NFL Snapshots: Conference Championships (2023)

The matchup for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas is set. It will be the San Francisco 49ers against the reigning and defending Super Bowl champion, Kansas City Chiefs. This will be a rematch of Super Bowl LIV.

As much as I would’ve loved the Chiefs to face the Detroit Lions, I think this is a great matchup with a lot of storylines to keep people busy.

Kansas City Chiefs 17 – Baltimore Ravens 10

Kansas City Chiefs
At this point, the Chiefs are a well-oiled machine and know how to win big games. They aren’t getting bogged down in the antics known as “the game within the game”. They are out there to win. That’s it.

The Chiefs won the turnover battle, 3-0.

The Chiefs offence had the ball for 37:30.

The Chiefs defence has yet to allow more than 27 points in a game this season.

The Chiefs committed only 3 penalties for 30 yards. I know fans watching the game were yelling at their screen, or at least thinking that every call was going the Chiefs way. Yeah, well, when you play as carelessly as the Ravens did, you earn the penalties you receive.

Travis Kelce is back to being Travis Kelce, which is a problem for anyone tasked with defending Travis Kelce.

The worst thing the other teams in the NFL could’ve done was allow the Chiefs to go on this six-year run of dominance. By now, they’ve accumulated so much playoff experience, nothing is going to phase them anymore. The moment is not going to beat them. You have to beat them. And not in some underhanded way where you think hitting them hard is going to make a difference.

It starts with coaching. Can you out-coach Andy Reid and Steve Spagnuolo? You can try. But then can you solve the riddle that is Patrick Mahomes? Again, you can try.

The Chiefs are the Final Boss right now and everyone they’ve eaten (beaten) along the way has made them stronger than ever.

They are the Demogorgon from Stranger Things.

They can be beat. But don’t be surprised when they aren’t.

Baltimore Ravens
I didn’t like how the Ravens approached the game, at all. They went into it saying they wanted the Chiefs offence to “feel them” aka they wanted to throw it back to 2001 and hit them so hard it made them think twice. As a result, they played a reckless game of football and were flagged multiple times for unnecessary roughness, as well as taunting.

I get it, Ray Lewis was there and made his iconic entrance before the game. He’s the face of hard-hitting football. Fine, let him do his thing. But on the field, you have to be smarter. It felt like they had a team meeting and psyched themselves out over the fact they were facing Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

It started during pre-game warmups when kicker Justin Tucker was warming up amid the Chiefs players. Mahomes asked Tucker to move his things, which he did (barely). And then Travis Kelce threw his tee, footballs, and helmets away. As he should. Go warm up somewhere else. I genuinely don’t know what he was doing down there. Tucker said after the game that he’s done this for 12 years. Really? He’s warmed up in the middle of the other team for 12 years? Is this allowed?

In the NHL, if a player accidentally crosses over centre ice during warmup there’s a brouhaha. Do NFL players not have to stick to their side of the field?

It should be noted that hockey players get abnormally angry over the tiniest of things.

The Ravens also abandoned the running game for, seemingly, no reason. Gus Edwards started the game with a 15-yard run. He finished with 3 carries for 20 yards. That’s alarming. You could run on the Chiefs. They’ll eventually find a way to stop you, but you could move the ball effectively until that point comes.

The game plan against the Chiefs should be to keep the ball out of Mahomes’ hands. Shorten the game and minimize their offensive possessions. The Ravens had the ball for only 22:30. Mission failed.

Perhaps, they wanted to give full autonomy to Lamar Jackson and were going to live and die by what he could do with the football on every play. That’s fine, but predictable. The Ravens need another offensive weapon and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Derrick Henry next year.

I cautioned last week that the return of Mark Andrews may not go over as well as the idea of “a star player is returning omg!!” sounds. He was held to 2 receptions for 15 yards, on only 31% of the snaps.

From my perspective, the Ravens tried to continuously poke the bear, while the Chiefs focussed on actually winning the game.

Detroit Lions 31 – San Francisco 49ers 34


San Francisco 49ers
Two weeks in a row, the 49ers looked like they were going to be sent packing. The Packers were controlling the game two weeks ago and, this past Sunday, the Lions were steamrolling them in the first half.

But both weeks, the 49ers came back and won. On one hand, it’s concerning. On the other hand, it shows how resilient they are and how they are never truly out of a game. And that’s a scary thing.

Brock Purdy still doesn’t get the universal credit he deserves and I’m pretty sure a lot of it has to do with people judging him based on his appearance and attributes rather than the final result, which could be a pass completion, touchdown, game-winning drive, etc.

