Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Championship Sunday
The Kansas City Chiefs (15-3 SU, 5-12-1 ATS, 8-10 O/U) host the Cincinnati Bengals (14-4 SU, 13-4-1 ATS, 7-10-1 O/U0 on Sunday night at 6:30pmET from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in the AFC Championship game. The winner of this game heads to the Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona to face the winner of San Francisco/Philadelphia.
Last year, the Bengals upset the Chiefs 27-24 in overtime from Arrowhead Stadium as a 7-point underdog to earn a berth to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the LA Rams 23-20, but covered the 4.5.
This year, the Chiefs flew to Ohio and fell at Cincinnati (same score) 27-24 as a 2.5-point favorite.
To get to this point, the Bengals defeated Baltimore at home 24-17 as a 7.5-point home favorite in the opening round and blew out Buffalo in the snow last week 27-10 as a 6-point road dog in the divisional round.
Kansas City hu ng on to beat Jacksonville 27-20 as a 10-point favorite last week in the divisional round. They had a bye in the opening round.
How confident is Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow? After leading the Bengals to a 27-10 road win over the Bills, which denied Buffalo a chance to play Kansas City at a neutral site for the conference championship, he told CBS' Tracy Wolfson that those fans “Better send those refunds”. Burrow and the Bengals went up to Buffalo, who had safety Damar Hamlin in attendance for the first time since he collapsed on the field in Cincinnati on Jan. 2, and just physically mauled them by rushing for 172 yards and passing for 240. Defensively, they also held Josh Allen and company to just 64 yards rushing and 261 yards. Burrow completed 23 of 36 for 242 yards and two TDs. Joe Mixon had an outstanding game with 105 yards on 20 carries with a TD.
Our team energy? Unmatched.
Bengals | Sounds of the Game pic.twitter.com/flnQoFPzFG
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Ben gals) January 25, 2023
Burrow comes into this game at 3-0 against Patrick Mahomes. Last season, he threw for 250 yards with two TDs and a pick in the AFC title game. This year, Burrow is an even better quarterback. When you think of great or even good Cincy quarterbacks, Boomer Esiason, Ken Anderson and even Andy Dalton come to mind. But his year, Burrow has surpassed them with a team record for completions (414), pass attempts (606) and TD passes (35). In the playoffs, he has completed 67.6% of his passes for 451 yards with three QBs and has run for 40 yards and a TD. He will take some chances and does have 12 INTs this season.
It also helps to have weapons and Burrow has some of the best in WR Ja'Marr Chase, who has missed four games due to injuries and still managed to lead the team with 87 catches for 1,046 yards. WR Tee Higgins (6-4, 215) can stretch the field and the chains. He has 74 catches for 1,029 yards and seven TDs. Mixon has had an uneven year wit h 814 yards rushing and seven TDs, but just 3.9 yards per carry. If there is a concern on offense, it's on the line where right tackle Jonah Williams (knee), G Alex Cappa (ankle) and OT La'el Collins (knee) are out. That's a concern going up against one of the NFL's strongest group of pass rushers, who have 55 sacks. TE Hayden Hurst (calf) is also questionable for this game.
Defensively, Cincy allows 335.7 yards per game (16th) and 229.1 passing yards (23rd). They are strong against the run (106.6 yards allowed, 7th), but that probably won't matter much in this game. In their last game, the Bengals allowed just 211 passing yards to Mahomes and 138 rushing yards. Sam Hubbard and Joseph Ossai had one sack apiece. Trey Hendrickson leads the Bengals with 8.0 sacks on the season while Vonn Bell leads in interceptions with four.
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