Well, to finish it off...
The Bengals had a 4-point lead under the two-minute warning, but fell to a late touchdown drive by the opposition...is exactly what happened in their last Super Bowl appearance (January 1989), and what happened yesterday, as well.
The main difference was, those last two minutes in this game turned into the Penalty Bowl -- Bengals' defenders were cited for so many infractions in that stretch (shortening the distance to the goal line each time), it felt like Rams QB Stafford had a dozen chances to put the ball in the end zone, which he finally did.
Which, to be fair, only offset a flagrant missed holding call in the first half that led to Cincinnati's biggest play of the day, and had essentially provided their late lead.
A close game, so technically an exciting one, but not of the calibre of the preceding weeks' clashes.
The NFL Playoffs
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Mister Tee
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Re: The NFL Playoffs
I used to be a faithful 49er fan during the great Joe Montana-Ronnie Lott-Steve Young-Jerry Rice years, but as more and more evidence emerged that this is a game that permanently hurts so many players’ brains to the point where their lives are ruined, with a tragically high suicide rate, it took the joy out of the game for me. So, I’ve mostly stopped watching. I listen to a fair amount of local sports radio so have been hearing quite a lot about this year’s team, and have been a bit intrigued. When a friend invited us over to watch the NFC championship game I partook. It was an entertaining enough game but my heart still isn’t in it. I know the NFL is doing just fine without me.
Re: The NFL Playoffs
I had both games on the tv, but muted until the fourth quarter which I watched for each game. They were good finishes and I was fine with each result. I'm a Lions fan and was happy to see Stafford get a chance to play in a Super Bowl since that is probably about as close as the Lions are likely to get in my lifetime.
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Mister Tee
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Re: The NFL Playoffs
Since no one ever responded here, I take it this group hasn't been gripped by the football post-season the way many out in the big world have. Nonetheless...
The previous weekend was a tough act to follow. As it happens, both conference championship games were also exceedingly close -- one decided in overtime, the other inside the two-minute warning. At a normal time, these would have been famous, exciting victories -- and no doubt they are for local fans -- but they didn't quite measure up to the amazements of the earlier round. I'm reminded of what Roger Angell wrote after the Reds won Game 7 of the all-around-great 1975 World Series -- he said, in any other Series, the final 4-3 win (the go-ahead tun scoring in the 9th inning) would have been a thriller...but following, as it did, legendary Game 6, it was a well-made play opening the night after King Lear.
Speaking of Cincinnati: for the entire first half, it looked as if the Bengals were simply outmatched; Mahomes took up where he'd left off the previous Sunday, and had his team leading 21-3. But the Chiefs defense gave up a touchdown close to halftime, and then the offense, inexplicably, went for the touchdown with the clock running out, and cheated themselves out of an easy field goal. This act of hubris, in the end, decided the game: Mahomes was as cold in the second half as he'd been hot in the first; I've rarely seen a quarterback so lose form. And the Chiefs defense suddenly became porous, allowing long yardage on one third-down after another. In the final minutes, the Bengals took the lead on a field goal. Mahomes had a successful drive downfield with time running out, and managed to tie on a field goal -- but they'd been in range of the go-ahead touchdown, so the tie didn't feel all that inspiring. (Especially in light of that thrown-away field goal from the first half, which would have meant a lead rather than a tie and overtime.) The Chiefs got the same coin-flip advantage they had against the Bills, but this time Mahomes had run out of magic. His drive fizzled early, the Bengals took over, and drove downfield for a chip-shot field goal that brought them to their first Super Bowl berth in 33 years. I have in-laws from Cincinnati, and am very happy for them.
The second game was quieter; scoreless for quite a while. It looked like the 49ers were ultimately going to prevail -- they had the lead as the two-minute warning approached -- but the Rams went ahead on a drive which featured first SF JUST missing a key interception, then the Rams picking up 44 yards on the succeeding play. The 49ers final shot was thwarted when a somewhat fluky ball-shaken-loose-by defender floated into a Rams player's hands. Southern California tops the north.
So, what could have been a rematch of a recent Super Bowl instead becomes a New Faces affair. More on that when we get there.
The previous weekend was a tough act to follow. As it happens, both conference championship games were also exceedingly close -- one decided in overtime, the other inside the two-minute warning. At a normal time, these would have been famous, exciting victories -- and no doubt they are for local fans -- but they didn't quite measure up to the amazements of the earlier round. I'm reminded of what Roger Angell wrote after the Reds won Game 7 of the all-around-great 1975 World Series -- he said, in any other Series, the final 4-3 win (the go-ahead tun scoring in the 9th inning) would have been a thriller...but following, as it did, legendary Game 6, it was a well-made play opening the night after King Lear.
