January 18, 2020
By Fred Liggett
FredL@lstribune.net
Ding, Ding, Ding…….Welcome to the show. In one corner we have the playoff Cinderella, the AFC #6 seed Tennessee Titans. In the other corner we have the four time AFC West Champion and AFC #2 seed Kansas City Chiefs. In many ways this year’s AFC Championship game will seem like a championship boxing match as these two heavyweights meet on the field and play for the right to represent the AFC in Super Bowl 54.
The host Kansas City Chiefs are riding high coming into the game thanks to a seven-game winning streak and having experience of playing in this BIG game for the second consecutive year. The Chiefs confidence meter is pretty high too thanks to an historic come back last week in a 51-31 win over Houston. The team proved a 24-point first half deficit isn’t insurmountable much like a boxer who enters the final round of a title fight trailing in points to his opponent. The Chiefs offense showed the firepower and speed that has helped the team impress the country as they outscored the upset minded Titans 51-7 to earn another home playoff victory. The Chiefs defense limited the Texans to just 10 points in the last 3 quarters of the game showing how much the defense has improved from the last time the Chiefs were in a playoff game.
The visiting Tennessee Titans have gained fans throughout the post season as they first went to New England and knocked off the defending Super Bowl champions before going to Baltimore and impressively earning another road win to advance in the AFC playoffs. “Titan Up” is now heard often thanks to Titans fans everywhere getting excited about their teams run to a Super Bowl.
The Titans are coming to Kansas City largely due to three men, Head Coach Mike Vrabel, QB Ryan Tannehill and RB Derrick Henry. Henry has put up mind-boggling stats in the Titans two playoff wins and looks to complete an historic run with another solid performance in Kansas City. Tannehill, since taking over the role of starting Titans QB, has gone 7-2 including 2-0 in the playoffs. This oft injured one-time Miami Dolphin is enjoying much success playing in the Music City. Coach Vrabel has his Titans playing well at the right time of the year. The long time NFL player got kudos for beating his old team the Patriots two weeks ago. Vrabel is also a former Chief having played in KC 2009-10 seasons before embarking on his coaching career. In addition to trying to beat his old teams Vrabel shows confidence in his players to pull off plays like the one last week that found RB Derrick Henry taking a snap and throwing for a touchdown.
This week the media has talked about the Chiefs last loss of the 2019 season was to these Titans in a 35-32 road game. The last time these two met in a playoff game, played in January 2018, the Titans won that one too by a 22-21 count. Easy to see where someone might think the Titans Cinderella run through the playoffs will last one more week. However on the other side of the field is the Chiefs who took quite a punch from the Texans last week and came out on top. The Chiefs last year in this game failed to score a first half point and lost after scoring 31 second half points. Most asked question this week has been how many points will the Titans need to score to win? Whatever that number turns out to be the Chiefs will contain the Titans BIG three enough to have a higher number. Chiefs players will finish the game with their arms in the air much like a boxer after being declared the winner. Chiefs this time will get a win over the Titans and claim the AFC Championship. It’s the Chiefs who will represent the AFC in Super Bowl 54. That’s What I REID Into It for this Week.
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