What a journey to get here . . . and now I have the final matchup of my 2019 NFL Tournament:  The New Orleans Saints will take on the Kansas City Chiefs!  Drew Brees versus Patrick Mahomes!

Attached are each team’s statistics through their six games that got them here.  The Saints are 5-1 . . . their only loss to the Cowboys in round two of the playoffs . . . . which they avenged in their second contest against Dallas in round five.  And, they will be just about a full strength heading into this game.  They only have four players on the injured list.

Kansas City, meanwhile, hopes that their quarterback, Mahomes, will continue his playoff brilliance, which has been nothing short of incredible so far.  In the Chiefs’ six victories against no losses, he has thrown a remarkable 27 touchdown passes, 13 of which have gone to Travis Kelce!

New Orleans actually has a very narrow rating point advantage heading into the contest.  They are a 42/42 on offense (pass/run), compared to Kansas City’s defense of 40/40.  And, when the Chiefs have the ball, their offense is 44/41, while the Saints’ defense comes in at 39/44.  This gives Brees & Company a +2/+2 advantage on offense, and the Chiefs come in at +5/-3 when they have the ball.  Actually, pretty darn close!

Here’s the injury list heading into the game, and it is a clear advantage for the Saints:

New Orleans:  Nick Easton (G-3), Janoris Jenkins (CB-3), Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (S-3), Tre’Quan Smith (WR-2-B)

Kansas City:  Chris Jones (DT-4), Damien Williams (RB-3-A), Anthony Sherman (FB-3), Cameron Erving (T-3), Tanoh Kpassagnon (DE-3), Terrell Suggs (LB-3), Reggie Ragland (LB-3), Spencer Ware (RB-2-B)

Well . . . this one didn’t start off so great for the Chiefs.  Mecole Hardman fielded the opening kick-off 8 yards deep in his own end zone, and, for some inexplicable reason, decided to run it out . . . and only made it to the 5 yard line!  Then, on their first play from scrimmage, Patrick Mahomes was sacked by Jaylon Ferguson for a safety.  Following the safety kick off Baltimore then took the ball 84 yards with Lamar Jackson taking it in for a TD from 5 yards out for a 9-0 lead.  Then, Jackson and Seth Roberts hooked up for a 71 yard TD pass to put the Ravens up 16-0.  And, it looked like the rout was on!

The Chiefs, however, did start to chip away – with a Harrison Butker field goal and a Damian Williams TD run, to cut the Ravens’ lead to 16-10.  But Mark Ingram’s short TD run followed by a long field goal from Justin Tucker just before the half, put Baltimore back on top by 16 entering intermission.

But, the second half flat belonged to the Chiefs, as they scored 26 unanswered points to come back and defeat the Ravens 36-26.  Now they are headed to the Super Bowl!

When I rolled the dice to determine the starting lineups and realized that Drew Brees would miss his second game in this tournament, I admit that I was disappointed.  You never want to see a team get the the penultimate football game without a future Hall-of-Famer.  So, what does his backup, Teddy Bridgewater, do?  He completes nearly 3/4 of his passes for 315 yards and a TD . . . and catapults New Orleans over the 49ers and into the Super Bowl!

The Saints trailed in this football game 16-14 with only 1:40 left to play and had to start their final drive from their 5 yard line.  Well, Bridgewater started working his magic.  He hit Alvin Kamara for 16 yards to the 21.  Them he connected with Tre’Quan Smith to his own 43 yard line for another first down.  Next came the big play – a 15 yard completion to Josh Hill . . . who was tackled by San Francisco’s Jaquiski Tartt by his facemask . . . adding another 15 yards to the Niners’ 27 yard line.  And, it was here that Bridgewater worked his final act of “magic” with a perfect pass to Michael Thomas for the game winning TD with only 10 seconds left on the clock!!

So, congratulations to the Saints!  They’re headed for the Super Bowl!!!

Game-160

The matchup everyone wanted to see!!!  Well, maybe not the Buffalo Bills fans!!  But, this is the classic marquis contest between two terrific quarterbacks:  Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs and Lamar Jackson of the Ravens.  Both of these teams are unbeaten (5-0) in this tournament and this ought to be a fantastic football game!

