Kansas City Chiefs vs Cincinnati Bengals Prediction: An thrilling semi final awaits us

On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs will play host to the Cincinnati Bengals in a repeat of the AFC Championship Game from the previous season. At stake is a berth in Super Bowl LVII for both teams, hence the game will take place at Arrowhead Stadium. After defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 27-20 the previous Saturday, the Kansas City Chiefs will be competing for the conference championship for the fifth time in a row. On the other hand, the Cincinnati Bengals are competing for the conference championship for the second season in a row after posting a convincing 27-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

It is a stage that the Chiefs are accustomed to by this point, as they have a chance to win the American Football Conference championship for the third time in the last four seasons. In the game against Jacksonville, Patrick Mahomes suffered an ankle injury and was forced to throw from the pocket. As a result of the injury, Kansas City's starting quarterback was restricted to making throws from within the pocket. Fortunately, their offensive line stepped up and did a good job against the Jaguars, as they did not allow any sacks to be taken as Kansas City ran for 144 yards as a team. Their defensive line has been a problem throughout the season, registering two or more sacks in four consecutive games despite having a blitz percentage of only 25.9 percent of the time. They had the second-most sacks during the regular season (55) and were the team with the second-most sacks overall. Throughout the course of the season, their secondary has given the impression that it is vulnerable in pass coverage. However, in the Divisional Round, they had an amazing performance, holding Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence to a rating of 74.4 while surrendering only 5.6 yards per attempt. Their defense was forced to make some impressive plays since their special teams unit allowed Jamal Agnew to return the ball for an average of 43.7 yards per attempt.

Over the course of the past couple of seasons, Cincinnati has been written off on multiple occasions; but, as of last Sunday, the team has extended its winning streak to a remarkable 10 games in a row, proving their doubters completely incorrect. During this winning streak, the Bengals have been exceptional on both sides of the ball, scoring an average of 28.3 points per game while allowing just 18.5 points per game to their opponents. There are many potential receivers scattered throughout this squad, and almost all of them were put to use during the game played in the snow the week before; eight different players were successful in collecting a throw. They have also been much better at protecting their quarterback, as seen by the fact that they allowed only one sack against the Buffalo Bills, despite the fact that their star quarterback dropped back 37 times. As the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, Zac Taylor has won each of his team's last three postseason games away from home, suggesting that he may have a natural talent for devising strategies that can subdue enthusiastic supporters of the opposing team. They held tight ends to the third-lowest rating in the league (79.5), and they allowed a measly 3.9 yards per carry to running backs, which was the fifth-lowest rating in the NFL. They have allowed fewer than 20 points in each of their 10 matches so far this season, and the Bengals were one of only five teams in the 2022 season who were able to keep the Chiefs to 24 points or fewer.

This match is one that I will be betting on to go over. This total has dropped dramatically from where I expected it to be, as each of the last five meetings had seen 51 or more points, and that goes back to the pre-Burrow/Mahomes games in this matchup. To say that the head-to-head matchups between these two quarterbacks have been nothing short of thrilling would be an understatement, and I anticipate an equally enthralling game on Sunday to determine who will advance to the Super Bowl.