The Baltimore Ravens will only have to beat the Kansas City Chiefs next weekend to advance to Super Bowl LVIII. After knocking off the Buffalo Bills in a classic AFC Divisional Game, they’ll now travel to Baltimore on Sunday to determine the AFC champion.
As we wrote yesterday, the Ravens easily dispatched the Houston Texans in their Divisional Round game, dominating the second half to a 34-10 victory. QB Lamar Jackson had an electric performance, rushing and passing for two touchdowns apiece as the Ravens held Texans QB C.J. Stroud to just 175 passing yards.
Now, they’ll get one heck of a test in the Chiefs. The top game of the playoffs so far, the Chiefs and Bills went blow for blow throughout the game before defense’s tightened up in the fourth quarter. But the pivotal moment came when Bills’ kicker Tyler Bass missed wide right from 44-yards with under two minutes to go, keeping Kansas City in front 27-24.
RB Isiah Pacheco closed out the game with a first down run, ending the night with 97 yards and one touchdown while averaging 6.5 yards per carry.
In his first road playoff games, Mahomes was electric, throwing for 215 yards and two touchdowns with a couple of big-time scrambles. TE Travis Kelce had a vintage game, on the receiving end of both of Mahomes’ touchdown passes. Josh Allen was even better, making ridiculous throws in impossible situations, even if his stat line reflects only one passing touchdown. He added two more rushing scores. Neither quarterback was sacked and combined for five total touchdowns.
This is the Ravens’ first AFC Title Game since 2012, the year Baltimore won their last Super Bowl. On the other end, the Chiefs will make their sixth-straight AFC Championship Game appearance. The Pittsburgh Steelers last appeared in the title game in 2016, a loss to the New England Patriots.
The Ravens and Chiefs will kick off Sunday at 3 PM/EST. The NFC Title Game will be held between the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions as the nightcap. Both sides feature the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds in their division.
