Winding down the NFL playoffs, we are now just two games away from Super Bowl LVIII, with Conference Championship Weekend ahead. This weekend's games will feature the Kansas City Chiefs at the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship, while the Detroit Lions will face the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship.
After starting with 14 teams, it's now down to just four, with both conference championship games featuring the No. 1 seeds against the No. 3 seeds from their respective conferences. That means there were very few upsets in this year's NFL playoffs—well, except for the No. 2 seed Dallas Cowboys, who were thumped by the Green Bay Packers.
This is a much different conference championship weekend than last year's. Although the Chiefs will be making their unprecedented sixth straight conference game, and the 49ers will be making their third straight, while the Lions and Ravens have been voided of that opportunity recently.
The Ravens are returning to the AFC Championship for the first time since 2012; however, this will be the first time they are hosting the matchup on their home field. For the Lions, it's been even longer, going all the way back to 1991 as their last appearance in the NFC Championship.
Now that we are down to the four best teams, it's time to look at what each team is facing and the potential obstacles they must overcome with a chance at the Super Bowl on the line.
AFC Championship Game – Chiefs at Ravens
Biggest obstacles for the Chiefs: As is well aware now, the Chiefs will be playing in their sixth straight AFC Championship Game, all with Mahomes as a full-time starter. They're 3-2. Only Tom Brady and the New England Patriots did better with eight straight. But this is by far the biggest challenge that Mahomes and Kansas City will have in this stretch of the NFL playoffs.
When Mahomes and the Chiefs made their first AFC Championship, Brady was taking the Patriots to their last Super Bowl, and Mahomes was a first-year starter. Now a seasoned quarterback, Mahomes is set to go against arguably the best top-to-bottom team he's faced in the postseason in the Ravens. Not to mention it's on the road. As much as being on the road last weekend proved not to be a challenge to the Chiefs, that still could be an issue in Baltimore.
The Ravens are a lot healthier than the Bills were, especially defensively, and they have more playmakers on offense and won't have to be as reliant on their quarterback as Buffalo was with Josh Allen. But when accounting for Lamar Jackson—which the Chiefs most certainly have to do—he's such a dominating player that he wears teams down because they can never account for what he's going to do.
Biggest obstacles for the Ravens: It seems befitting that even though they're at home with the advantage, the road to the Super Bowl for the Jackson and the Ravens still goes through Kansas City. But as the famous Ric Flair said, “To be the man, you have to beat the man.” And the Chiefs are certainly that. But what better way for Jackson to prove himself than by beating what has become the NFL's latest dynasty in a legendary quarterback battle?
Mahomes and the Chiefs have been keeping others from their respective championships, and that's honestly the biggest obstacle for the Ravens on Sunday. They have to not allow the Chiefs to get in their heads like undoubtedly Kansas City did against Buffalo last weekend. That's easier said than done, of course. But playing to win instead of not to lose is a big difference. The Ravens have the better overall team, but the mental toughness of overcoming Mahomes and his never-say-die attitude is the real difference-maker.
For instance, Jackson has four straight starts of wins by 14-plus points. In 112 starts in his career, Mahomes has only lost by 14-plus points just four times, according to CBS Sports. Mahomes in and of himself is a daunting task, no matter if the Ravens have the league's top-scoring defense that leads in takeaways and sacks, or the potential MVP quarterback counterpart.
NFC Championship Game – Lions at 49ers
Biggest obstacles for the Lions: There's only one NFC team that has never made a Super Bowl appearance. You guessed it, the Detroit Lions. That's not too surprising to many, seeing as how the franchise has been one of the most historically bad teams in the NFL and has been largely absent from the NFL playoffs. Since 2004, they have the third-worst winning percentage in the NFL (.387), just ahead of the Browns and the Raiders.
Up until last season, the Lions hadn't had a winning record since 2017 and finished near the bottom of the league two out of those years. But that's just familiar territory for the Lions, who will be playing only in their second NFC Championship Game in history on Sunday.
History and years of warranted criticism are the obstacles for the Lions on Sunday against the 49ers. For Dan Campbell's defiant group, they have to prove they're not just some feel-good story, the underdog that rose up to make good, puff-piece headlines.
The Lions have a chance to completely change the narrative about themselves against the 49ers, with a chance to make their first Super Bowl appearance. But again, that starts with rewriting history. They haven't won a road playoff game since 1957, which oddly enough was in San Francisco. They've lost 11 straight playoff games on the road.
Biggest obstacles for the 49ers: The team with the second-best record in the league and the No. 1 seed in the NFC may have the worst of the quarterbacks out of the four remaining in the playoff field. And yet somehow, he'll still probably get some MVP votes. Purdy undoubtedly has one of the best supporting casts in the entire NFL around him. But with the NFL playoffs comes a whole new dynamic and intensity that requires more than just stellar play.
Purdy wasn't his best last week against the Packers, although he did stay turnover-free and helped lead the 49ers on a game-winning drive at the end. However, he lost one of, if not his best weapon in Deebo Samuel after the first half. Samuel is one of the key pieces to the 49ers' offense because of how versatile he is, as Shanahan can do so many creative things with him. But even statistics show that San Francisco isn't quite the same team without him in the lineup.
Dating back to 2019 when he entered the league, when Samuel doesn't play, the 49ers are 8-9, and their points per game fall by nearly three points, as was explained on The Herd. Also, their turnover differential drastically changes from a plus-25 to a minus-8. The one positive here is that the Lions have one of the worst passing defenses in the league that ranks 27th in the NFL.
But where the Lions are strong is in their rushing defense that ranks 2nd in the NFL, where they haven't allowed a running back to rush for 70 yards in a game this season. That could put the league's rushing leader McCaffrey and the 49ers up for quite a challenge. Not to mention that McCaffrey will be fighting a bit of history himself. There hasn't been a rushing title winner to make the Super Bowl since Shaun Alexander in 2005.
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