Eagles, Chiefs win conference titles and advance to Super Bowl rematch

The Eagles and Chiefs will face off for the Lombardi Trophy for the second time in three years on Feb. 9 in New Orleans. Kansas City aims to become the first team to win three Super Bowls in a row.

Sunday, January 26th 2025, 10:00 pm

By: Associated Press


The Eagles and Chiefs will face off for the Lombardi Trophy for the second time in three years on Feb. 9 in New Orleans. Kansas City aims to become the first team to win three Super Bowls in a row.

Hurts, Barkley each rush for 3 TDs to help Eagles reach Super Bowl with 55-23 win over Commanders


Saquon Barkley consulted with his family before the star running back decided — yes, it was time to leave his only professional home with the Giants and sign with the Eagles.

His youngest daughter, Jada, had one question for dad as he told her the family was headed to Philadelphia.

Does this mean dad will win now?

As Barkley lay on a football field littered with confetti and cradled his daughter against his chest, the answer was undeniable: You bet Barkley and the Eagles are going to win now — with a chance at the biggest one of the season still ahead with a date in the Super Bowl.

Barkley dashed 60 yards for a touchdown on Philadelphia’s first play and finished with 118 yards and three scores, Jalen Hurts rushed for three TDs and the Eagles soared into the Super Bowl with a 55-23 win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday.

Hurts and the Eagles are in the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons, and this time Barkley is along for the ride. They will play former Eagles coach Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons.

“I came to Philly to be part of games like this,” Barkley said. “And there’s nothing better than a game where you can advance to the Super Bowl.”

The 55 points are the most any team has scored in a conference championship game since the 1970 merger.

Hurts, wearing a brace on his left knee, also threw for 246 yards and a touchdown pass and the Eagles had a towel-waving crowd in a frenzy for the NFC championship game at Lincoln Financial Field.

“I don’t want anybody else leading this team at quarterback other than him. He’s a winner,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “Again, he deals with so much criticism which just blows my mind because of the questions I have to answer. I don’t look too much into that. The questions I have to answer it’s just like, man, this guy wins. He’s won his entire life.”

A.J. Brown caught six passes for 96 yards and a touchdown — and faked tossing the NFC championship trophy off a platform — and an Eagles team at just 2-2 headed into the bye week scored a season high in points to usher the franchise into their fifth Super Bowl.

The Commanders played a role in getting the NFC title game to Philly with two straight road wins — including last week’s stunner at No. 1 seed Detroit that set the stage for the second-seeded Eagles to host.

Jayden Daniels threw for 255 yards with one touchdown, one interception and fell short in his bid to become the first rookie quarterback to lead his team to the Super Bowl. The Commanders were doomed by four turnovers, including a lost fumble by Austin Ekeler in the third quarter and the Commanders down 34-23.

“We believed that we belonged here,” Daniels said. “It was just another game for me. That’s how I treated it.”

The Eagles won their only Super Bowl in the 2017 season and Nick Foles, the QB in that game against New England, was the honorary captain.

The Eagles cut to other stars from that game in attendance on the big screen and now — two years after Eagles lost to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl — the franchise has a chance at winning their second one.

Much as he has all season, Barkley led the way for the Eagles.

After the Commanders opened the game with an 18-play drive and a field goal that quieted a raucous crowd, Barkley whipped the fans that included actor Bradley Cooper into a frenzy on the Eagles’ first offensive play from scrimmage.

Only the ninth running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, Barkley took the pitch from Hurts and cut left, spun around a pair of defenders and took off on the touchdown run.

The Eagles recovered a fumble on the next drive and Barkley added a 4-yard run — making him 2 for 2 on carries and touchdowns — for a 14-3 lead.

Including the playoffs, Barkley extended an NFL record Sunday with his seventh rushing touchdown of 60-plus yards in a season.

“When he does it early, it doesn’t really matter who gets the party started, just for us to gain some momentum as an offense and gain a rhythm, (we) keep going,” Hurts said.

Daniels, who led the Commanders to six consecutive victories, made his share of big plays that included a 36-yard touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin that pulled them to 14-12.

“I had a lot of confidence in what we would do and how we would play,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said.

Hurts, who hurt his knee when he was sacked last week by the Rams, had his best game yet in a postseason where the Eagles played all three games at home. He closed the first half with a tush push 1-yard touchdown and threw a 4-yard scoring pass to Brown to send the Eagles into halftime with a 27-15 lead.

“I guess he let me out of my straitjacket a little bit today,” Hurts said of Sirianni’s offense.

Hurts secured the Super Bowl berth with a tush push touchdown in the fourth quarter — after a humorous moment when an official said he’d award the Eagles a touchdown if Washington didn’t stop jumping offside — and his ninth career postseason rushing score gave them a 41-23 lead.

Small amounts of green confetti started to fly from the upper deck at that point at the countdown was officially on for the Super Bowl.

The Commanders’ desperate gasp at another late comeback win ended with a thud when Nolan Smith sacked Daniels on fourth down in the fourth quarter. Will Shipley gave Barkley a needed breather in the blowout and punched in a 2-yard touchdown run for a 55-23 lead. The “E-A-G-L-E-S! Eagles!” chants began in earnest and it’s sure to ring loud in New Orleans.

