NFL 2024 Conference Championship Recap

 Hello readers! Another week of National Football League action has come to an end. The week that was Championship Sunday would see four teams enter competition on Sunday afternoon and evening and we now have two teams that will represent the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The team representing the National Football Conference is the Philadelphia Eagles. The team representing the American Football Conference is the Kansas City Chiefs. In this post, I will break down how these teams got to this point. Let's get to work!

NFL Conference Championship Freaky Stat

Jalen Hurts' three rushing touchdowns and Saquon Barkley's three rushing touchdowns are the most in the NFC Championship Game's history. Philadelphia's 55 points is the most in Conference Championship game history, breaking 1990 Bills record 51 points in the AFC Championship game against the Raiders. 

NFL Conference Championship Recap

Washington 23, Philadelphia 55

Pick: Eagles

Philadelphia clobbers Washington and makes it back to the Super Bowl. Jayden Daniels hit 29 of 48 passes for 255 yards with a touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin. McLaurin's touchdown of 36 yards was the longest pass play for the Commanders. Jayden Daniels would toss an interception in the game. Daniels would also rush into the endzone for a score while getting six carries for 48 yards in the game. Washington's longest run in the game was a 19-yard run by Daniels. Brian Robinson was running back with the most yards with 11 carries for 36 yards in the game. Zach Ertz had 11 catches for 104 yards in the game. Washington would come undone in this game due to many factors: turnovers, unable to stop the run and not getting production on the run game. The first turnover was a Dyami Brown fumble which turned into a Eagles touchdown. Turnovers yielded to Eagles touchdowns. You're not going to win games against a great team like the Eagles like that. Pass protection would fail Washington as well as the Eagles did get to Jayden Daniels early and often. It was just hope and luck that would need to fall for Washington in this game and sadly it wasn't meant to be. Jayden Daniels has been a nice story and Washington's revitalization from a 4-win team last year to a NFC Championship Game appearance is nothing short but amazing and would make for a great story. For the Commanders, they got humbled but have something to look forward to next season while getting 350 total yards. 

Jalen Hurts hit 20 of 28 passes for 246 yards with a touchdown pass to AJ Brown. The passing game would be a footnote to what the run game would do to the Washington Commanders in this one. Saquon Barkley would do his thing and had 15 carries for 118 yards with three touchdowns. The touchdown runs were from 60, 4 and 4 yards. His 3rd touchdown would give a hat trick and would channel his inner Steph Curry and went to bed. Will Shipley had four carries for 77 yards with a touchdown. Most of his carries and yards came in the 4th quarter with Barkley resting the bench. Both Barkley and Shipley had runs of 60 and 57 yards to be the longest runs in the game for the Eagles. Jalen Hurts had 10 carries for 16 yards and had three touchdowns of his own in the game. AJ Brown was the leading receiver with six catches for 96 yards in the game. He had a catch that went for a 31-yard gain to be the longest pass play for the Eagles in the game. Philadelphia would arguably play its best game of the season. They would use their running game a lot in this one with their scoring. Jalen Hurts looked the best that he has ever been and looks like his 2022 self. Philadelphia would even take advantage of some Tush Push's in this one. It's hard to get to a Super Bowl, its even harder to make it back to one after the faltering season they had last year. This season, they look to right the wrong of losing a Super Bowl and will play as the National Football Conference's champion. The Eagles had 459 total yards in the game. 

Next week:

Washington: go sight see in the Capitol or something.
Philadelphia: Bye then Super Bowl vs Kansas City

TW: 1-0

Buffalo 29, Kansas City 32

Pick: Bills

Allen-Mahomes IX provided some great moments. Josh Allen hit 22 of 34 passes for 237 yards with two touchdowns. The two touchdowns went to Mack Hollins and Curtis Samuel. James Cook had 13 carries for 85 yards with two touchdowns on 6 and 1 yard plays. Cook had a run of 33 yards that was the longest run play in the game for the Bills. Mack Hollins was the leading receiver for the Bills with three catches for 73 yards and had a catch that went for a 34-yard gain. The Bills would do everything that they could to play well against the Chiefs and they still lost. The defense wouldn't be able to stop the Chiefs and the Bills wouldn't be able to get out of their own way. Penalties would falter them as well as they had some really bad penalties that were so unnecessary. Facemasks, false starts, and pass interferences would cost them as well. The crucial play I think it was the 4th down call for Allen to get for a first down that was ultimately fallen short. The last 4th down play was just a prayer as Chiefs Defensive Coordinator dialed up a blitz that caused Josh Allen to fluster and throw a prayer. He almost had one answered had tight end Dalton Kincaid caught it. It's a pattern that is unmatched in life: death, taxes and the Bills shitting the bed in January. It is still a great season and the Bills were short to get back to the big game. For the Bills, the season ends but did put up 374 total yards in the game. 

