Sunday going to live up to the hype?

Sunday, January 29

San Francisco vs. Philadelphia (-2.5)

NFC ranks this season

49ers Defense Eagles Offense
PPG 1st 1st
YPG 1st 1st pic.twitter.com/C0v702DiAZ

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 24, 2023

There was a point in this season where some of us wondered if the Philadelphia Eagles were going to lose a game. I always figured they would, because going undefeated is a long row to hoe, but some folks out there thought the Eagles could get it done. They didn’t. Nothing wrong with that, but then the Eagles looked quite pedestrian during the last month of the regular season, largely due to Jalen Hurts getting hurt and missing some games. Even though Micah Parsons and other top NFL experts tried to tell us that Jalen Hurts was a system quarterback, Hurts going out was a serious detriment to the Eagles. That missed stretch of games became his best argument for 2022 MVP. He looked healthy against the Giants, and the Eagles looked like the Eagles we saw early in the season.

The 49ers road was slightly more bumpy. They stumbled out of the gate, losing their first game to the hapless Bears & were 4-4 heading into their Week 9 bye. They went through Trey Lance & Jimmy Garopplo at quarterback, both got hurt and they ended up with Brock Purdy starting. During this process, they finangled a trade with Carolina for Christian McCaffrey, which added a whole new dynamic to their offense. They haven’t lost a game since October 23, and have rarely looked vulnerable.

It’s going to be a close one, so I have to side with the underdog. Roll with those 49ers.

Cincinnati vs. Kansas City (-1)

AFC Championship Game spread movement @BetMGM

-1.5 Chiefs: Open

-1.5 Bengals: Monday

-2.5 Bengals: Tuesday

-1.5 Bengals: Wednesday

-1 Chiefs: Today pic.twitter.com/76JmTTZjYS

— Pickswise (@Pickswise) January 26, 2023

I haven’t seen line movement like this on a big time game since I started doing this column. It seems pretty strange on the surface, but when you think about it for a minute it all makes sense. See, this game’s result hinges on the status & performance of one player. Sure, the Bengals have a number of solid players. Guys like Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Joe Mixon, Logan Wilson, they’re all halfway decent. The Chiefs have a good amount of weapons on offense & defense. But there’s only one player in this game that really matters.

Patrick Lavon Mahomes II.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. You already know that Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL. Some might say that Mahomes is merely the best current quarterback in the league, but we all know that he’s the greatest of all time. Tom Brady? Pfft, he could never do half of what Mahomes does on a field. Peyton Manning? Get outta here with that stuff. Joe Montana? Are you serious, bro? Mahomes has only spent six seasons on an NFL roster, and he’s already surpassed them all. The question is just how high this guy’s gonna set the bar for everybody else that follows.

OK, I know that the Bengals have somehow won three straight games against the Chiefs. We have a word that describes each of those games. It’s the same word that my fellow media members used to describe the team making it to last year’s Super Bowl. In fact, it’s the same word they used to describe the Bengals somehow defeating the greatest team in the history of football last week. Seriously, how are the Buffalo Bills not in this game? I can only assume they’re playing the winner of this in the Super Bowl.

Indeed, the Bengals are a fluke. That’s what the media has been telling me for over a year now, and I know the media would never lie to me. They have no business being in this game, and there’s no doubt that everybody reading this should throw their money on the Chiefs. The games aren’t usually this easy to predict this late in the season.

NFL Playoffs Record: 6-2