A one-legged Patrick Mahomes ended the debate about the NFL’s best quarterback

It was actually the best crucial of minutes. Matched activity. Seventeen few seconds left behind. The Kansas Metropolitan Area Chiefs along with a 3^rd as well as 4 on the Cincinnati Bengals’ 47 in the AFC headline activity. In preordained style, it was actually Patrick Mahomes that willed his harmed lower leg to join his healthy and balanced one as well as acquire simply good enough yardage to squeeze out an initially down. And after that Mahomes was actually reached away from bounds through Bengals protective point Joseph Ossai that, up till that gaffe, had actually participated in a significant activity. The additional 15 lawns offered for the excessive roughness charge was actually simply good enough for Harrison Butker to toenail the 45-yard basket as well as send out the Chiefs to their 3rd Super Dish in 4 years as well as more concrete Mahomes’s tale.

Had this been actually a regular-season activity, Mahomes possibly will possess rested it out. Or even possibly certainly not. Possibly he definitely is actually supernatural, as our company have actually reckoned for a lot of his job. When a true individual experiences a high ankle sprain – as Mahomes carried out lower than 10 times ago versus Jacksonville – they are actually usually sidelined for at the very least 3 full weeks. However Mahomes is actually a misfit: there wasn’t a scintilla of hesitation he will bet the Bengals.

This was actually individual. No chance was actually Mahomes mosting likely to allow his data backup, Chad Henne, be actually charged along with taking out the relatively superglued ape that is actually the Bengals off the Chiefs’ spines. If the condition Burrowhead, a referral to the Bengals’ impressive gain in in 2015’s AFC National championship in Kansas Urban area, was actually mosting likely to pass away, Mahomes was actually mosting likely to be actually the one to eliminate it. He carried out simply that.

Mahomes invested some of the gutsiest, very most impressive efficiencies our company’ve ever seen from an NFL quarterback. More than 300 passing yards, a couple of touchdowns and a game-winning drive is nothing new for Mahomes. But doing it on one leg is unheard of. And doing it on one leg and continuing to perform as three of his receivers went down injured is on another level.

But Mahomes went into this matchup with immeasurable determination. He proved what many of us already knew – that Mahomes at 80% or 60% is still better than everyone else in the NFL.

He connected with Travis Kelce for a touchdown on a 4^th and 1 in the second quarter on a throw he made look effortless but was dripping with difficulty. And Marquez Valdes-Scantling made catch after catch for 116 yards. He was the recipient of a perfectly precise touchdown throw, in which Mahomes had to push hard off his injured right ankle.

As with all Bengals-Chiefs matchups over the past couple of years, this one was full of intrigue. There was the Bengals creeping back into the contest in an eerily similar way to last year’s Championship Game. There was Zac Taylor with the ballsiest play call you’ll see on 4^th and 6 that resulted in Joe Burrow’s deep completion to a double-covered Ja’Marr Chase. There were all kinds of officiating controversies that infuriated both sidelines. And, yes, perhaps there should have been a holding penalty on the Chiefs during the Mahomes run that set up the winning field goal.

None of that takes away from the display of grit and sheer excellence we saw from Mahomes. Any debate about identity of the best quarterback in the NFL has been put firmly to bed.

A joyous Kelce interrupted Mahomes’ postgame interview for a quick announcement: “Burrowhead, my ass. This is Mahomes’ house.”

I’d take it a step further. This is Mahomes’ league.

MVP of the week

Chris Jones, defensive tackle, Kansas City Chiefs. Add Jones to the list of Chiefs players who were bothered by the Burrowhead moniker. Jones had his own itch to scratch, entering the AFC Championship without a postgame sack in his entire career. Jones promptly delivered two sacks, three tackles for loss and five quarterback hits in one of the most dominating performances by a defensive lineman in postseason history. Mahomes will rightly be praised for his performance on Sunday, but I implore fans to watch this game back with a lens on Jones to see a masterclass in dominant line play. Both men were responsible for the Chiefs’ victory.

Video of the week

Myriad ingredients merge to form an NFL result – including injuries and officiating. Though both were relevant in the NFC Championship Game, it was DeVonta Smith’s “catch” on 4^th and 3 that set the tone for Philly’s 31-7 mauling of San Francisco. It was the opening drive of the game; the Eagles were at the 49ers’ 35 and Nick Sirianni had a choice. Go for it on fourth down or play it safe and attempt the field goal. He chose the former, and Jalen Hurts rolled to his left under pressure and heaved it to Smith, who made an insane one-handed 29-yard catch. Instead of celebrating, Smith yelled: “Go, go, go” – a signal for his team to quickly get the next play off. It worked and two plays later Miles Sanders waltzed into the endzone for the Eagles’ first score. But soon it became evident that Smith never had control of the football and – had the catch been challenged – it would have been ruled incomplete and a first down for the 49ers.

Unlike many plays that are now quickly reviewed in New York and often result in a changed call before coaches throw the challenge flag, this one was not for some reason. Still, Kyle Shanahan missed a major opportunity to throw the flag and change the course of the game. Smith, on the other hand, should be commended on his heads-up reaction since he knew it wasn’t actually a catch. The whole sequence was a killer for San Francisco.

Quote of the week

“Know your role and shut your mouth, ya jabroni” – Travis Kelce to Cincinnati mayor Aftab Pureval.

Kelce’s fiery comment comes in response to Pureval posting a video that came across as a lame attempt at trash talking, rather than the smart social media moment he probably had hoped for. In the video, Pureval made an “official proclamation” requesting that Burrow take a paternity test to see if he is Mahomes’s daddy. It’s hard to disagree with Kelce.

Stat of the week

One NFC championship run. Four quarterbacks. Things went south quickly for San Francisco against Philadelphia when Brock Purdy left the game in the first quarter with an elbow injury. Enter journeyman extraordinaire Josh Johnson, the 49ers’ fourth quarterback to line up under center this season. To call Johnson ill-prepared for the moment would be an understatement. The poor guy was pressured left and right and struggled to generate positive momentum, save for a second-quarter touchdown – San Francisco’s only score of the game – that was all about Christian McCaffrey’s vision and cutting. The 49ers could have turned to a fifth passer, emergency quarterback McCaffrey when, incredibly, Johnson had to leave the game injured. But Shanahan deemed Purdy, barely able to throw the ball further than five lawns, the better option.

There will be a lot of disappointment for San Francisco after this loss, in which silly penalties hurt them in addition to their quarterbacks’ injuries. But the emergence of Mr Irrelevant Purdy, after injuries to Trey Lance as well as Jimmy Garoppolo, is actually one of the more incredible storylines in recent memory. Confidence and killer instinct can take you places in the NFL. However Purdy’s success earlier in the season is actually also a testament to Shanahan’s playcalling as well as ability to disguise and adjust – few coaches would have been able to drag their team this far along with so many accidents at quarterback.