The Chiefs get more Mahomes magic and advance to 3rd straight Super Bowl, beating the Bills 32-29


Everything looked oh-so familiar at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night: Patrick Mahomes hoisting the AFC championship trophy as confetti rained down, Andy Reid hugging Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, and Travis Kelce kissing Taylor Swift, grabbing the mic and imploring fans to once more party the night away.

The two-time defending Super Bowl champions had earned a chance at an unprecedented three-peat.

And once again, they had brushed aside the Buffalo Bills on the way.

This time, it was Mahomes’ arm and his legs — 245 yards passing and a touchdown, two more scores rushing — and some key stops by the Kansas City defense that preserved a 32-29 victory over the Bills in the AFC championship game.

“It’s just so hard to get to the Super Bowl and I don’t take it for granted, and to do it again at Arrowhead Stadium was special,” Mahomes said. “You get that trophy on that stage and you look around here and there’s not an empty seat — it’s special.”

The Chiefs will get a familiar foe in the big game in the Eagles, whom they beat two years ago for the title. Philadelphia romped to a 55-23 victory over the Commanders earlier Sunday to earn a shot at the champs on Feb. 9 in New Orleans.

It’s the fourth time since January 2021 that the Chiefs have ended the Bills’ season in the playoffs. And like all the rest, it came after a heavyweight fight between two of the top teams in the AFC, one that was tied 29-all after Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen found Curtis Samuel in the back of the end zone to set up a little more drama in the conference championship game.

Mahomes was simply unflappable, though. He completed four consecutive passes on the ensuing possession, setting up Harrison Butker’s go-ahead field goal with 3:33 left, and put the Bills in another do-or-die situation in Kansas City.

Allen got their drive going by running for a first down, but his next two throws were batted at the line of scrimmage. He hit Amari Cooper for a short gain on third down, and the Bills chose to go for it — they were 4 of 5 on fourth downs at that point — and the Kansas City blitz forced Allen to loft up a prayer that Dalton Kincaid was unable to corral deep downfield.

The Chiefs took over, picked up a couple of first downs and began to celebrate once again.

“I’ve always said it: It’s not about one guy. It’s not about a couple guys. It’s about the whole entire team,” Mahomes said. “When we needed the defense to get stops, they got stops. Offense, we made plays. That’s why we’re so special.”

Kareem Hunt had a touchdown run and Xavier Worthy had six catches for 85 yards and a score for Kansas City, which became just the fourth franchise to reach at least three consecutive Super Bowls with its ninth consecutive playoff victory.

“Every one of these is so special,” said Clark Hunt, whose father Lamar’s name adorns the AFC championship trophy. “What a game today. Travis, Patrick and their teammates always find a way to get it done. That was true this whole year. And it’s a credit to coach Reid and his amazing staff. Now we get to do something that’s never been done before.”

Allen threw for 237 yards and two scores for Buffalo, while James Cook ran for 85 yards and two touchdowns of his own.

Yet the Bills still have not been to the Super Bowl since a run of four straight during the 1990-93 seasons.

“I told them they’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said, “and I love them.”

The Bills and Chiefs have become well acquainted over the years, meeting eight times now since Kansas City beat Buffalo under the exact same circumstances — the AFC title game at Arrowhead Stadium — to reach the Super Bowl in January 2021.

Buffalo has won all four games in the regular season. Kansas City has won the four that mattered in the postseason.

All of that familiarity, along with the fact that McDermott once worked for Reid, was evident as the game transpired. The Bills refused to let Kelce beat them, like he did against the Texans in the divisional round, while Kansas City did everything it could to keep Allen from beating him with his legs — or his arm, for that matter.

It was the Chiefs who took a 21-16 lead into the locker room after a topsy-turvy first half.

Mahomes and Kareem Hunt ran for scores and Worthy had a touchdown reception as the teams traded the lead. Cook reached the end zone for Buffalo, and a spectacular touchdown catch by Mack Hollins just before halftime kept the Bills in the game.

It remained a game of inches in the second half: Cook barely reached across the goal line for a touchdown, the Chiefs stopped Allen inches shy of the marker on fourth down, Mahomes bulldozed into the end zone for a score, and the Bills answered with a 70-yard drive in which their MVP-candidate quarterback hit Samuel on fourth-and-goal to tie the game at 29-all.

Fifty-three minutes and 45 seconds had been rendered moot. Everything came down to the last 6:15 of the game.

“That’s football, you know. The loss hurts. That’s what makes this game what it is,” Bills pass rusher Von Miller said. “We did everything in our power to win. And just, you know, ran out of time.”

Injuries

Bills cornerback Christian Benford was carted off in the first quarter and declared out with a concussion. He had spent the week in the concussion protocol before getting cleared to play Sunday.

Up next


The Chiefs are headed to the Big Easy to face the Eagles in the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. In the first game, they rallied from a 24-14 halftime deficit with Butker hitting a 27-yard field goal for the 38-35 win.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

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