Even the most exciting games eventually lose their excitement if they always end the same way. And in the NFL, Taylor Swift always celebrates at the end. The pop singer with the great instinct for maximum success is a native of Pennsylvania, just like Phil, the marmot who greets you every day in the famous film. Now is that time of year again when both show up. Phil looks for his shadow to predict the future of winter, Swift visits Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and in the end she falls for her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s neck.
You can set the clock accordingly or put a red cross on the calendar: The Kansas City Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl again, for the fifth time in the past six years. Now it doesn’t matter that their quarterback Patrick Mahomes has sometimes been a shadow of his former self in the soon-to-end NFL season. Once again, in the next AFC final against the Buffalo Bills, he found himself in the right place at the right time: in the opponent’s end zone. For the first time this season, the Chiefs scored more than 30 points, and they were necessary in the narrow 32:29 win against the stubborn, ultimately somewhat uptight Buffalo Bills.
Now the Chiefs even have the chance to ensure ultimate boredom: on February 9th in New Orleans they can become the first team ever to win the Super Bowl for the third time in a row – they call it the “three-peat” mission, the triple Repeat triumph, no team has ever achieved this. The opponents will be the Philadelphia Eagles, so Super Bowl number 59 is a rematch of Super Bowl 57, which the Chiefs won by three points. You can already guess how things could turn out this time. “This is a new feeling,” said the one and only Swiftie, Travis Kelce, in all seriousness after the win against the Bills. You could now achieve something historic, but to achieve that there would have to be a “bigger fish to fry” down in New Orleans.
Of course, the Mahomes/Kelce duo is still one of the best in their field. But the entire playoffs, and especially the two conference final games of the weekend, have shown that the days of big shootout games in which the speed and athleticism of the pass receivers decide games are over for now. Of the 19 total touchdowns in these two games, 14 were carried into the end zone, not thrown. This was particularly noticeable for the Eagles in their one-sided home game against the Washington Commanders. The Eagles simply don’t need to take big risks because they have a runner in Saquon Barkley who provides risk-free spectacle. Why throw the football 60 yards through the air when Barkley runs 60 yards to success with his first touch? Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels would have been expected to be the first rookie quarterback to lead a team to the Super Bowl, but the Commanders clearly failed at 23:55. Experience wins.
In Mahomes’ case, the risky passing game is usually only the second option. His so-called “roll-outs” are always difficult to stop when he turns on his own axis and runs over to the right with the ball himself. If the blocks from the people in front are well placed, he runs for a touchdown himself, twice against the Bills. Otherwise, he’s just looking for Kelce, which was only the case twice this time – because Kelce is also a trained blocker and as such is at least as valuable. Experience wins here too.
The Chiefs’ defense was crucial to the win. They repeatedly forced Bills playmaker Josh Allen to make those risky plays that you want to avoid. Time and time again, the Bills had to take the risk of trying for a new first attempt on fourth down instead of kicking the ball deep into the opponent’s half. Shortly before the end, an Allen throw didn’t arrive because the aggressive Chiefs defense didn’t let him throw it accurately enough – at least a field goal, and thus overtime, would have easily been possible.
This is the fourth time the Bills have lost to the Chiefs in a playoff game. They probably won’t be able to get it out of their minds that this is all partly their own fault. In 2017, the Bills gave up a first-round pick to the Chiefs in the draft, the selection of new players in the spring. And with that they got: Mahomes. Bills head coach Sean McDermott may also feel like he’s in Groundhog Day because he keeps losing to his former boss Andy Reid. Reid was head coach in Philadelphia when McDermott was in charge of defense there. Undoubtedly he learned a lot from him. But Reid obviously kept the secret of how to get the decisive moments on his side to himself.
So now there is a meeting between two favorites for the title: the Chiefs have the better quarterback and the Eagles have the better running back. That’s why the game is still eagerly awaited. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants to continue squeezing the lucrative lemon and extend the season. After decades, the NFL expanded the regular season from 16 to 17 game days, now it should be 18, which is the “next logical step,” says Goodell. And this despite the fact that more and more players are getting injured and no longer hold their hands up when they talk about how exhausted they are. However, this measure becomes even more questionable, especially if the same teams continue to play for the title.
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