The calendar says 2025, but it’s still the 2024 NFL season, hence these are the 2024 conference championship picks.
Yet, the composition of the upcoming Big Game in February might look a lot like a recent prior edition. If you are bored of the Kansas City Chiefs being in the Super Bowl every year, you might be doubly as bored if both favorites in this weekend, as it would be a rematch of a Super Bowl from just two seasons ago. Can the league help it if the same teams are making it every year? That’s a question for another time.
Below, we pick the AFC and NFC title games. Lines, offered for entertainment purposes only, are as of Wednesday night.
NFC Championship: Washington at Philadelphia (-6)
Oh yeah, this is totally the NFC Championship match-up you predicted. Sure. Sit down.
You might have guessed one of the teams right, anyway, but I think we all expected this game to be in Detroit. That was until a decimated Lions defense was as porous as Swiss cheese against Washington’s newly-revitalized offensive attack, led by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. The Commanders went in there and handed them their backsides.
Meanwhile, the Eagles have not looked spectacular in either playoff game, but they have won, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. On style points, Washington’s game last weekend was more impressive, but Washington is deservedly an underdog in this game. Going into South Philly and beating the home team, especially when they are good, is a difficult ask.
Sure, the Commanders could win, in the sense that these are two playoff-caliber teams and they are division rivals with an extensive history. Washington beat them about a month ago, while the Eagles won the November matchup. Both were one-possession games, but the Commanders’ loss was in Philly.
History is against Washington, however: No rookie quarterback has ever played his team into a Super Bowl. If Daniels does it, he would be the first.
You know who the weapons are for Philadelphia. Jalen Hurts looks like he, well, hurts lately, but Saquon Barkley does not. His legs are good enough, with that offensive line in front of him, to guide the Eagles to the main event once again.
Washington should not be dismissed in this game, but it’s Philly’s crown to lose.
AFC Championship: Buffalo at Kansas City (-2)
Now here’s a championship game that many people could have foreseen, except for some perhaps swapping out the Bills for the Ravens. Either would have been easy to envision a few weeks ago.
Everybody knows the deal with Taylor Swift’s favorite team, the Chiefs. If not, how many times do they have to go to the conference championship and Super Bowl before you do? They win – it’s that simple. This season, the wins have been at times less pretty than in prior seasons, but they are wins nonetheless. That’s part of the reason why Kansas City has had its doubters: The wins are less pretty and more gritty, and eventually, they will suffer the consequences. The only problem with that line of thinking, while not completely unreasonable, is that they have won 16 out of 18 times, anyway. Kansas City will be a threat to win every game in which they play.
As for Buffalo, this is your shot. Are you going to get back to the big hoedown in February or what? It has been over 30 years, after all. Erie County, New York and its environs have suffered, both literally in terms of climate and figuratively in terms of football, through abundant icy winters of discontent. The last few seasons have ended with special, artisanally-crafted amounts of heartbreak. Your quarterback is good enough to play in the Super Bowl and he deserves his chance. Hopefully, if he gets it, it turns out better than, say, Dan Marino’s one and only trip.
Arrowhead is no picnic for visiting teams. Buffalo knows this “All Too Well” (hey Taylor, if you’re reading this). However, going into this postseason, our assumption was that Buffalo and their offense behind Josh Allen were good enough to scale the mountain and finally beat Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. I am going to stand by that. The Chiefs are absolutely capable of winning, but I’m giving the people outside of Missouri and Kansas what they want, which is to not see yet another recent Super Bowl rematch.
For No Particular Reason: Super Bowl Combinations
There are four potential match-ups in February, and below is prior meeting history, if any.
- Washington vs. Buffalo: Rematch of Super Bowl XXVI (1991 season, WSH won)
- Washington vs. Kansas City: Have never met in SB
- Philadelphia vs. Kansas City: Rematch of Super Bowl LVII (2022 season, KC won)
- Philadelphia vs. Buffalo: Have never met in SB
