OTL: The Song Remains the Same in the AFC

Death, taxes, the Kansas City Chiefs going to the Super Bowl in a year that both the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills seemed more exciting than they did. The NFC and AFC Championship games have come and gone, and the earth has continued to revolve around the sun.

Somehow, the Chiefs retained Steve Spagnuolo through this offseason’s hiring cycle. He remains one of the biggest advantages in the NFL.

— Nikhil Mehta (@nikknowsball) January 27, 2025

For all the talk about Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, the Chiefs defense is as big a part of their success as anything. Our guy Nikhil Mehta makes a good point. Good coordinators keep getting taken for head coaching vacancies while Steve Spagnuolo gets to be the best defensive coordinator in the playoffs for the best team. The playoffs is about matchups. Baltimore found that out the hard way last year when Spagnuolo’s relentless blitzing was the answer against the Ravens offense in last season’s AFC Championship Game. The Chiefs defense did just enough to get another win against Josh Allen and the Bills.

The Officials and the Chiefs

The narrative around the Chiefs is that they get all the calls and the officials tend to be helpful to their cause. One of the most important plays of yesterday’s the game was a challenged fourth down stop of the Bills.

Josh Alper’s article on Pro Football Talk accurately describes why the call feels mirky:

Bills quarterback Josh Allen tried a sneak on fourth down to pick up the yard the Bills needed to continue the drive and two officials had two different spots after the play. One would have given the Bills the first down, but the other had them just short and that was the one that went under replay review to determine the ultimate result of the play.

The call on the field stood, but CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore said he thought that was the incorrect call. Steratore said he thought Allen crossed the line for a first down by “a third of the football” and that the Bills should have maintained possession.

It was one of those plays where it could have gone either way. It just looked like Steratore was right and the football crossed the line to gain. It doesn’t help the NFL’s reputation that this is one of the main talking points heading out of Championship Sunday. The game may have been fair and square but this moment hurts the perception of the game. It wasn’t the only questionable call that went the way of Kansas City’s desires:

Even though this ball CLEARLY hit the ground and neither player had complete possession the refs rule that this was a catch by Xavier Worthy.

The Chiefs The Refspic.twitter.com/hDMOoLq6xt

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 27, 2025

“Dov Klieman” resorts to all caps at one point in his tweet and I can’t blame him. This call felt obvious to me that it wasn’t a catch. Even if the tie goes to the offense, saying Xavier Worthy controlled the football is a bold statement. It puts the league in a bad light when this is what we’re talking about after a game and it’s almost always a close call that favors the Chiefs.

AFC Status Quo Remains Unchanged

Josh Allen & Lamar Jackson both get sent home by tight end drops

Poetic

— Garrett Ferguson (@GarrettSprints) January 27, 2025

It’s hard to not draw the parallel of Mark Andrews dropping the two-point conversion and Dalton Kincaid whiffing on a ball on fourth down. One angle of the game for Ravens fans was seeing if Allen could finally get over the hump. A Super Bowl would have elevated him to a level above Lamar Jackson in the sports media’s quarterback rankings and hoopla. Both MVP candidates saw their tight ends come up short and keep the status quo of the AFC intact and staler than left out bread.

Allen and Jackson remain equals as they watch Mahomes go for a third Super Bowl victory in a row. It’s almost like the Ravens are the old school Detroit Pistons, the Bills are the old school Knicks and Mahomes is Michael Jordan making sure nobody else gets the glory.

Before we move on, I’m just going to leave this here. It seems the Bills and Ravens players will both have a chance to experience warmer climates and Marlon Humphrey made this known in Marlon Humphrey style.

RAVENS CB MARLON HUMPHREY FROM THE TOP ROPE ON THE BILLS pic.twitter.com/08tkyWXPrO

— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) January 27, 2025

Eagles Wow The Home Crowd

The Chiefs will play the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. The Eagles didn’t just beat the Commanders, they shellacked them into submission. The score was 55-23 and the party in Philadelphia was probably a little scary… but plenty joyful in the city of Brotherly love. Kevin Patra of NFL.com wrote a great article about what we learned from this dominant performance. One of his main takeaways is that the Eagles did this not even being close to 100 percent:

Philly plays through banged-up O-line. The Eagles’ offensive line entered the game injured, with Cam Jurgens not starting due to a back issue. Then Landon Dickerson, who shifted from guard to center, suffered a knee injury. Dickerson gutted through the end of the first half but couldn’t continue. Jurgens entered at halftime and battled through his injury. With Tyler Steen starting at guard, the Eagles’ offensive line wasn’t at full force but played effectively, opening lanes on the ground and giving Hurts enough time. Philly allowed just eight pressures on 28 attempts and two sacks, per Next Gen Stats. Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, the health of the big horses up front will be tracked for the next two weeks.

The Eagles are a scary good team. They propelled Saquon Barkley to a historic playoff performance and lit up the scoreboard. The Eagles showed that they are a real juggernaut and we’ll spend the next two weeks entertaining the idea that they might be able to topple the Chiefs off the NFL mountain top. If you would have told me before the game that these specific issues for the Eagles would be overcome so easily I wouldn’t have believed you. The Eagles deserve credit for being as resilient as they are impressive.

This trio led the Eagles to Super Bowl LIX! pic.twitter.com/wsvv6nvGdw

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 26, 2025

Eagles Vs. Chiefs in the Super Bowl

It is time for revenge.

Finish. The. Story. pic.twitter.com/0MSnWmz1Qu

— Philly Sports Sufferer (@mccrystal_alex) January 27, 2025

Baltimore fans need to recharge and find a way to enjoy the Super Bowl. We’ll start diving into contract extensions, free agency, and the draft. For now, just get your Monday on, and take care of yourself. When all else fails remember two things. First, the Ravens beat the Steelers. Secondly, the Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2016. In salty times such as a Championship Sunday the Ravens should have participated in, these two facts can sustain us.

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