Speaking of Cincinnati: for the entire first half, it looked as if the Bengals were simply outmatched; Mahomes took up where he'd left off the previous Sunday, and had his team leading 21-3. But the Chiefs defense gave up a touchdown close to halftime, and then the offense, inexplicably, went for the touchdown with the clock running out, and cheated themselves out of an easy field goal. This act of hubris, in the end, decided the game: Mahomes was as cold in the second half as he'd been hot in the first; I've rarely seen a quarterback so lose form. And the Chiefs defense suddenly became porous, allowing long yardage on one third-down after another. In the final minutes, the Bengals took the lead on a field goal. Mahomes had a successful drive downfield with time running out, and managed to tie on a field goal -- but they'd been in range of the go-ahead touchdown, so the tie didn't feel all that inspiring. (Especially in light of that thrown-away field goal from the first half, which would have meant a lead rather than a tie and overtime.) The Chiefs got the same coin-flip advantage they had against the Bills, but this time Mahomes had run out of magic. His drive fizzled early, the Bengals took over, and drove downfield for a chip-shot field goal that brought them to their first Super Bowl berth in 33 years. I have in-laws from Cincinnati, and am very happy for them.
The second game was quieter; scoreless for quite a while. It looked like the 49ers were ultimately going to prevail -- they had the lead as the two-minute warning approached -- but the Rams went ahead on a drive which featured first SF JUST missing a key interception, then the Rams picking up 44 yards on the succeeding play. The 49ers final shot was thwarted when a somewhat fluky ball-shaken-loose-by defender floated into a Rams player's hands. Southern California tops the north.
So, what could have been a rematch of a recent Super Bowl instead becomes a New Faces affair. More on that when we get there.
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Mister Tee
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The NFL Playoffs
If we comment on professional football here at all, it's usually just when there's been a particularly memorable Super Bowl. But I think this weekend's results merit a slightly earlier start to a thread on the subject.
At the time, Saturday seemed like a super-exciting post-season day. In the AFC match-up, the long-suffering Cincinnati Bengals knocked off the top-seeded Tennessee Titans on a last-second field goal. Remarkably, the NFC contest ended precisely the same way -- the road team kicking a clock-expiring field goal. But this was even more memorable, because it knocked Aaron Rodgers out of the playoffs -- Rodgers, who's been testing the patience of a lot of us with his vaccine-resistance and, more recently, batshit crazy COVID conspiracies. Twitter was merciless with him ("Too bad he won't get his shot at the Super Bowl", "Now he'll have plenty of time to do his own research.") In all, an immensely satisfying football day.
And then, Sunday happened, and blew Saturday out of the water. The first game saw the Rams run out to a big lead over Tom Brady's Bucs...but many of us who've watched Brady perform the miraculous over the years knew not to get comfortable. When the Rams missed a 4th quarter field goal that would have pushed them to a 17-point lead, I had flashes of the January 2017 Super Bowl. And Brady proved me prophetic: bringing his team to a tie with two touchdowns inside the final minutes. I thought it was all over but the inevitable OT Brady score -- but the Rams' Stafford proved there was more than one impressive quarterback on the field. He drove his team downfield and, with four seconds left in regulation, the Rams put a field goal through the uprights and sent Brady home.
At this point I'm thinking, Rodgers and Brady both knocked out? -- I must be dreaming. And then the Chiefs/Bills game started.
This is the kind of game where you wish someone who doesn't care for the sport could be forced to watch it -- it might not make them lifelong fans, but it would certainly give an inkling of why so many people follow it so faithfully. We saw two exceptional quarterbacks out there. I've been a huge fan of Pat Mahomes since the playoffs of two years ago -- the guy has an incredible ability to scramble out of what look like hopeless situations, and also a dead-aim arm; we saw both in evidence multiple times Sunday afternoon. And Bills QB Josh Allen matched him in virtuosity -- creating drives with lightning speed; marching his team downfield and finding receivers open so often you could start to think the other team's defense hadn't shown up.
But it's the last couple of minutes of the game that everyone will remember. At the two-minute warning, the Chiefs held a precarious 26-21 lead (it should have been 30-21, but their kicker had missed both a field goal and extra point). If they could just keep Allen from the end-zone -- but, no such luck: with a touchdown and two-point conversion, the Bills took a 29-26 lead. Which lasted no time at all, as Mahomes staged a drive that put his team up 33-29. There were still 57 seconds left on the clock, technically time for a comeback, but most assumed the game was over -- except Allen, who again found a wide-open receiver at the goal line, and put his team up (after the extra point) 36-33. At this point, there were only 13 seconds left on the clock, so now the game was for sure over -- except Mahomes somehow (people will study this for years) got the team into field-goal range with :04 left, and the fallible kicker redeemed himself by tying the game.
