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The Cincinnati Bengals are going to the Super Bowl.
Those Bengals had a rough first half in the AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs, only to storm back in the second half, resulting in an overtime period before
A double-whammy of regression along the offensive line and in terms of offensive play-calls — while playing against one of the NFL’s best teams on the road — made for a tough outing.
Here are some quick notes and numbers to know coming out of the game.
Quick Hits
— Quick three-and-out for the Bengals on the game’s first drive. Rotating Chiefs safeties encouraged a quick throw that went incomplete on third down. Apparent from the very first drive Burrow’s offense needed to get to the line faster and command the pace.
— Bengals defense got walked all over on its first drive. Chiefs ran all over them while the scheme tried to keep everything in front. Fine, but they needed to win off the blocks.
— Bengals crawled into a shell offensively with runs on three straight first downs. That said, second offensive drive featured a trio of third-down conversions, one Burrow run and two passes to Tyler Boyd.
— Tight end C.J. Uzomah got carted off with a lower-body injury.
— Chiefs went up 14-3. Bengals weren’t getting consistent enough pressure. Eight seconds in the pocket on the Mahomes touchdown is far too long for any quarterback (yes, seemingly missed calls by officials didn’t help).
— Chiefs went up 21-3. Same story as before. The gameplan was to get stops in the red zone and rely on the running game a bit to keep the defense fresh. That was a dead strategy before halftime with the Chiefs averaging better than nine yards per play.
— Bengals finally responded via a fluke-ey 41-yard touchdown by Samaje Perine. But hey, if the Chiefs were having problems stopping Perine on that sort of dump-and-score play from so far out, that was good news for guys like Chase later in the game, right?
— Bengals entered halftime down 11 — just like the Week 17 win. They held the Chiefs to three points in the second half of that win. The defense needed to use the break to scheme up more pressure to make it happen again.
— First down runs continued to crush the Bengals offensively, even after three straight stops by the defense to give the offense the ball back.
— B.J. Hill picked off a tipped Mahomes pass (how great was that Billy Price trade, folks?) and the Bengals scored via a touchdown from Burrow to Chase, then hit on a well-drawn-up two-point conversion to make it 21-all.
— After a bad pick by Burrow, Bengals defense got its sixth-straight stop. Burrow, though, looked unfazed while rushing for multiple first downs, evading sacks and eventually getting his team the lead via an Evan McPherson field goal.
Key Stat
3: Points for the Chiefs in the second half. Like the Week 17 meeting, the Bengals defense came out of the halftime tunnel fired up after making some critical adjustments. It’s the only reason the game was even close.
Game Balls
Lou Anarumo: The defensive coordinator tore up the gameplan after getting worked over in the first half, adapted and held Mahomes and the Chiefs in check in the second half.
Joe Burrow: He had a bad pick in the second half. But the man gutted it out behind a rough day from the offensive line, especially in the second half with some of those gutty runs.
Top Takeaway
It is them: No matter what went down on Sunday, the Bengals were leaving Arrowhead Stadium with heads held high. That’s the case as they’ll head to the Super Bowl.
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