Patrick Mahomes hit 18 of 26 passes for 245 yards with a touchdown pass to Xavier Worthy. The player that the Bills let the Chiefs pick in the draft via trade. Kareem Hunt had 17 carries for 64 yards with a touchdown run on a 12-yard run. Patrick Mahomes had two touchdown runs on 8 and 10 yard plays. He had a run of 12 yards that was also the longest run in the game along with Hunt's run. Xavier Worthy was the leading receiver with six catches for 85 yards. Juju Smith-Schuster had a catch that went for a 31-yard gain to be the longest pass play for the Chiefs. The Chiefs would almost lose this game as they couldn't contain the run of the Bills. It would take a pep talk by Steve Spagnola for the defense to step up as they would plug a Josh Allen sneak for a 4th down conversion. The 4th down and 5 play would have the legend coordinator call on a 4-man rush that would break easily and forced Josh Allen to throw a prayer that would ultimately go incomplete. The Chiefs would do what they had to do to win and that would come on the passing game that would be an Achilles heel for the Bills in the game. The defense would ultimately win the day as they hung tough. The Chiefs are now the first team on the quest to three-peat to get to the Super Bowl. No other team has reached this point in the Super Bowl era that started in 1967. Lombardi's Packers, Shula's Dolphins, Noll's Steelers, Walsh and Seifert's 49ers, Johnson and Switzer's Cowboys, Shanahan's Broncos, and Belichick's Patriots wouldn't be able to achieve this mark. Kansas City has one more game to go to make it happen. They will face off against a familiar foe in the Philadelphia Eagles, who they had beaten two years before in Super Bowl LVII. They will try to do it in two weeks. 

Next week:

Buffalo: Eat some wings or something
Kansas City: Bye then Super Bowl vs Philadelphia

TW: 1-1

Records

2024:
Week 1: 14-2
Week 2: 10-6
Week 3: 10-6
Week 4: 10-6
Week 5: 3-11
Week 6: 13-1
Week 7: 13-2
Week 8: 9-7
Week 9: 12-3
Week 10: 10-4
Week 11: 11-3
Week 12: 7-6
Week 13: 14-2
Week 14: 11-3
Week 15: 13-3
Week 16: 12-4
Week 17: 12-4

Week 18: 9-7
Total: 193-80

Super Wild Card Weekend: 4-2

Divisional: 2-2

Conference Championship: 1-1

2012: 164-90-2
2013: 162-92-1
2014: 172-83-1
2017: 164-92
2018: 156-98-2
2019: 161-94-1
2020: 167-88-1
2021: 173-98-1
2022: 166-103-2
2023: 161-111

I will be posting the Super Bowl LIX post sometime around this time next week or so, keep an eye out for it! Enjoy your week!

-Tom

NFL 2024 Conference Championship Picks

 Hello readers! Another week of National Football League action is coming upon us yet again. The Divisional round is over and we are left with four teams. The four teams, two in each conference, will now play for the right to represent their respective conferences. The Washington Commanders and the Philadelphia Eagles will play for the George S. Halas Trophy to represent the National Football Conference. The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs will play for the Lamar Hunt Trophy to represent the American Football Conference. By the end of Sunday night, we will know what two teams will represent these conferences. Let's get to work!

Conference Championship Preview

The Conference Championship will have two games played where four teams will play. Championship Sunday will start in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and end in Kansas City, Missouri. There will be a Sunday late afternoon game and then a Sunday night game. Let's get to the picks!

Conference Championship Picks

Note: All game times are in US Eastern. 

Washington @ Philadelphia (FOX; 3:00 pm)

Pick: Eagles

The Commanders beat the Lions and the Eagles beat the Rams last week. Championship Sunday starts with a matchup that is reaching its 3rd meeting this season. The season series between these two teams is deadlocked at 1-1. It also helps when they're literally in the same division. The last time these two met, it was a Washington victory with Jalen Hurts being injured with a concussion. It was a close win as the Commanders would win on a Jayden Daniels pass to Jamison Crowder for a 9-yard score and then a successful two-point conversion. Washington would rely on Jayden Daniels a lot for their scoring as he would account for all of the offensive touchdowns Washington had on that day in late December. I think this game will matter a bit more when it comes to trying to stop Daniels. The wide receivers will need to have a good day and I think the defense will need to find a way to slow down Saquon Barkley who had 150 rushing yards in the last matchup. I think the game will speak more to the Commanders defense to step up in rush defense which allows 137.5 yards/game. In terms of pass defense, they're solid as a unit as they can limit opposing pass offenses to 205.4 yards/game. The Commanders defense needs to slow down Saquon Barkley in order to win this game. 

