Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs
Patrick Mahomes as an underdog in the NFL playoffs? In this economy?!
There is a good chance that the presumptive NFL MVP will be an underdog for the first time in 13 career postseason starts as the line shifted from Kansas City as the early favorite to Cincinnati as the favorite in the middle of the week. Mahomes has a career 30-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio in the playoffs, but his high ankle sprain is the talk of the NFL world. He’s going to play, but how effective he will be remains to be seen. He was 22-for-30 for 195 yards with two touchdowns in the 27-20 win over Jacksonville in the divisional round but was hurt in the first half and clearly not himself after that.
Meanwhile, the Bengals managed to keep Joe Burrow healthy and mostly upright behind a patchwork offensive line in a 27-10 win over the Bills. Cincinnati has not lost by more than three points in 22 straight games with Ja’Marr Chase in the lineup and the only teams to beat the Bengals by more than three points over the last two seasons are the Browns (three times!!) and the Chargers.