It appeared to be over in the AFC Championship Game when the Kansas City Chiefs took a 21-3 lead in the second quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals. but the Bengals never quit on the road against the Chiefs.
Cincinnati scored 18 consecutive points to tie the game at 21 in the third quarter and each team scored three points in the fourth quarter. Kansas City won the coin toss, but Patrick Mahomes was intercepted by Vonn Bell in overtime. With 9:22 remaining in overtime, Evan McPherson kicked the game-winning 31-yard field goal as the Cincinnati Bengals took down the Kansas City Chiefs by a final score of 27-24.
This is the first time since 1988 that Cincinnati has been in the Super Bowl. It has been a long time coming for this franchise. They don’t give up and that’s a lot to the adjustments they made on defense and also quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow completed 23-of-38 passes for 250 yards two touchdowns and one interception. His leadership is key in all of this. The offensive line has not been great, but his football IQ has been off the charts.
It looked as if Cincinnati wasn’t going to be able to slow down the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, but they did. Mahomes completed 26-of-39 passes for 275 yards three touchdowns and two interceptions.
They held this football team to three points in the second half, just like in the last match-up back in Week 17. Kansas City also blew an 11-point halftime lead in that football game.
When it was 21-10 in the second quarter with five seconds remaining and no timeouts for Kansas City, they should have kicked a field goal to go up 24-10, but they went for it and it backfired on them.
This was the fourth consecutive season that the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the AFC Championship Game, but they only;y went to the Super Bowl twice and only one championship to show for it.
The Kansas City Chiefs (14-6) season concludes.
The Cincinnati Bengals (13-7) are heading to Super Bowl LVI at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood California and they will face the Los Angeles Rams (15-5) on Sunday, February 13th.
-Glenn Kaplan, 12oz Sports Contributor, Live Monday’s at 3 p.m. ET & Thursday at 11 a.m. ET on 12oz Sports
Photo Credit: Twitter @Bengals
