By Jack Herr, Sports Editor
Referees and sports: two entities that must go together, but that struggle to maintain a peaceful coexistence. This past weekend’s conference championship games featured the latest referee-centered debacle on the second biggest stage in football.
The NFC Championship game between the No. 1 Philadelphia Eagles and the No. 2 San Francisco 49ers was as unorthodox as they come. The Eagles were favored to win from the outset given the strength of their roster and the legendary home field advantage that comes with playing at Lincoln Financial Field. The 49ers have just as many weapons as the Birds on both sides of the ball, but with third-string QB Brock Purdy leading the offense, their longevity in the postseason was in question.
On the game’s first play, San Francisco fans held their breath as star LB Fred Warner went down with an injury. He re-entered a few plays later, but his presence was not enough to keep the Eagles from converting on a fourth and three from the Niners 35 yard line, the play that sparked the game’s first controversy. Eagles QB Jalen Hurts was scampering out of trouble when he threw the ball downfield to rookie WR Devonta Smith. The ball landed in Smith’s outstretched hand before he cradled it to his chest, and for anyone watching the game live, it looked like a spectacular one-handed catch that saved the Eagles’ drive.
Two plays later, RB Miles Sanders split the gap and found the endzone untouched, giving the Eagles the early 7-0 following a Jake Elliot extra point. While Philadelphia fans celebrated, 49ers fans fumed, as the national broadcast revealed that Smith’s snag was no catch at all. A new angle in slow motion replay showed the ball clearly hitting the ground before Smith regained control. The receiver’s intuition to hustle his team into the next play before the refs decided to review it or San Francisco decided to challenge it kept the drive alive.
The 49ers’ luck did not get any better. Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick, who has been on a tear this season with a total of 19.5 sacks, smacked Purdy’s throwing arm while in motion, resulting in a fumble recovered by the Eagles. Purdy suffered an elbow injury due to the contact, bringing in backup QB Josh Johnson.
With their quarterback situation in jeopardy, the Niners needed a hero. RB Christian McCaffery, who they acquired in October, took the reins and carried the ball 23 yards to the endzone, the culmination of a 46-yard drive in which he accounted for 43 yards. With the game tied at seven, the home team needed to answer. Hurts led his team down the field on the ensuing possession, eating seven minutes of clock along the way. Sanders crossed the goal line, unscathed again, for his second touchdown, giving the Eagles a 14-7 lead. And they were not done – the next possession, Reddick recovered the ball at the Niners 30 yard line after Johnson mishandled the snap, a turnover leading to a Boston Scott rushing touchdown before time expired.
Midway through the third quarter, the injury bug struck again for the Niners. Johnson suffered a concussion, reluctantly forcing San Francisco to put Purdy back in the game. For the Eagles, Hurts, despite the shoulder injury he has been dealing with, tallied a couple of first-down runs before QB sneaking into the endzone, a play that has worked all year for Philly thanks to their elite offensive line led by Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, and Jordan Mailata.
Later on in the fourth, Elliot nailed a 31-yard field goal to bring the game to what would be its final score, 31-7 in favor of the Eagles. Before they could officially be crowned NFC champions, though, a scuffle broke out on the field between several players of each team. The refs seemed to have control of it until 49ers LT Trent Williams slammed Eagles S K’Von Wallace to the ground; both players were ejected.
The AFC Championship between the No. 1 Kansas City Chiefs and the No. 3 Cincinnati Bengals featured a competitive battle between two of the league’s rising stars at quarterback: Patrick Mahomes for the former and Joe Burrow for the latter. The Chiefs put together two impressive drives to start the game with Mahomes heavily targeting his TE Travis Kelce, who finished the game with seven catches for 78 yards. However, the Bengals’ defense held strong on each, forcing two field goals that gave Kansas City a 6-0 lead.
Burrow needed to respond. His offensive line was leaking like a sieve early on and let their quarterback get sacked five times over the course of the game. Cincinnati converted on a couple of big third downs to get them inside the redzone, but they could not finish the job, settling for a field goal of their own.
Mahomes and company finally scored a touchdown with under four minutes to go in the first half. A nice drive featuring pivotal catches by WR Marquez Valdez-Scantling, who finished as the game’s leading receiver with 116 yards, hit a near abrupt stop when faced with a fourth down and one on the Bengals’ 14 yard line. Head coach Andy Reid went for it, a decision that paid off—Mahomes found Kelce for six points followed by a good extra point.
The Chiefs’ defense secured an interception on the next drive, but ended up punting, giving the Bengals a chance to shrink the lead before halftime. Burrow threw another pick, but it was reversed by a pass interference call, and he led his offense all the way to the Chiefs’ five yard line. They could not punch it in and kicked the field goal, making the score 13-6 at half.
The Bengals finally found the endzone in the third. On a third and six from the Chiefs’ 27 yard line, Burrow launched a beautiful ball to his TE Tee Higgins, who skied his defender to make the catch and landed in the endzone. All of a sudden, the game was tied.
The Chiefs answered right back. Reid made another gutsy call, challenging the spot on a third down and seven catch made by Valdez-Scantling, who extended the ball just far enough before he was tackled to make the refs reconsider and award the first down. Mahomes must have felt obligated to reward the receiver for his effort, hitting him for a 19-yard touchdown a few plays later.
With under a minute left in the third, Mahomes made a rare physical error, fumbling the ball as he tried to throw a screen pass. The Bengals recovered and then converted on a huge fourth down and six, Ja’Marr Chase rising above two defenders to catch a long ball from his QB. RB Samaje Perine bullied his way into the endzone two plays later, knotting the game at 20.
Neither team could get much going offensively as the clock ticked on in the fourth. The Bengals looked like they had a shot to string together the winning drive after an impressive third down and 16 conversion from deep in their own territory, but a DT Chris Jones sack on Burrow forced them to punt. Then, Skyy Moore, punt returner for the Chiefs, made perhaps the play of the game, taking the ball 29 yards all the way to their 47 yard line and giving his offense great field position with half a minute left.
On a third down and four, Mahomes escaped the pocket and rushed for the first down, but after he had already stepped out of bounds, Bengals DE Joseph Ossai pushed him, causing the QB to trip and fall and prompting a flag. Everyone watching knew what was coming: “Personal foul, unnecessary roughness, defense number 58, fifteen yards from the end of the play, first down.” The game was all but over, and Kansas City’s kicker Harrison Butker put the nail in the coffin with a 45-yarder.
The Chiefs came out victorious by a score of 23-20, but much of the discourse surrounding these games had to do with the referees’ impact on the outcomes. An unbiased fan might agree that Ossai probably committed a foul when he pushed Mahomes, but an unbiased fan might also dislike the way one flag sealed the game for the Chiefs.
Nevertheless, the Chiefs and Eagles will face off on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m. in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Andy Reid of the Chiefs has a chance to one-up his former team, and the Eagles have the opportunity to win their second-ever title. NFL fans are eagerly awaiting this battle of juggernauts.
