Conference Championship Recap: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

There's always something about Conference Championship Sunday. The main thing is that it's the final round before the overall finale, and one thing is true: the semifinals in any league are always very captivating, whether it's the NFL's Conference Championships, the Conference Finals in the NBA and NHL, or the League Championship Series in MLB. Regarding this year, the four teams remaining in this year's playoffs are looking to win their way to Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII.

The AFC Championship started things off, and it was the Baltimore Ravens hosting the Kansas City Chiefs. So many people were hoping that the Ravens would win it, because the hatred for KC was increasing. It didn't help that before the game started, Travis Kelce was basically bullying Justin Tucker off of the end zone during practice. Speaking of Kelce, he scored the game's first touchdown in the heart of the first quarter, but the Ravens would strike back; a long bomb from Lamar Jackson to Zay Flowers to tie it up.

But remember: "Lamar can't throw the ball."

What followed was every Raven not named Lamar Jackson or Justin Tucker pretty much making so many mistakes. It was usually penalties--very dumb ones, with the dumbest one being a Roughing the Passer penalty where the player delivered an actual clothesline to Patrick Mahomes, which would make WWE Hall of Famer John "Bradshaw" Layfield smirk. KC added ten points in that second quarter, and they led 17-7 at the half. However, Baltimore would be plagued by penalties, non-calls that benefited KC, and Flowers' taunting penalty and fumble. Tucker did make it 17-10, but the defense could not stop KC from icing with a first down catch in the red zone by Marques Valdez-Scantling.

For the fourth time in five years, the Chiefs are champions of the American Football Conference. A lot of people had this team being dead in the water. After they got rid of Tyreek Hill, everyone said KC would fall. Not only did they win the Super Bowl last year after getting rid of Hill, they're back in the big game again. It's absolutely frightening. This year was worse than last year. So many bad games and bad losses, yet here they are, back in the Super Bowl. Yikes. Jesse Pinkman screaming "He can't keep getting away with this!" is playing in the minds of many NFL fans right now.

Already I'm hearing it. "Playoff Lamar." "Lamar choked again." "Lamar's a fraud." Just shut up with that. How come no one ever says "Playoff Josh Allen"? After all, Lamar actually made it farther than Allen this year because, as sure as my name is Clyde E. Dawkins, Josh Allen choked yet again when it counted. But when Allen lost, the excuses came out: "Diggs is washed," "The refs robbed us," "Bass lost that game," and finally, "Allen is carrying that team." No he isn't. Lamar's carrying the Ravens. Lamar has to do every damn thing for the Ravens except kick and play defense. Hell, he even caught his own pass, which is more than I can say for his so-called receivers. At least Lamar will be the undisputed MVP this year.

In the NFC Championship, it was the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Detroit Lions, and for the Lions, they were looking to head to the Super Bowl for the first time ever. The Lions are one of four teams to have never reached the Super Bowl, and this was their best chance. That chance increased at the start, as their first drive ended with a touchdown, and they they got another one. 14-0! Christian McCaffrey put the Niners on the board, but the Lions would score again to make it 21-7. It was 24-7 at halftime, and there was a lot of happiness after the first half. The Lions were two quarters away from finally reaching the Super Bowl, and it looked like an inevitability.

Then the second half happened.

This man is Dan Campbell, the third year head coach of the Detroit Lions. We all love Dan Campbell, don't we? The man has a lot of passion and drive, and he's a guy who is easy to root for. We saw it during the Lions' suffering campaign, and 2022 ended with actual hope for the Lions, and it's led us to this point. He's also known as an "all in" coach. He will definitely go for it on fourth down. It can be a good thing, depending on the situation. This, unfortunately, wasn't one of them. With the Lions in field goal range up 24-10, Campbell decided to go for it on 4th and 2. Didn't work.

The Niners ended up actually going all the way to cut their deficit in half, and they actually caused the Lions to fumble, and that turned into a touchdown. So just like that, 17 unanswered points were scored, and after Detroit was forced to punt, the Niners struck again with a field goal, giving them their first lead of the game. The Lions ended up back in field goal range, and this leads us to another thing we know about Campbell: he's very stubborn. We saw that in the loss to Dallas. So once again, he decided to go for it on fourth down in FG range, and once again, it fell apart. Niners ended up in the end zone again after a long drive, Lions scored as well, but could not get the onside kick.

The 49ers won, 34-31, winning the NFC Championship after losing the last two years. The Niners are in the Super Bowl for the eighth time in franchise history, and it comes with Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant himself, as their QB. I can own up to it: I was wrong about Purdy. He played quite well in this outing after narrowly surviving last week. I had said that the Niners would regret getting rid of Jimmy Garoppolo, but it doesn't look like it. After all, they're in the big game this year.

As for the Lions, well, this was an amazing year. The question is, will they reach this point again? I'd like to think so, but I really don't know. Teams who catch lightning in a bottle like this--they usually have trouble catching it again. I know this: the Lions are that top team in the NFC North right now, and it'll be fun for me as a Packers fan to watch us try to knock them off that perch.

And there we have it. Super Bowl LVIII will be a rematch of Super Bowl LIV: the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the San Francisco 49ers. The Chiefs are looking to become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the New England Patriots won Super Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX, while the 49ers are looking for their elusive sixth Super Bowl Championship, which would tie them with the aforementioned Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers for the overall lead. Super Bowl LVIII will take place on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas.

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