At least the Eagles have made it this far. Unlike the Ravens. The Eagles offense starts with Saquon Barkley who has 324 rushing yards so far in this playoffs. Had it not been for Jalen Hurts injury in the December 23rd matchup, the Eagles might've won that game. Saquon Barkley had a 2,000 yard rushing season but didn't go after Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record. Probably for the best they did that. The Eagles will need him to do his thing. The big thing for this game is offensive line play. They do have a tall task in eliminating the pass rush and run defense of the Commanders who as a unit has 43 sacks on the regular season and three in the playoffs. With the high sack numbers it looks like the defensive line puts a hat on their guy and then the linebackers do their thing. Dante Fowler has 10.5 sacks in the regular season. The defense of the Eagles as a unit has 41 sacks to their name in the regular season. Josh Sweat leads the team in that stat with eight sacks this season. The Eagles lead the NFL with forced fumbles with 18 and Washington just has 12. I think the two teams are evenly matched in terms of skill positions and defensive prowess. I think it will ultimately come down to which offensive line can limit sacks and tackles for losses. Football is a battle in the trenches ultimately. I'll take the Eagles but I do like the story in the Commanders this season. 

All-time series: Commanders lead 90-85-5; 2nd postseason meeting (Commanders lead 1-0)

Buffalo @ Kansas City (CBS; 6:30 pm)

Pick: Bills

The Bills beat the Ravens and the Chiefs beat the Texans last week. The matchup that keeps on coming every year. The Allen-Mahomes matchup is reaching to its 9th meeting, 4th postseason meeting overall. It isn't quite Brady-Manning as both of them had won a ring respectively. Josh Allen has yet to take his team to a Super Bowl let alone win one. He has been dominant against other teams in the playoffs but he has yet to defeat Patrick Mahomes in them. This might change possibly. Josh Allen has played well against the Chiefs but his team around him has usually ended up failing him in some way or another. The 2022 Divisional where there was a thousand touchdowns in the last few minutes and into Overtime, the defense would fail him. Sadly the Sudden Death rules were dead as a touchdown in overtime meant game over. Last year's Divisional where the Bills lost 27-24, the kicker would embrace his inner Scott Norwood and hit a field goal that would go wide right. Football is a team game, Josh Allen will get the credit for their success yes but a dual-edged sword also says failures are squarely on him. Not fair but it is what it is. Fortunately, the Chiefs are somewhat of a shadow of his former selves this season as their offense is just rough around the edges and they somehow get wins. Their defense has had to pick up the load. The key for the Bills I think is ensuring the run game can keep going, keep an eye on Chris Jones at all costs, let alone avoid him and have the defense and special teams focused with a "all hands on deck" sort of deal.

The Chiefs are attempting to do something that the 1968 Packers, 1974 Dolphins, 1976 and 1980 Steelers, 1990 49ers, 1994 Cowboys, 1999 Broncos, and 2005 Patriots couldn't do and get to the Super Bowl for the 3rd straight time. Except for the 1976 Steelers, 1990 49ers and 1994 Cowboys, all the other teams in that list wouldn't even make it to this point in a conference championship as they all fell either in the Divisional, Wild Card or miss the playoffs. The Chiefs have the pressure to get back to the Super Bowl on them. Buffalo is really playing loose and have an "us against the world" mentality. In the playoffs, Patrick Mahomes has dominated Josh Allen's Bills with a 3-0 mark. The 2024 Chiefs just aren't quite the high octane offense they have been this season let alone playoffs. Whether they're saving that for this matchup and the Super Bowl or they have one hand tied behind their back and they're playing with their food. Something just seems off about them. The defense has been playing back to their outstanding performance to last years squad. It just seems like a formula for not outstanding success. To rely on a defense where you face off against an offense that can run the ball will as Buffalo can do and a quarterback that can run and pass just as well as anyone else. There is a reason why three-peats have never happened in the NFL, the long season, free agency, injuries, players retiring are just some of the reason why it never occurs. I still stand by my belief that the field will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl back in the preseason post. I will not turn back now. Let's go Buffalo!

All-time series: Bills lead 30-25-1; 7th postseason meeting (Chiefs lead 4-2)

TV Broadcast Pairings

Note: Check local listings for your channel(s).

Washington @ Philadelphia (NFC Championship Game)
Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady

Buffalo @ Kansas City (AFC Championship Game)

Jim Nantz, Tony Romo

Records

2024:
Week 1: 14-2
Week 2: 10-6
Week 3: 10-6
Week 4: 10-6
Week 5: 3-11
Week 6: 13-1
Week 7: 13-2
Week 8: 9-7
Week 9: 12-3
Week 10: 10-4
Week 11: 11-3
Week 12: 7-6
Week 13: 14-2
Week 14: 11-3
Week 15: 13-3
Week 16: 12-4
Week 17: 12-4

Week 18: 9-7
Total: 193-80

Super Wild Card Weekend: 4-2

Divisional: 2-2

2012: 164-90-2
2013: 162-92-1
2014: 172-83-1
2017: 164-92
2018: 156-98-2
2019: 161-94-1
2020: 167-88-1
2021: 173-98-1
2022: 166-103-2
2023: 161-111

See you all after the AFC Championship Game for the Conference Championship Recap! Enjoy the games!

-Tom