Kansas City defeated Baltimore 17 to 10 to win the American Football Conference, but the Ravens still get credit for finishing the regular season as the Number One team.
Now Detroit leads San Francisco 14 to 0 after one quarter. Is there anything football teams from Michigan can't do?
The 49ers, playing at home, bounce back with a touchdown of their own. Detroit leads 14 to 7 with 13:49 left in the first half.
ReplyDeleteThis was only the second time that the AFC title game was played in Baltimore. The other time was the first AFC title game, back in 1970.
ReplyDeleteThis was the first time Patrick Mahomes has won the next game after beating Buffalo in the playoffs. In 2020, Kansas City got stomped in the Super Bowl. In 2021, the Chiefs were knocked off in overtime by Cincinnati in the AFC title game.
DeleteThis is the 11th time that the 49ers have hosted the NFC Championship game. They are 5-5 in those games so far.
ReplyDelete1970: San Francisco 10 - 17 Dallas (last game at Kezar Stadium)
ReplyDelete1981: San Francisco 28 - 27 Dallas
1984: San Francisco 23 - 0 Chicago
1989: San Francisco 30 - 3 Los Angeles
1990: San Francisco 13 - 15 N.Y. Giants
1992: San Francisco 20 - 30 Dallas
1994: San Francisco 38 - 28 Dallas
1997: San Francisco 10 - 23 Green Bay
2011: San Francisco 17 - 20 N.Y. Giants (last title game at Candlestick)
2019: San Francisco 37 - 20 Green Bay
Brock Purdy throws an interception, and the Lions quickly take advantage. The Lions lead 21 to 7 with 5:54 left in the first half.
ReplyDeleteTaylor Swift was at the Chiefs' game, of course, and Eminem is at the Lions' game. If the Lions win, I would really like to see a Taylor Swift/Eminem half time show at the Super Bowl.
ReplyDeleteDetroit kicks a field goal just before half to take a 24 to 7 lead.
ReplyDeleteIn 1957, the Lions and 49ers both went 8-4 and tied for first place in the Western Conference. So they met for a one-game playoff on December 22, 1957 at Kezar Stadium. At the half, the 49ers led 24 to 7. But in the second half, the Lions stormed back to stun the 49ers 31 to 27. That was the last time the Lions won a playoff game on the road. The next week, in Detroit, the Lions crushed Cleveland 59 to 14 for their last NFL Championship.
DeleteAt the half, Detroit leads 24 to 7. ESPN gives Detroit at 85.1 percent chance of winning.
ReplyDeleteSan Francisco takes the opening kickoff and drives down for a field goal. Detroit leads 24 to 10 with 11:02 left in the 3d quarter. ESPN gives Detroit an 82.2 percent chance of victory.
ReplyDeleteOh, my! Detroit had the ball at the SF 28, went for it on 4th and 2, and didn't make it. Then Purdy throws a bomb that bounces off a Detroit defensive back and is snagged by Brandon Aiyuk at the Detroit 4. A touchdown could put the Niners right back in this game.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's the touchdown! Purdy hits a touchdown pass to Aiyuk on 3d and Goal from the 6. Now Detroit, which could have kicked a field goal to go up by 17, leads by only seven: 24 to 17.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the whole thing of not kicking field goals. The Chiefs had a chance to kick a field goal that would have put them up 17 to 7, and they went for a run on 4th and 1 that never came close to succeeding. The Chiefs ended up having to kick a 52-yard field goal at the end of the half to get a 10-point lead, and then they had to spend the whole second half worrying about what would happen if Baltimore made it a one-possession game.
DeleteESPN now gives Detroit a 64.6 percent chance of winning.
ReplyDeleteAnd now Detroit has fumbled! The Niners will take over at the Detroit 24.
ReplyDeleteESPN now gives Detroit a 55.8 percent chance of winning.
DeleteIt only takes a few plays for San Francisco to blast into the end zone. The score is now 24 to 24 with 3:02 left in the third quarter. The Niners have scored 17 points in a row.
ReplyDeleteDetroit goes three and out and punts into the end zone. San Francisco will start from its own 20 with 2:01 left in the third quarter. Still 24 to 24.
ReplyDeleteNow ESPN gives the Niners a 58.3 percent chance of winning.
DeleteAt this point, I gave the Niners about a 95 percent chance of winning.
