Mahomes, Butker and the defense rise up to send Chiefs to the Super Bowl

by | Jan 30, 2023

The Kansas City Chiefs are heading to the Super Bowl for the third time in the last four years. Harrison Butker drilled a game-winning 45-yard field goal with three seconds remaining as the Chiefs edged the Bengals 23-20 in the AFC Championship in Kansas City. Butker was a perfect 3-for-3 on field goal kicks and Patrick Mahomes threw two touchdowns. The defense got to Joe Burrow sacking him five times and forcing two interceptions.

Chris Jones who has 65 career sacks during the regular season including 15 this season, recorded his first two post-season sacks. He felt personally responsible for the Chiefs loss in last year’s AFC game to Cincinnati for his inability to get to Joe Burrow. That was not the case on Sunday.

In a game where Mahomes said “I definitely didn’t feel good,” he managed to work around a fumble and injuries to wide receivers Mecole Hardman, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Kadrius Toney by finding Marques Valdez-Scantling six times for 116 yards. Their 19-yard TD connection with just over four-minutes to play in the third quarter put the Chiefs ahead 20-13. “I think the worst one was when I fumbled. I tried to pick it up, and that was probably the worst I tweaked it during the game. They got me close as they could to 100 percent. Then I just battled through, and I’ll have a few more weeks to get it ready,” said Mahomes.

The Chiefs will face Andy Reid’s former team the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII. Some are calling it the “Andy Reid Bowl.” Others are calling it the “Kelce Bowl.” Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce will have his brother Jason, a center for the Eagles, on the other sideline in two weeks. They will become the first brothers to face each other in the Super Bowl. Brother Jason had fun on Twitter on Travis’ win.



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