The final act -- KC won the coin toss, scored on a touchdown and, per NFL overtime rules, the Bills never got to touch the ball again -- will strike many as anti-climactic (and, honestly, unfair). (Someone tweeted "You know what's great about baseball? Both teams bat in the 10th inning.") There's been some move to alter the rules to allow each team at least one possession (a change the KC media is trumpeting its reps voted for, even while the league was voting it down). But, these were the rules in effect today, and KC is moving on to the AFC Championship game.
I'm reminded of something Roger Angell wrote after the 1975 World Series. He said that no one would deny that the Cincinnati Reds had won the Series, but he thought it was unjust to say the Red Sox had lost it. Some matches are of such calibre that it's an honor simply to have been a part of it. The Chiefs won, but the Bills should have nothing but pride about the way they played.
How can the league championship games hope to follow this act?
At the time, Saturday seemed like a super-exciting post-season day. In the AFC match-up, the long-suffering Cincinnati Bengals knocked off the top-seeded Tennessee Titans on a last-second field goal. Remarkably, the NFC contest ended precisely the same way -- the road team kicking a clock-expiring field goal. But this was even more memorable, because it knocked Aaron Rodgers out of the playoffs -- Rodgers, who's been testing the patience of a lot of us with his vaccine-resistance and, more recently, batshit crazy COVID conspiracies. Twitter was merciless with him ("Too bad he won't get his shot at the Super Bowl", "Now he'll have plenty of time to do his own research.") In all, an immensely satisfying football day.
And then, Sunday happened, and blew Saturday out of the water. The first game saw the Rams run out to a big lead over Tom Brady's Bucs...but many of us who've watched Brady perform the miraculous over the years knew not to get comfortable. When the Rams missed a 4th quarter field goal that would have pushed them to a 17-point lead, I had flashes of the January 2017 Super Bowl. And Brady proved me prophetic: bringing his team to a tie with two touchdowns inside the final minutes. I thought it was all over but the inevitable OT Brady score -- but the Rams' Stafford proved there was more than one impressive quarterback on the field. He drove his team downfield and, with four seconds left in regulation, the Rams put a field goal through the uprights and sent Brady home.
At this point I'm thinking, Rodgers and Brady both knocked out? -- I must be dreaming. And then the Chiefs/Bills game started.
This is the kind of game where you wish someone who doesn't care for the sport could be forced to watch it -- it might not make them lifelong fans, but it would certainly give an inkling of why so many people follow it so faithfully. We saw two exceptional quarterbacks out there. I've been a huge fan of Pat Mahomes since the playoffs of two years ago -- the guy has an incredible ability to scramble out of what look like hopeless situations, and also a dead-aim arm; we saw both in evidence multiple times Sunday afternoon. And Bills QB Josh Allen matched him in virtuosity -- creating drives with lightning speed; marching his team downfield and finding receivers open so often you could start to think the other team's defense hadn't shown up.
But it's the last couple of minutes of the game that everyone will remember. At the two-minute warning, the Chiefs held a precarious 26-21 lead (it should have been 30-21, but their kicker had missed both a field goal and extra point). If they could just keep Allen from the end-zone -- but, no such luck: with a touchdown and two-point conversion, the Bills took a 29-26 lead. Which lasted no time at all, as Mahomes staged a drive that put his team up 33-29. There were still 57 seconds left on the clock, technically time for a comeback, but most assumed the game was over -- except Allen, who again found a wide-open receiver at the goal line, and put his team up (after the extra point) 36-33. At this point, there were only 13 seconds left on the clock, so now the game was for sure over -- except Mahomes somehow (people will study this for years) got the team into field-goal range with :04 left, and the fallible kicker redeemed himself by tying the game.
The final act -- KC won the coin toss, scored on a touchdown and, per NFL overtime rules, the Bills never got to touch the ball again -- will strike many as anti-climactic (and, honestly, unfair). (Someone tweeted "You know what's great about baseball? Both teams bat in the 10th inning.") There's been some move to alter the rules to allow each team at least one possession (a change the KC media is trumpeting its reps voted for, even while the league was voting it down). But, these were the rules in effect today, and KC is moving on to the AFC Championship game.
I'm reminded of something Roger Angell wrote after the 1975 World Series. He said that no one would deny that the Cincinnati Reds had won the Series, but he thought it was unjust to say the Red Sox had lost it. Some matches are of such calibre that it's an honor simply to have been a part of it. The Chiefs won, but the Bills should have nothing but pride about the way they played.
How can the league championship games hope to follow this act?