Philadelphia and Kansas City Stamp Ticket to Big Game Rematch
Here we go again! Philadelphia and Kansas City will meet in the Big Game for the second time in three seasons after both the Eagles and Chiefs punched their tickets to New Orleans with victories on Championship Sunday.
Philly ran roughshod over the Washington Commanders 55-23 as ex-Giants superstar Saquon Barkley ate D.C.’s lunch with three rushing touchdowns with 118 yards on 15 carries. The Penn State alum set the tone early when he gashed Washington for a 60-yard score on the first play from scrimmage for the Eagles to take a 7-3 lead.
It was all Philly henceforth.
Washington got the game as close at two points, at 14-12 on Terry McLaurien’s 36-yard reception from rookie sensation Jayden Daniels, but the mistakes, turnovers, and bad penalties proved to be too much for Washington to handle.
Probably the best example of how frustrating a day it was for the Commanders came in the fourth quarter when ex-Jet Frankie Luvu dove over the line of scrimmage on consecutive plays at the one-yard line, and nearly forced the officials to award Philadelphia a touchdown. Philly would eventually score on a Jalen Hurts plunge to make it 41-23. But one gets the idea.
KANSAS CITY RETURNS TO THE BIG SHOW
Meanwhile, over in KC, the Chiefs stormed back to hold off the Buffalo Bills 32-29 in a game that will likely live rent-free in the minds of Bills fans for years to come.
Buffalo grabbed a 22-21 lead on a one-yard James Cook score that capped off an impressive 12-play, 80-yard drive that ate up seven minutes. It felt like the momentum had swung Buffalo’s way, and perhaps an upset was in the offing. But don’t tell that to Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes and KC responded early in the fourth quarter on a five-play, 59-yard drive, highlighted by a 29-yard pass completion to JuJu Smith-Schuster that would eventually set up a Mahomes 10-yard scramble for the touchdown to retake a 29-22 lead.
After Josh Allen and Buffalo responded with the game-tying score, Mahomes guided KC into field goal range for a Harrison Butker field to make it 32-29.
Still, Buffalo had one last shot at the upset, but Allen couldn’t handle KC’s pass rush and hurried a throw downfield to Dalton Kincaid, who couldn’t make the diving catching on fourth and five, cementing Kansas City’s victory.
CONSPIRACY TIME
And of course, what is a Chiefs game without a little controversy? From the dropped catch/interception by Xavier Worthy that should should have been ruled incomplete, to Josh Allen supposedly not getting a first down on a quarterback sneak, and an offsides on Kansas City’s Chris Jones that was not called, fans and conspiracy theorists alike had a field day against the refs.
REMATCH
Kansas City and Philly’s pending rematch in the Big Game will be the second straight year a rematch takes place on Super Sunday. Last season it was KC-San Francisco in a rematch of Super Bowl 54. In fact, since 2011, there have been five rematches of previous Big Game match-ups. This should be fire as KC tries to become the first team to ever three-peat.