The 2024/24 National Football League (NFL) Conference Finals — aka the Super Bowl Semi-Finals — were played last weekend to determine the combatants for the season’s last hurrah. And while the National Football Conference (NFC) matchup ended up being a blowout, the American Football Conference (AFC) provided a game that lived up to the billing, and then some.

In the AFC, the Philadelphia Eagles trounced the Washington Commanders in a 55-23 beatdown, to book their ticket to Super Bowl LIX in Caesars Superdome, New Orleans. Washington kept the scoring fairly close up to half-time, trailing 15-27, but Philadelphia went berserk in the fourth quarter, racking up 21 points and completely shut out their opponent. Washington’s rookie quarterback (QB) Jayden Daniels, who had a dream of a season, fell short of glory last Sunday and added to the unenviable statistic of rookie QBs never winning NFL championship games, they are now 0-6 in those matchups.

The Commanders fell to self-inflicted wounds as the Eagles scored three touchdowns off four total turnovers, bringing their total takeaways to 10 for these play-offs — the most takeaways ever entering a Super Bowl — and did not commit any of their own in that run. The 55 points scored by Philadelphia is the most-ever in a Conference Final — the previous high came during the 1990 season when the Buffalo Bills beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 51-3, in the AFC title game — and their seven total rushing touchdowns tied a postseason record, matching the 1940 Chicago Bears, who also beat Washington in that encounter, by a score of 73-0 in the NFL Championship game.

Eagles’ QB Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley became the first pair of teammates to each rush for three touchdowns in a play-off game last Sunday afternoon, and Philadelphia’s 514 total rushing yards and 10 total rushing touchdowns in their past two games looms large heading into the Super Bowl next week. Barkley, who ran for 118 yards in the Conference Final, had a historic year and, were it not for the decision to sit out the last regular season game, he could have broken Eric Dickerson’s single season record of 2,105 yards set in 1984. Barkley finished the year with 2,005 yards, placing him eighth best all time, just above OJ Simpson, with 2,003 yards (1973).

Barkley was integral to Philadelphia’s run this year and is expected to be prominent in their second Super Bowl in three years, which inexplicably was an encounter against the Kansas City Chiefs, where they lost 35-38 in Super Bowl LVII, in 2023. The Eagles won their first Super Bowl in 2018 after also making it to the big game in 1981 and 2005, and Barkley is on a mission to go all the way this year for Philadelphia’s second championship.

Standing in his way are the Chiefs, who are on a mission to go where no NFL team has ever gone before. Kansas City clashed heads with Buffalo last week Sunday night in the AFC championship game, and the battle that ensued was nothing short of legendary. The Chiefs, after suffering their only consequential loss of the season to the Bills in Week 10, came across a very worthy and familiar adversary, and emerged on the better end of a field goal difference. The 29-32 loss was Buffalo’s fourth play-off loss to the Chiefs over the past five years, and much like the last two, this one finished on a knife’s edge.

One could argue that the Chiefs were on the plus side of a few questionable calls, but the Bills just didn’t do enough to shake the ghost of play-offs past. They lost despite scoring four touchdowns, not committing a turnover, gaining more total yards, being perfect in the red zone, and edging their opponent in the time of possession. Buffalo became the first team in NFL history to lose to the same opponent in the play-offs four times in a five-year span and are the only franchise to have won a play-off game five straight years but not advance to a Super Bowl in any of those seasons.

Buffalo’s QB Josh Allen had a record-setting year but ultimately tied QB Aaron Rodgers for the most defeats by a quarterback against one opponent in the postseason – Rodgers is 0-4 against the San Francisco 49ers in the postseason. However, Allen has the distinction of being the only QB to lose four play-off games against the same quarterback, namely Patrick Mahomes.

With the win, the Chiefs achieved their ninth-straight play-off victory, won their fifth AFC crown in six years (third consecutive), and are staring down the tunnel at an unprecedented Super Bowl three-peat. They are the fourth team to reach three-straight Super Bowls, but the first two-time winner to make it to the big dance. In what some have termed the “Super Bowl Curse”, seven teams have won back-to-back Super Bowls, but only one of those seven has made more than two consecutive winning appearances in the Super Bowl, and only Kansas City has made it this far after those wins. The Dallas Cowboys, 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers also reached the Conference Final after two-time wins, but didn’t advance to the Super Bowl the following season. The only franchise to reach more than three straight title games was Buffalo,who lost four consecutive Super Bowls from 1990 to 1993.

Between the 2004 and 2022 season, no incumbent champion had managed to successfully defend their title until the 2023 Chiefs, with wins in Super Bowl LVII and LVIII. Between 2006 and 2013, every defending Super Bowl champion finished the following season either failing to qualify for the play-offs or losing their opening play-off game.

That said, for the 10th time in NFL history, two teams that previously met in a Super Bowl will tackle each other in the final game of the season. Mahomes and the Chiefs were victorious in February 2023 against Philadelphia, and history favours the first-match Super Bowl winners. Teams that won the first Super Bowl match-up are 6-3 in the subsequent meeting, but in rematches separated by five years or fewer, the winners of the first meeting are a perfect 4-0 the next time around. Last year’s Chiefs vs 49ers Super Bowl was also a rematch, as the two previously met in LIV (February 2020), and Kansas City won both of those meetings.

With just over a week to go, February 9 can’t come too soon. History is there for the chasing and history is there for the taking. Will it be sweet revenge for the Eagles or will they be sitting on the wrong side of the record book? Will the Chiefs set another mark, or will there be a blemish on their dynasty? There will be many questions and even more back stories but, come what may, SB LIX is on, and it is left to be seen if the Eagles will soar or if their wings will be clipped.

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