There are a few key injuries, however.  Tyreek Hill, Kansas City’s All-Pro wide receiver is out, as is Ravens’ Pro-Bowl offensive guard Marshal Yanda.  Here is a complete listing of all the injured players for this game:

Kansas City:  Tyreek Hill (WR – 4A), Chris Jones (DE-4), Anthony Sherman (FB-3), Andrew Wylie (G-3), Eric Fisher (T-3), Stefen Wisniewski (G-3), Emmanuel Ogbah (DE-3), Terrell Suggs (LB-3), Spencer Ware (RB – 2B)

Baltimore: Marshal Yanda (G-5), L.J. Ford (LB-4), James Hurst (T-3), Pernell McPhee (DE-3), Chris Wormley (DT-3), Domata Peko (DT-3), Patrick Onwuasor (LB-3), Chuck Clark (S-3)

The New Orleans Saints will travel to San Francisco to take on the 49ers in the NFC title game.  But the Saints will be without the services of future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Drew Brees who is hobbling after their victory over the Dallas Cowboys to land them in this championship battle.  Instead, it will be Teddy Bridgewater leading their offense against Jimmy Garoppolo and the Niners.

Here is the full list of injured players for this contest:

New Orleans:  Drew Brees (QB-4), Marshon Lattimore (CB-4), Nick Easton (G-3), Marcus Davenport (DE-3), P.J. Williams (CB-3), Janoris Jenkins (CB-3)

San Francisco:  Weston Richburg (C-4), Kwon Alexander (LB-4), Daniel Brunskill (T-3), Dee Ford (DE-3), K’waun Williams (CB-3)

The Baltimore Ravens secured a spot in the AFC title game against the Kansas City Chiefs with a convincing 41-10 victory at home over the Buffalo Bills.

The game started as a defensive struggle with Baltimore holding a 6-3 lead with less than two minutes to play in the first half.  But, they scored two touchdowns in a span of less than a minute, the second score following the first of two Marcus Peters’ interceptions.

But, the Bills scored their only TD late in the third period to cut the margin to only ten points.  But, the fourth quarter belonged to Lamar Jackson and Baltimore, as he led the Ravens to 3 touchdowns and an easy victory.

12 sacks.  Let that sink in for a minute . . . . Carson Wentz, Philadelphia’s quarterback, was running for his life all game long against the 49ers, as they trapped him a dozen times for over 70 yards in losses in San Francisco’s relatively easy 37-12 victory!

The win for the Niners keeps them unbeaten in the tournament and puts them in the NFC Title game, where they will host Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.

San Francisco quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, had a solid game completing nearly 80% of his passes for 262 yards and a pair of touchdowns.  But, it was the 49ers’ defense that really stood tall, holding the Eagles to only 78 yards passing and less than 180 yards of total offense for the game.

For the second time in this tournament, the Kansas City Chiefs came from behind to defeat the New England Patriots . . . but this game propels KC to the AFC Championship game, and sends the Pats home.

Once again it was Patrick Mahomes, the remarkable Chiefs’ quarterback, leading the way, completing 23 passes for 405 yards and 4 TD’s!

Tom Brady tried to keep the Pats in it, with New England closing to within 3 points with only 10:00 to play.  Then, after another Mahomes TD pass to increase Kansas City’s lead to 31-21, Brady hit Julian Edelman for a 67 yard TD pass . . . only to see it wiped out because he had crossed the line of scrimmage before he threw the ball!

 Kansas City is now 5-0 in the playoffs and Mahomes has been other-worldly.  Here are his remarkable numbers after five victories:

            ATT         COMP          YARDS         INT            TD          PASS RATING

             174           120              1,956             3               25              138.79

By any measuring stick, this man is AMAZING!!!!!!!!

Being a life-long Dallas Cowboys fan, I have to admit I was pretty jazzed up when they rolled to a 14-0 lead in this NFC Semi-Final game!  But, reality set in when Drew Brees and the Saints scored the next 35 points to win handily 35-21 and to advance to the NFC title game!

Earlier in this tournament, the Cowboys actually defeated New Orleans, but that was with Brees hurt and Teddy Bridgewater at the helm.  Not this game.  Brees completed 22 passes for 321 yards and two touchdowns to Michael Thomas, who ended up the game with 125 receiving yards.

The Saints now await the winner of the Eagles-49ers game to see who they will play in the NFC Championship contest.