NFL Championship Sunday Game Recaps

This year’s National Football League Conference Championship games saw Lamar Jackson’s Ravens host Patrick Mahomes’s Chiefs, and the Lions travel to San Francisco to take on the 49ers. I’ll start with the American Football Conference championship game: Jackson had all the hype coming into this game. If the Ravens secured the win, Jackson had the MVP in his back pocket.

From start to finish, this was a frustrating game to watch; the Ravens offense we saw last weekend was a completely different unit. Ravens Offensive Coordinators Todd Monken’s game plan was horrible. It seemed like a game plan that was created without Jackson.

Monken dropped Jackson back to pass 82 percent of the time, mostly without a run-pass option or a rollout. Jackson played like a pocket passer; he ran just eight rushing attempts, with only two being designed runs. Mahomes had six rushing attempts.

Monken isn’t the only one at fault; Jackson is to blame for the strip sack that set the Chiefs up in Ravens territory. Already up seven, the endzone view showed two wide-open run lanes that would have been 20 plus yard gains.

The threat of Jackson’s scrambling was so nonexistent that on the 2nd and 10 in the red zone with 6 minutes left, the Chiefs didn’t even bother to put a quarterback spy on Jackson, and he threw into triple coverage in the endzone.

Outside of Jackson’s runs, the Ravens, who had one of the top rushing attacks during the regular season, ran the ball just eight times despite never trailing by more than 10 points. When the Ravens were climbing back to the game with a deep shot connection to Trey Flowers, the rookie got a 15-yard taunting penalty and fumbled the ball on the goal line.

Although Travis Kelce struggled with drops and production throughout the year, he turned it on for the playoffs, hauling 11 catches for 116 yards, with most coming in the first half.

Overall, the Chief’s offense and Mahomes managed the game and had some huge 3rd down conversions, but with a two-score lead in the 4th quarter, the Chiefs leaned on their young, stout defense to punch their ticket to the Super Bowl.

For the Ravens, this was a win now year; they will have a plot of pieces to replace this offseason with starters Kevin Zeitler, Patrick Queen, Jadeveon Clowney, Geno Stone, Kyle Von Noy, Gus Edwards, and Odell Beckham Jr. set to be free agents.   

Now to the NFC Championship game, where the Detroit Lions season of destiny had every American outside of San Francisco pulling for them.

Motor City Dan Campbell had his boys biting kneecaps all the way to the National Football Conference championship with a full watch party back at Ford Field and even “Let’s go Lions” chants in Levi Stadium. The offense looked unstoppable from the jump and ended around to Jameson Williams, who went for six on the third play. And the Lions rolled to a 24-7 halftime lead.

It looked as if the Detroit Lions would go to their first Super Bowl in their 94-year history, but in the second half, seemingly everything went wrong.

The Lions drove into 49er territory, and Josh Reynolds dropped on a 4th and 2nd. On the next drive, Purdy threw a deep ball that hit off of Kindle Vildor’s face mask and bounced into Brandon Ayuik’s hands for a 51-yard completion to set up a 49ers touchdown.

In the very next play, Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs fumbled at the 25, setting up a Christian McCaffery touchdown a play later. On the following drive, Sam LaPorta and Josh Reynolds dropped first downs, forcing a three and out, with the 49ers driving and kicking a field goal on their next drive to take the lead.

On the Lion’s next drive, trailing 27-24, they went for it on a 4th and three in field goal range that failed with 49er pressure. 

The 49ers then scored a touchdown to make it 34-24 and put the game out of reach for the Lions. Coach Campbell relies on analytics to determine whether to go for it on the 4th and medium/] and short downs, and this works throughout the season because they steal possessions and score when other teams punt.

But when you are leading in the NFC championship on the road, and you forget points, it’s unacceptable. You can’t blindly follow the analytics because you have to rely on some feel of the game. The same analytics cost former Chargers Coach Brandon Staley a 27-point playoff lead in last year’s playoffs; former Patriots Coach Bill Belichick hates analytics because he understands being a football coach, not an algorithm, wins championships.

The Lion’s mistakes led to them losing in the most Lions fashion, and the 49ers punched their ticket to the Super Bowl. For the Lions, the future is still bright. They are an incredibly young team with $ 60 million in cap space this upcoming offseason. I know the football world hopes they get back.