The Kansas City Chiefs punched their ticket to Super Bowl LVII on Sunday night by beating the Cincinnati Bengals 20-23 in the AFC Championship game. This will be the third Super Bowl appearance for the Chiefs in four years.
The Chiefs entered the Bengals game banged up, having their star quarterback Patrick Mahomes battling a sprained ankle and All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce dealing with a back injury. On top of that, Cincinnati seemed to have Kansas City’s number, beating them in the previous three matchups, including the AFC Championship showdown last year.
But despite the setbacks, which ended up including multiple injuries to their wide receiver corps, the Chiefs managed to show why they were the No. 1 seed in AFC. Their defense came up strong, intercepting Cincinnati’s QB Joe Burrow two times and sacking him five times.
Playing from a great field position for the better part of the game, Mahomes and co. managed to do just enough to get through. This included a game-winning drive in the final minute that showed how dangerous the Chiefs’ offense could be in crunch time.
With the game tied at 20-20, the Chiefs got the ball back with 0:30 left on the clock at their own 47 yards. Following a short gain on the first two plays of the drive, Mahomes managed to scramble and get the first-down yardage before being pushed by the Bengals’ defensive end Joseph Ossai while out of the bounds. Ossai was flagged for unnecessary roughness, giving Kansas City 15 extra yards.
The penalty set up a 45-yard field goal for kicker Harrison Butker, who drilled the ball between the uprights and sealed the win for the Chiefs.
The Kansas City Chiefs will now face the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl LVII. The Eagles secured the spot earlier on Sunday after beating the San Francisco 49ers in a 7-31 blowout.