DeleteThe Niners drive down and kick a field goal. They have scored 20 points in a row, and they now lead 27 to 24 with 9:52 left. ESPN now gives the Niners a 74.3 percent chance of winning.
ReplyDeleteThe Lions drive to the Niners' 30, where they face a 4th and 3. Again they eschew the field goal, and again they don't make it. Niners lead 27 to 24 with 7:32 left, and now they have the ball.
ReplyDeleteOn 3d and 4 at the Detroit 49, Purdy scrambles for 21 yards to the Detroit 28, and that will probably do it. Niners lead 27 to 24 with less than 4 minutes to go.
ReplyDeleteTwo plays later, Elijah Mitchell blasts over for a touchdown, and the Niners lead 34 to 24 with 3:02 left. But at least the Lions can say they didn't settle for a field goal.
ReplyDeleteNate Silver should tweeted: "This game's gonna set back the Fourth Down Revolution by like 3 years." Let's hope so.
ReplyDeleteI was really sad for the Lions, as they looked throughout the second half like a team that was actually overwhelmed by the moment. I listened to the Detroit radio broadcasters. Lomas Brown sounded so sad.
DeleteDown 10 with 1 minute to go, the Lions have a 4th and goal at the 3. Amazingly, they go for it again -- they must really hate their kicker. But this time they succeed. That makes the score SF 34, Det 31 with 56 seconds left.
ReplyDeleteOn the radio, Kurt Warner is complaining because the Lions tried a running play on 3d and goal with 1 minute left. It didn't work, and Detroit had to call time. But now they only have two timeouts left, which means they have to try an onside kick. Warner was already unhappy with the Lions for not taking the points earlier in the game, and now he's really mad at them for not managing the clock better.
ReplyDeleteSo was Lomas Brown.
DeleteThe Lions don't get the onside kick, and they are going to lose by three points.
ReplyDeleteBut at least they didn't settle for field goals.
DeleteKurt Warner was right, by the way. If the Lions had had one more timeout, they could have gotten the ball back. As it is, the Niners will run out the clock.
ReplyDeleteThe last play was snapped with 1 second remaining after a delay-of-game penalty. I don't remember seeing a football game end with a play starting from a stopped clock at 1 second. You see that in basketball plenty, of course, but it struck me as really odd for a football game.
DeleteSan Francisco wins 34 to 31. They will go to the Super Bowl for the eighth time.
ReplyDeleteThis feels like a really important game. If the Niners had lost in the NFC Title Game for the third consecutive year, that would have been a real blow to that whole organization. On the other hand, if the Lions had made it, Dan Campbell would be seen as a genius. Now the Niners go back to the Super Bowl, and the Lions have their 1986 Red Sox moment.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the Conference Championships are the emotional end of the NFL Season. The Super Bowl won't be for two weeks, and most of that time will be taken up with hype that has never interested me very much. The Super Bowl is not really for serious NFL fans -- unless you have a rooting interest in the game, it's an event more for everyone else. Watch parties are fun for people who don't care what happens, but if you really like the game they're just a big distraction.
ReplyDeleteSame. I hate it pretty much any time anything starts to wind down. One of the saddest days every years for me is the last Sunday of an Olympics where we're down to a marathon or a gold-medal hockey game and a few other big finales, intermixed with a lot of footage of athletes having returned home and the announcers talking about being tired and going home soon.
DeleteI don't watch the last day of the Olympics for that very reason.
DeleteBesides, the Conference Championships are the last time where you get to see the home stadiums and the home fans. In the last few weeks, we've said goodbye to a lot of great fanbases -- the Bills, the Lions, the Ravens, the Packers -- and of course even the Chiefs and Niners fans will mostly be watching the Super Bowl on TV.
ReplyDeleteAlso true.
DeleteAnyway, this is where I really start obsessing over college basketball, and I usually lose sight of the Super Bowl until just before kickoff. So I will say that I think this has been a very entertaining season, with a few really great games. There's a lot of nostalgia around the NFL these days, but if some of these games had been played back in the 80's, they would now be regarded as classics. I hope kids today are having as much fun with the NFL as I did when I was their age, because I really believe the game itself is just as good.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I will say that several of the kids in my church youth group are very dialed in to the NFL, and many of them are cuckoo for Patrick Mahomes. And seemingly all of the 12- and 13-year-old boys wear versions of his hair, even if they don't realize it connects back to him.
ReplyDeleteThat's great to hear.
Delete