San Francisco 49ers break hearts in Detroit and advance to play Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII
Super Bowl LVIII will feature a new dynasty facing off with an old one as the Kansas City Chiefs meet the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas on February 11 after each was victorious in Sunday’s NFL conference championship games.
The Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champions, are headed to the big game for the fourth time in five years after downing the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in the AFC championship game on Sunday in Baltimore.
The five-time champion 49ers rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit in the NFC championship game, scoring every time they had the ball in the second half – except at the end when they were trying to kill the clock. They came away with a 34-31 win.
Here’s how the conference championships unfolded.
Chiefs hold off Ravens for another Super Bowl trip
The Chiefs on Sunday were in familiar territory, making their sixth straight AFC title game appearance with quarterback Patrick Mahomes at the helm. Across that stretch, he’s racked up two Super Bowls titles, two Super Bowl MVP awards, and two league MVP awards. Needless to say, the Mahomes era has been defined by winning when it matters most.
Mahomes faced intense questions coming into the playoffs on whether he would be able to duplicate his past postseason performances now that he’d have to travel away from Arrowhead Stadium for games. Mahomes has taken his team to the AFC championship game or further in each of his six seasons as a starter and – as wild as it sounds – he had never played a road playoff game until the Chiefs beat the Bills in Buffalo last week.
Compounding the situation was the Chiefs struggled at times this year.
“It truly is special. Just to do it with these guys after what we’ve been through all season long, the guys coming together, it really is special,” Mahomes said at a postgame news conference. “I told them, the job’s not done. Our job now is to prepare ourselves to play a good football team in the Super Bowl and try to get that ring.”
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce caught 11 passes – nine in the first half – and had one touchdown as Kansas City dominated the time of possession battle, using three long scoring drives and a tough defense.
The Chiefs opened the scoring with Mahomes hitting Kelce for 13 yards on fourth-and-2, keeping their first drive of the game alive, then two plays later combining with him for a 19-yard back-shoulder touchdown pass to make the score 7-0 with 7:41 left in the first quarter.
The Ravens struck right back, with the team’s elusive quarterback Lamar Jackson finding Zay Flowers behind the defense for a 30-yard scoring strike that tied the score at 7-7 just minutes later.
Kansas City answered with a touchdown to take a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter. Isiah Pacheco’s 2-yard push into the end zone gave the Chiefs two touchdowns in two long drives.
The Chiefs closed the half with another long drive, with kicker Harrison Butker sending a 52-yard field goal through the uprights with eight seconds left in the second period.
The Chiefs led at halftime 17-7, the first double-digit deficit of the season for the Ravens. Both defenses clamped down in the second half.
Kansas City’s offense remained lifeless for most of the remaining minutes, being forced to punt for five consecutive possessions and keeping the Ravens error-prone offense within striking distance.
The only points of the second half came with 2:34 left in the game when the Ravens kicker Justin Tucker kicked a 43-yard field goal.
Mahomes was 30 of 39 for 241 yards with one touchdown. His late fourth-quarter pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 32-yard completion all but sealed the victory for the Chiefs, who were also aided by two big Ravens turnovers in the final period.
Jackson, the NFL MVP frontrunner, struggled for the Ravens until late in the third quarter. He finished the game 20 of 37 for 241 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He also rushed eight times for 54 yards and saved another interception by catching his own batted pass and turning it into a 13-yard gain.
