AFC Championship; Chiefs clamp down on Henry to reach first Super Bowl in 50 years

The Kansas City Chiefs are finally going back to the Super Bowl.  It was a special moment for the Chiefs to be holding up the Lamar Hunt trophy in honor of their founder.  The Chiefs’ founder actually coined the nickname “Super Bowl” for the big game, so it’s a bit of a stroke of luck that in the NFL’s 100th year the Chiefs are in it once again.

The game itself started out similarly to the Divisional Round game against the Houston Texans.  The Titans jumped out to an early 10-0 lead thanks to a Greg Joseph field goal and a beastly four yard touchdown run by Derrick Henry.  However this time around, the Chiefs didn’t wait until the second quarter to get things going.

Tyreek Hill caught a late first quarter touchdown from Patrick Mahomes to cut the lead to three.  The Titans swung right back with a one yard touchdown pass from Ryan Tannehill to big man Dennis Kelly.  Kelly became the largest player in NFL history to catch a touchdown in the playoffs.

The Chiefs ended the first half with two touchdowns to take the lead.  The first was a great throw from Mahomes to Tyreek Hill for a 20 yard touchdown.  The second and more impressive play was a scamper by Mahomes that turned into a 27 yard touchdown.  The Chiefs went into the half leading 21-17.

The third quarter didn’t fare well for the Titans, as their bruising rushing attack was stopped every time they tried to get something going.  Derrick Henry finished the game with only 69 yards on 19 carries and Ryan Tannehill threw for 209 yards, two touchdowns on 21-for-31 passing.  Tannehill was actually pretty proficient in the passing game but was sacked three times.

The fourth quarter was all Chiefs.  Mahomes threw for many of his 294 yards in the second half, capping off a great first drive of the fourth quarter with a three yard Damien Williams touchdown run.  The game was put away when Mahomes hit Sammy Watkins with a 60 yard touchdown.

The Titans scored a late touchdown but the game was well on its way to being over by the time they broke the goal line again.  The Chiefs were in celebration mode and after a few first downs the journey was complete.  The forgotten team of the AFC were now AFC Champs and on their way to their first Super Bowl in half a century.