By Tiffany Williams and DJ Harding
On Championship Sunday The Baltimore Ravens will host the Kansas City Chiefs with a ticket to the Super Bowl on the line.
As Ravens Linebacker Roquan Smith put it “One’s going to have to break.”
For Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes this will be his first AFC Championship game on the road as the Chiefs have hosted the last five championship games.
On the contrary Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson will play in his first AFC Championship game in his career. This is also the first championship game that the Ravens franchise has played at home.
Lamar doesn’t seem phased though saying this week “Nothing changes until we complete the mission.” The mission he’s obviously referring to is a Super Bowl.
There also lies a bit of history in this matchup being the first AFC Championship to have two black starting quarterbacks.
The previous four times the Ravens played in the AFC Championship were all on the road in 2000, 2008, 2011, and 2012 all played with former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis who along with former Ravens safety Ed Reed will be the legends of the game.
Baltimore also gets another boost with tight end Mark Andrews returning to the lineup after being put on injured reserve for an ankle injury mid-season.
Kansas City’s tight end Travis Kelce is having a playoff run of his own as him and Patrick Mahomes have set the record for most postseason touchdowns between a duo with 16 which passed Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh will coach in his fourth AFC Championship having a record of 1-2 with his only appearance being 2012 when the Ravens went on to win the Super Bowl. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid meanwhile is coaching his 11th Championship game and sixth AFC Championship game.
In Reid’s 25 years of coaching he’s reached 11 championship games, five with the Eagles and six with the Chiefs. Reid has a record of 4-6 in Championship games going into Sunday.
But when it comes to momentum from the regular season these two teams are in totally different places. Baltimore enters the game riding on a wave of having a defense that leads the league in points allowed per game (16.5), sacks (60), and takeaways (31) during the regular season, something no other team has done in league history.
The Ravens were no different on offense ranking fourth in scoring (28.4) and sixth in total yards per game (370.4). The offense had Jackson who earned first team all pro honors this year and Zay Flowers who set franchise marks in catches (77) and receiving yards (858).
Kansas City meanwhile while having a top defense of their own witnessed their worse record under Patrick Mahomes at 11-6. Mahomes and the Chiefs still found their way to the Championship after defeating the Dolphins and Bills.
That defense of their own has Chris Jones who was named first team All-Pro. Jones himself spoke on facing Jackson “He’s an MVP caliber quarterback.” Jones said “He has a good chance of winning MVP this year, that just shows you how dynamic a player he is.”
The two teams will clash on Sunday at 3:00PM with a chance at cementing themselves into history.
Sports Insider Daily 