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Changing of the AFC guard? Nah, just same old Patrick Mahomes ... same old Lamar Jackson
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- Changing of the AFC guard? Nah, just same old Patrick Mahomes ... same old Lamar Jackson
BALTIMORE – Won't Get Fooled Again.
The anthemic rock-and-roll proclamation from The Who was issued more than five decades ago (shortly after the NFL and AFL merged in 1970). But it happened. Sunday. When we got fooled.
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Again.
Four seasons after leading a record-setting, top-seeded outfit into the AFC playoffs before a divisional-round collapse, this was supposed to be the year Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson , who will soon make space for a second league MVP award in his trophy case, finally reached the Super Bowl. This was also the year when Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes , a two-time league and Super Bowl MVP, looked mortal – the highlight throws, gaudy stats and wins coming with less frequency and more difficulty.
Tasked with picking the AFC championship game's outcome, I was among eight USA TODAY Sports staffers who collectively called it for the Ravens – odd as such anti-Chiefs unanimity rendered.
Yet after the superstar quarterbacks clashed at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium? Great as they both are, perhaps the defining talents of the contemporary quarterbacking generation? Same old Jackson. And same old Mahomes.
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The latter adapted, dispersing short passes on Kansas City 's opening possession, a 10-play, 86-yard touchdown drive – the capper a 19-yard pass to tight end Travis Kelce . It set the tone for an efficient, nearly mistake-free performance that landed the Chiefs in the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five seasons.
"Pat Mahomes did a great job again, as he normally does," said K.C. HC Andy Reid. "But starting the game off with 11 completions, that's something special, then to manage the game."
And 241 yards and one TD through the air is definitely game management by Mahomes' historical bar.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) holds up the Lamar Hunt Trophy after the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore. The Chiefs won 17-10. (AP Photo/Nick Wass) ORG XMIT: =AFC409
Meanwhile, Jackson, now 2-4 in postseason, reverted. After showing so much growth as a passer and offensive surgeon all season – including a masterful second half in the previous week's rout of the Houston Texans – he regressed to the narrative he desperately wants to escape as just another quarterback who can't win it all. Jackson couldn't beat or sufficiently feel the Chiefs' relentless blitz, stripped of the ball on one of the four sacks he absorbed. His end zone interception lofted toward tight end Isaiah Likely should have never been thrown into triple coverage.
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And while you can't fault Jackson for Baltimore's inexplicable decision to essentially mothball their top-ranked ground game on a day when they never trailed by more than 10 points, he wasn't able to rip off the chunk-sized gallops that he so often flashes to put a defense on its heels.
The loss deeply stung the top-seeded Ravens collectively, yet Jackson's teammates also knew what it meant for him personally .
"I had never seen somebody so locked in and just in their flow and in their era, and I just felt like it was his time," said Baltimore wideout Odell Beckham . "(But) sometimes things happen in life, and it doesn't go the way that we plan. It's just about, what do you do from here?"
Added Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen : "This was (Jackson's) opportunity to be able to write some of that stuff off and move on to the next thing. That's why it hurts, because you want to see people like that, teammates that you love and care about, get what they're supposed to get, and that didn't happen today."
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But it did happen for Mahomes. Again. He'd never won so few regular-season games (10), passed for so few yards per game in a season (261.4), had such a lower QB rating (92.6) or been able to overcome his average-at-best receivers not named Kelce.
Yet there he was, rolling right, rolling left, spreading the ball to seven different pass catchers – but mostly to Kelce, for 11 of his 30 completions – while committing nary a turnover. (That's seven straight playoff games without a pick if you're counting at home.) Mahomes' biggest throw on Sunday afternoon was his last, a 32-yard hookup with Marquez Valdes-Scantling at the two-minute warning that effectively punctuated Kansas City's 17-10 victory.
Now Mahomes heads to his fourth Super Bowl, the first quarterback ever to do that before his 30th birthday. And even if many outside the Chiefs locker room were surprised by that result, Mahomes' teammates certainly weren't.
"Nothing impressed me," running back Isiah Pacheco said of Mahomes' performance. "That's what he does – determined mindset, came out here with a goal."
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And now the ultimate prize is in sight.
"I don't like losing any games," said Mahomes, who's now 14-3 in postseason.
"And now, we're going to the Super Bowl, and like I said, we're not done."
The Chiefs open as slight underdogs to the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers . You'd probably be wise not to let the line fool you.
Again.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter @ByNateDavis .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson revert to form in AFC Championship game
