Who Titans fans should root for in the AFC Championship Game
The Kansas City Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes, are back in the AFC Championship Game for the fourth consecutive season facing a Cincinnati Bengals team who will be playing in the the conference championship game for the first time since 1989. If you’re a fan of the Tennessee Titans, this is understandably a tough game […]
The Kansas City Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes, are back in the AFC Championship Game for the fourth consecutive season facing a Cincinnati Bengals team who will be playing in the the conference championship game for the first time since 1989. If you’re a fan of the Tennessee Titans, this is understandably a tough game to choose a side in.
The NFL, and especially those in the AFC, are suffering from major Chiefs fatigue, but it’s equally difficult to pull for the Bengals after they put an end to the Titans’ season just one week ago. To make matter worse, former Titan and human traffic cone Quinton Spain sounded off in a now deleted tweet after the Bengals’ win over Tennessee.
Seemingly every week Mahomes shocks the football world with no-look passes and exotic arm angles upon release. But in last week’s matchup, with just 13 seconds left on the clock, he drove the Chiefs down into field goal range to send the game against the Buffalo Bills into overtime, when the Chiefs eventually emerged victorious.
Mahomes has an 8-2 record over his career in the postseason with his only two losses coming to Tom Brady. It certainly would be a refreshing sight for his competitors to see Mahomes and Chiefs fall on Sunday, snapping their six-game postseason win streak, but also reminding the rest of the league that he is mortal.
While last week’s loss is still fresh on the minds of Titans fans, the Bengals are the lesser of two evils this weekend. After all, it is not a stretch to say that the Titans have a better roster than Cincinnati and if weren’t for QB Ryan Tannehill’s three interceptions, it would be the Titans hosting the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.
But Don Meredith said it best, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.”
While the Bengals have yet to prove they are the same caliber as the perennial contender Chiefs, they have a sky high ceiling with QB Joe Burrow and rookie sensation WR Ja’Marr Chase. Cincinnati enters the Sunday afternoon matchup as 7.5-point underdogs, but as the Titans found out last week, games are won on the field not in the sportsbook.
Featured image courtesy of Albert Cesare – The Enquirer – USA TODAY NETWORK
