The Chiefs and Eagles won their conference championship games that will send them to the Super Bowl and give them a chance to play for the championship. In the process, they sent the Bengals and 49ers packing, ending their Super Bowl hopes, although both teams have bright futures and will be contenders for many years to come.

Starting with the first game of the day, the 49ers took a visit to the Eagles in the hopes to pull off an upset. The first drive however, didn’t go to plan. The Eagles moved the ball down the field with relative ease, with a controversial catch on fourth and three by Eagles receiver Devonta Smith. Philadelphia then scored a touchdown on the drive to go up 7-0. After that, yards were hard to come by for both sides, with the defenses controlling the game up to that point. Finally in the second quarter, Christian McCaffery broke several tackles and got into the end zone to tie the game at 7-7. Two touchdowns to end the half for the Eagles would make the score 21-7 at halftime. The Eagles’ rushing game was performing well against the top-ranked San Francisco defense, going for three touchdowns, and it would be more of the same in the second half. The Eagles got another rushing touchdown in the third quarter and added on a field goal in the fourth to make it a 31-7 game, which would be the final score. It was a great season for the 49ers, but in the end, they were no match for the Eagles, who are now one win away from football glory.

The second game of the day took place in Kansas City when the Chiefs hosted the Bengals in a rematch from earlier in the season where the Bengals got the better of the Chiefs, a recurring theme over the last two years, as Joe Burrow had led the Bengals to a 3-0 W record against Mahomes’ Chiefs. Kansas City looked to change that narrative, and they got off to a good start, sacking Burrow relentlessly, but only being able to score six points. The Bengals eventually put a good drive together, but that also resulted in a field goal, making the score 6-3. Soon after though, Mahomes connected with Travis Kelce for a touchdown and made the score 13-3, and after a Burrow interception, the Chiefs looked to take a commanding lead. However, the Cincinnati defense would hold up, forcing the Chiefs to punt, then taking the ball down the field and getting a crucial field goal to send the game to halftime at 13-6. To open up the second half, Kansas City once again couldn’t do much, leading to Burrow and the Bengals getting the ball and scoring a touchdown on a long pass to Tee Higgins to tie the game at 13-13. The Chiefs would respond back however, with Mahomes throwing a strike down the middle to Marquez Valdes-Scantling to give the Chiefs the lead back, 20-13. Some time went by, but the Bengals were pressuring once again, and they were able to punch it in with Samaje Perine from the two yard line to once again tie the game, this time at 20-20. Some other drives didn’t go anywhere for either team, until Mahomes got the ball with under a minute left. It looked like the game was going to go to overtime, but a crucial mistake by Bengals defensive lineman Joseph Ossai put the Chiefs in field goal range, where kicker Harrison Butker made the game-winning kick to win the game 23-20 and send the Chiefs to Super Bowl 57.

Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts will lead both number one seeds into battle in Arizona to fight for the holy grail of the NFL. One team will be crowned champion, while the other will fall short. Regardless of who ends up winning it all, all of these teams will be back and competing for Super Bowls for a long time.