He’s not the biggest, the fastest, or the strongest. He is not the EST of the NFL. There’s always going to be other quarterbacks who are above him in those categories.

If you were to build an ideal quarterback, I think you end up with Josh Allen. But what has he won in his career? How many Super Bowls has he appeared in? Exactly. (Yeah, yeah, I know Mahomes has been in his way).

It’s not a fluke Purdy has a 24-6 record, including playoffs.

Purdy is not a game manager, he is a game winner.

Detroit Lions
I’ve grown to love the Lions and wanted to see them in the Super Bowl this year. At halftime, things were looking good. They had a 24-7 lead and were in control of the game.

Then the third quarter happened and they surrendered all control.

When the Lions were leading 24-10, the Lions went for it on 4th and 2 from the 49ers 28 yard line, instead of kicking the field goal. They failed to convert.

You absolutely have to take the points in that situation, right? It’s a playoff game, on the road, with the winner going to the Super Bowl. You have a chance to make it a three score game. Take the points! He didn’t.

Okay.

The score was 24-24 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lions were trailing 27-24 with just over seven minutes left, when Dan Campbell once again decided to go for it on 4th down (this time is was 4th and 3 from the 49ers 30 yard line. Once again, they failed to convert.

Kick the field goal! Tie the game!

Yes, I’m assuming the Lions kicker, Michael Badgley would’ve connected on both field goal attempts.

I understood Campbell’s reasoning after the game when he said the 49ers had the momentum and were draining the clock and he wanted to regain momentum. I get that. If the Lions kick the field goal and tie the game, the 49ers probably spend the next 7 minutes trying to play keep away before scoring with very little time left on the clock.

At that point, the Lions defence was in full meltdown mode – I said last week the secondary was holding on by a thread – so I can see why Campbell may have wanted to get ahead of what was to come by putting 7 points on the board and forcing the 49ers to get a touchdown on what may be their final drive.

But he wouldn’t have been in this position, if they had kicked the field goal in the third quarter!

People who stand by the 4th down decisions will say that Campbell stayed true to who he was and didn’t stray from his aggressive style, which his team will respect.

Look, I get wanting to stick to who you are. Dance with who brought you. But you can’t just blindly follow your own mantra without taking into account the time, score, or situation. That’s just negligent.

Don’t be stubborn to a fault. Take the points.

Campbell said after the game that they knew at halftime that the 49ers would make a run. And when they did make that run, I wonder if that messed with the Lions psyche and made them think they had to do more than required of them in order to win the game.

I’ve sat through enough Toronto Raptors vs. LeBron James playoff matchups in my life to know that when LeBron gets going in front of his home crowd, that the Raptors are just going to fold like a lawn chair and forget how to play basketball because they feel like they are up against an unstoppable force.

So, I say it again – when the 49ers made their run in the 3rd quarter, just as the Lions knew they would, did that rattle them to the point of crumbling under pressure and making decisions that wouldn’t help them win? We’ll never know the real answer, but the psychology of sport fascinates me so I had to mention it.

There’s a discourse now of, “well, in hindsight, yeah he should’ve taken the points.”

No! In the moment, the right decision was to take the points! We don’t need to look back and re-evaluate. We were evaluating in real time!

I don’t know if their confidence to go for it on 4th down was unjustly inflated because of how many mediocre-poor teams they faced during the regular season, but it felt like they weren’t giving the 49ers defence enough credit. And it’s not like the Lions had to gain half a yard with a QB sneak. They actually had to run real plays.

There is merit to having belief in your guys to convert on 4th down, but this was the NFC Championship game. The scoreboard is what matters most.

I would like to think that if the Lions are in the same situation in a future playoff game, that they’d take the points, but I can’t put my finger on if Campbell is the type of coach who changes his philosophy from season to season (heartbreak to heartbreak), or if he’s just going to triple down on his decision and say, “this is who we are, for better or for worse”.

In sports, there’s a saying about winning teams. It’s that they know how to win.

It was a great season, but the Lions are still learning how to win.

Who knows? Maybe I’m the one wrong about all of this. I’m not a know-it-all. But I think I’ve watched enough sports in my life to know when to put your foot on the throttle and when to ease off and take what you’re being given.

That’s all.

Oh, and I don’t have the energy to address their late-game timeout mismanagement. Sorry.

What did you think of the Championship Games?

What’s your take on Dan Campbell going for it on 4th down, twice?

How do you feel about the Super Bowl matchup?