The Cincinnati Bengals reach the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1988 season after shocking the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead. Watch live coverage of Super Bowl LVI from 10pm on Sky Sports NFL on Sunday, February 13 - with kickoff at 11.30pm from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles
Monday 7 February 2022 11:49, UK
Evan McPherson kicked a 31-yard game-winning field goal in overtime as the Cincinnati Bengals reached the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1988 season after stunning the Kansas City Chiefs with a 27-24 victory in the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead.
Vonn Bell intercepted Patrick Mahomes on the third play in overtime to kickstart the decisive drive that would ice the largest comeback in Conference Championship game history.
The Bengals had trailed 21-3 in the first half after a lightning Chiefs start, and did not lead in the game until 6.04 remaining when McPherson split the posts from 52 yards to put the visitors up 24-21.
Harrison Butker then sent the game beyond regulation with a 44-yard field goal as time expired, only for the Chiefs to be denied a third straight trip to the Super Bowl.
Mahomes had been near-perfect during a first half in which he went 18 of 21 passing for 220 yards and three touchdowns to Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce and Mecole Hardman as the Chiefs appeared well on course to advance to a Super Bowl showdown at SoFi Stadium.
Samaje Perine ignited an unlikely comeback inside the final two minutes of the second quarter, though, when he slalomed through Chiefs bodies behind a big block from rookie offensive tackle Jackson Carman for a 41-yard touchdown to make it 21-10.
The Bengals defense followed up with a critical stop to deny Hill at the one-yard line on second-and-goal on the final play of the half.
McPherson's 31-yard field goal cut the lead to eight points after the break, before BJ Hill's interception off Mahomes on the ensuing drive set up Burrow's two-yard touchdown pass to Ja'Marr Chase and two-point conversion to Trent Taylor to make it 21-21.
Momentum looked like it might swing back in the Chiefs' favour when Burrow was intercepted by L'Jarius Sneed inside the first minute of the fourth quarter, but Kansas City could only manage a swift three-and-out.
Burrow twice scrambled to convert crucial third-and-longs, the first of which saw him miraculously escape a Chris Jones sack on two occasions, to tee up McPherson's go-ahead field goal.
The former LSU national champion became the first No.1 overall pick quarterback to reach the Super Bowl in his second season in the NFL, finishing the game 23 of 38 for 250 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Bengals
Chiefs
Hill had set the tone for the Chiefs' early dominance when he showed excellent soft hands to absorb Mahomes' bullet at the back of the end zone for a 10-yard strike to cap an 11-play 84-yard drive.
Cincinnati settled for Evan McPherson's 32-yard field goal in response after Charvarius Ward broke up an end zone-bound pass intended for Ja'Marr Chase. The Bengals might have had reason to feel disgruntled after a divisive non-call on Rashad Fenton's tight coverage to deny Tee Higgins a touchdown on the previous play, with the Chiefs defensive back seemingly pinning the wide receiver's right arm to force him into attempting the catch with one hand.
Zac Taylor's side were dealt a blow shortly after when tight end C.J Uzomah was carted off with a knee injury, before returning on crutches on the sideline later in the game.
Kansas City extended their lead when a gyrating Mahomes escaped a collapsing pocket before rolling to his right and floating a five-yard score to Kelce for a 14-3 advantage. Two successive touchdown drives became three as he flicked a three-yard pass to a wide-open Hardman to establish a 21-3 lead with five minutes to play.
Former NFL offensive lineman and Sky Sports NFL expert Brian Baldinger...
"The respect and admiration for what Joe Burrow has done, to go to a perennial loser and turn them into a Super Bowl team in really a year-plus coming off an ACL injury, it's what every fan base dreams about.
"Credit (Bengals owner) Mike Brown, the whole organisation, this is what dreams and beliefs are about in the NFL, that you can go last to first if you get the right guy at that position.
"He gets a chance to create his own legend, Joe Montana is Joe Montana, all the other famous Joes. It really started when we watched him go undefeated at LSU and win a national championship with Ja'Marr Chase and that great team.
"To come to Cincinnati and do this in his second season, and to see him out-play the great Patrick Mahomes who has been building his own legend, on his own field like this, is something to see.
"It's part of why the NFL is so special, because you can do what Cincinnati did and are doing, if you pick the right guy and put a good team around him."
Cheifs quarterback Mahomes admitted the Bengals defense had the better of him in the second half as the Super Bowl LIV winner and MVP struggled to hit the heights he had done during the first two quarters.
"They just had a spy on me, for the most part, and I've usually done a good job getting around that guy, but they had a good game plan," Mahomes said.
"They were doing a lot of similar stuff in the first half, we were just executing at a higher level. They stayed with it. They fought that's a good football team. But it takes a lot of fight to stay in a game whenever you are down like that.
"But I mean, I've got to be better. I mean when you're up 21-3 at one point in the game, you can't lose it, and I put that on myself."
The Bengal's fightback from 18 points down also ended the Chiefs' hopes of reaching the Super Bowl for the third year running, but Mahomes has a burning desire to add another winners' ring to his collection.
"You can't let this end what we have here," Mahomes said. "You have to make sure you continue to battle, continue to get better and try to find ways to win Super Bowls at the end of the day."
It's onto Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium for the Bengals, with build-up underway live on Sky Sports NFL from 10pm followed by kickoff at 11:30pm on Sunday February 13.
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