In the NFL, coaching is everything and Sunday’s AFC Championship Game between the Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs features two of the best head coaches in the league.
The Titans are led by one of the league’s best young coaches, Mike Vrabel, while the Chiefs are coached by future Hall of Famer Andy Reid — long thought to be one of the top offensive minds in the game.
Vrabel owns an 18-14 record and has guided Tennessee to its first AFC Championship game since 2002 in the midst of his second season as the team’s head coach.
Reid is in year 21 as a head coach and is in his seventh season with Kansas City. The first 14 years of Reid’s head coaching career were in Philadelphia, and the Eagles went 130-93-1 over that stretch.
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Philadelphia won the NFC East six times, made the NFC Championship Game five times and appeared in Super Bowl XXXIX under Reid.
While wildly successful in the regular season, the postseason has been a different story for Reid’s teams.
Though his Eagles made five NFC title games, they lost four of them, and the one year Philadelphia advanced to the Super Bowl, they lost 24-21 to New England.
In that game, Vrabel, then a linebacker for New England, caught a touchdown pass from Tom Brady to give the Patriots a 14-7 lead.
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Reid was let go in 2012 after the Eagles had a disappointing 4-12 season. But he was immediately picked up by Kansas City, and in the seven seasons there, the team has made the playoffs six times.
The Chiefs are 77-35 under Reid and have won the AFC West the past four seasons.
Kansas City made the AFC Championship against New England last season and nearly advanced to Super Bowl LIII, but an offsides penalty on Dee Ford nullified what would have been a game-ending interception.
The Patriots used that second chance to force overtime and win the game.
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The AFC Championship will be a battle of conflicting styles.
The Chiefs are led by one of the game’s most senior coaches, who will undoubtedly have a bust in Canton, while the Titans are coached by a relative newcomer looking to make his mark on the league.
Kansas City has one of the game’s best offenses quarterbacked by the electrifying Patrick Mahomes, but Tennessee has the league’s rushing champion Derrick Henry, who is on a historic pace.
The Chiefs were expected to be in the AFC Championship, and came into the year as one of the odds on favorites to win the Super Bowl. The Titans were Super Bowl long-shots, with 40-1 odds to hoist the Lombardi.
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Regardless of who came into the year as a Super Bowl favorite, the Titans and Chiefs are on the precipice of advancing to Miami.
Expect the coaching of Reid and Vrabel to dictate the AFC Championship Game.
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