The 2025 NFL conference championship round is completed, with the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles coming out on top of their respective matchups. Now we wait until Feb. 9 for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, where the season will wrap up and the champion will be crowned. Regardless of that outcome, we learned quite a bit about the landscape of the NFL from these two games, and we also learned a bit for the Saints as well.
Is the value of the running back position back? Did the Saints win the Marshon Lattimore trade? How important is coaching overall? There were a lot of questions entering the playoffs this year, and many have been answered by now. Here are five of the most notable, and what we learned regarding them from this set of playoff games:
We saw plenty of explosive plays in the championship round, Mack Hollins having three prominent receptions, James Cook averaging 16.3 yards per reception on 3 catches, Terry McLaurin’s-36 yard reception, Saquon Barkley’s 60-yard rushing touchdown later followed by Will Shipley’s 57-yard rush, and Juju Smith-Schuster’s 31-yard reception.
The more notable thing however was the consistency of the teams that won, as the Eagles were able to go out on offense and score at will, and their defense was able to force three fumbles (all of which resulted in scores on the ensuing drive). As for the Chiefs, they forced four fumbles, and while they did not recover them, they were forcing the Bills to waste possessions and make poor decisions which ultimately was the difference by the end with only a three point margin.
Offensive explosiveness is great, consistency and holding onto the ball is better.
Lots of these two games came down to passing the ball a ton and trying to force throws on late downs, and since the quarterbacks on all of these teams are high-level, they ended up completing quite a few of them. However, when it came down to the nitty gritty, the ground game surpassed everything. The Chiefs scored three of their four touchdowns on the ground, and the Eagles scored seven of their eight the same way.
Having a volatile rushing attack is crucial in games like this to keep the defense on their heels, and having a quarterback who is able to make those critical runs in the redzone are even more crucial. Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes had three and two rushing touchdowns respectively, Josh Allen and Jayden Daniels had zero and one respectively. While all four quarterbacks had a rushing element to their game, some were able to utilize it at the right time. Even with Hurts only rushing for 16 yards, he did it when it mattered, on the tush push into the end zone. They also had Saquon Barkley who was outstanding, and was a huge difference maker.
When it came down to who won these games, both of the winners were the coaches who had been on their teams longer. Andy Reid has been head coach of the Chiefs for 12 years now to Sean McDermott who has been with the Bills for eight years. Then you had Nick Sirianni with the Eagles for four seasons, to Dan Quinn who is in his first year with the Commanders.
While both were hired within four years of each other, being able to set up a cohesive scheme and really build around what you need as a coach matters. Even if it is twelve and eight years and both coaches are settled in, the extra four years can be a difference maker when it comes to what that coach has seen in the NFL, and the experience they have with their team. This is why Andy Reid is able to do what he does year after year, and why even Tom Brady and Bill Belichick were able to do what they did for so long together. They knew what was required to win.
Marshon Lattimore has had a really tough go of things since being traded away from the Saints. In the four games he has played leading up to the conference championship round, he has allowed 11 receptions on 18 targets (61.1% completion rate) for 152 yards (13.8 per reception), 2 touchdowns, and has had 4 penalties, no interceptions and 3 PBUs.
While the statistics for his specific coverage in this matchup are not out as of the writing of this article, he was having a really tough time covering A.J. Brown, including this 31-yard grab on fourth down and five. Ultimately, the Saints at the moment seem to have gotten out on the positive side of this trade.
The head coaching search for the Saints is ongoing, and while there are quite a few solid candidates they have interviewed, Kellen Moore proved something in this matchup. 55 points on a team in the NFC Championship Game is no easy feat, and that starts with the coaching staff. Moore called a great game no doubt and his players did the rest, which is something the Saints could build off of. While he may or may not be viewed as the best candidate depending on who you ask, the results of his game will definitely have to be taken into account by the Saints as they head into an interview sometime in the coming days.
