The stage is all set for championship Sunday. The teams have practiced all week to prepare for the chance to play in the Super Bowl. Your boys have all talked in the group chat about how the Jalen Hurts over on passing yards is a lock. The women in your life are ecstatic at the idea of their being only 1 football Sunday after this, then no more for 6 months. The local pizza employees are currently hitting a vape or smoking a cigarette, getting ready to clock in for a super busy shift that will have them questioning every moment that led to it. The pets… are pretty much behaving the same, they have no concept for sports or days of the week. I don’t know why you thought the pets would behave differently, honestly that’s pretty fucking stupid on your part. You, the reader, are reading this article, something you probably regret since I called you stupid just now. The diehard fans of the 4 teams playing are currently putting on the dumbest costumes and outfits you could possibly imagine, even though earlier in the week they probably posted on Facebook about how drag is running this country. The social media managers for each team involved are preparing for what memes they can post after a win while thinking of the caption, which will almost certainly be in AAVE despite it being run by one of the whitest people you’ve ever seen. Roger Goodell is plotting with the refs and the gambling companies to get the best outcome imaginable money wise while still allowing the Chiefs to win. Even God is taking exception from his day of rest, hosting a kickass watch party in Heaven. I heard Gabriel is going to bring a 7-layer dip, so that’s pretty cool. Let’s see, who else are we missing here… oh yeah, your dad is ready, thinking of how he will find a way to fumble the remote and accidentally fast forward through the biggest play of the game. If you have an uncle attending, they are probably thinking of the worst political take or conspiracy theory imaginable to say within the first few minutes of arriving. If that doesn’t set the stage for you, I don’t know what will. Wait, what’s that? You want to actually read about the games themselves to get ready? And that’s the only reason you clicked on the article, other than to support your weird friend Cooper’s sub-par writing? Okay, well I guess that makes sense that you want me to talk about the games. Without further ado, please enjoy my 2025 conference championship preview.

Commanders at Eagles

Let’s take a look at how these teams got here. For the Eagles, playoff success is nothing new. While they haven’t won the Super Bowl since the 2017-18 season, they have only missed the playoffs once since then. The seasons they missed was 2020-2021, where they fired Super Bowl winning head coach Doug Pederson and hired Nick Sirianni, the new hotshot coordinator coming over from the Indianapolis Colts. They immediately returned to the playoffs in Sirianni’s first season and have not missed ever since. Jalen Hurts has been the quarterback for these Sirianni teams, finding immediate success under his new coach. They lost in the Wild Card round his first year, then made it to the Super Bowl the next season, where they ultimately lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in a shootout, 38-35. Despite the disappointing loss, that season had to be viewed as a huge win in Philadelphia. For them to get within 3 points of winning a Super Bowl in Sirianni’s 2nd year as a head coach and Hurts’ second year as a full-time starter was beyond impressive. They now appeared set to start a run as the NFC’s best team for years to come, as the core was set. The only problem is, they suffered from the famous Super Bowl loser curse. It always seems that the team that loses the Super Bowl tends to struggle the following season, and the Eagles were no different. They still made the playoffs at 11-6, but they lost 5 of their final 6 games entering the playoffs. In the Wild Card round, they were blown out by Tampa Bay 32-9, and questions were starting to rise about whether Hurts and Sirianni would ever make it back to the big game. In the off-season, they went all-in on trying to win this season, adding running back Saquon Barkley. How good of a move was that? Well, Barkley went on to win the rushing title this year, rushing for over 2,000 yards en route to the Eagles becoming the best rushing attack in the league. In the draft, they addressed their weakness in the secondary by getting cornerback Quinyon Mitchell in the 1st round and safety Cooper DeJean in the 2nd. Those 2 are currently both finalists for defensive rookie of the year, with both having a profound impact on the Eagles’ new and improved 1st ranked defense. The Eagles bounced back strong, dominating the regular season on their way to a 14-3 record. They then took care of business against the Packers and the Rams, winning with the same formula they won all year with: run the ball, don’t turn it over, and play great defense. It may not be super pretty at times, but it’s a tried-and-true formula that has won the Super Bowl for plenty of teams in the past. The Eagles are what they traditionally look like folks, which is why their opponent this week is so surprising.

The Commanders couldn’t have been further away from what they look like. They hadn’t posted a 10-win season since 2012 and hadn’t won a playoff game since the 2005-06 season. They had just had their most abysmal year in franchise history last year. For starters, this was the first year under new owner Josh Harris, who had bought the team from former owner and current human toilet Dan Snyder. They had just gone under a name change, departing from the racially insensitive Redskin name and turning the chapter to the Commanders, a name so generic it legit seems like a 2nd grader came up with it. It’s definitely better than the previous name, but I’m still to this day surprised they couldn’t come up with anything better. On the football field, they went 4-13 en route to securing the 2nd pick in the draft. They fired head coach Ron Rivera at the end of the season, ending what was truly the worst 1 year stretch the franchise had ever seen. Josh Harris stayed optimistic though, viewing this off-season as a chance to show that he belonged in the football business. He was finally able to have a complete off-season where he could hire the people he wanted and get the ball rolling. He hired Adam Peters to be the team’s new GM, who was coming over from San Francisco. San Francisco had arguably the most talented roster in the entire NFL, so poaching their assistant GM was a smart first move by Harris. Peters then went to work, hiring Dan Quinn as his head coach. Dan Quinn had already been a head coach with the Falcons and had gotten very close to winning a Super Bowl while he was there. They were up 28-3 to Tom Brady in the Super Bowl and… well, you know the rest of that story. He eventually got fired there but got hired as a defensive coordinator for Dallas, where he helped turn the Cowboys into one of the best defensive teams in the entire NFL. So by bringing in these 2 gentlemen, Harris had established a culture of winning in just 2 moves. The Commanders spent a lot of money in free agency, as Harris was eager to turn this team around quickly. They signed the following veterans last off-season: running back Austin Ekeler, linebacker Bobby Wagner, tight end Zach Ertz, defensive end Dante Fowler Jr., linebacker Frankie Luvu, safety Jeremy Chinn. Cornerback Michael Davis, defensive end Clelin Ferrell, safety Jeremy Reaves, wide receiver Jamison Crowder, wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, and defensive end Dorance Armstrong. All of these players went on to have a big impact on the team, helping turn this team from 4-13 to the team we see today. However, none of this would have mattered if they didn’t select quarterback Jayden Daniels with the 2nd overall pick. Daniels went on to have the best rookie quarterback season that we have ever seen, leading the Commanders late in games to clutch wins over really good teams. Daniels plays with the poise of a 10-year veteran at the position, which was fully on display in wins over the Buccaneers and the number 1 seed Detroit Lions, both games coming on the road. Only 5 rookie quarterbacks have ever made it this far, and all of them were carried by a top 5 defense. While the Commanders defense isn’t bad, they certainly aren’t good either, performing at a league average level across multiple metrics. Daniels is something we have never seen before from a rookie quarterback, with elite level processing combining with elite level athleticism to form a QB that most are saying is already top 5 in the NFL. While the Commanders story has been fun, I definitely thought they would have lost to Tampa Bay, let alone Detroit. For a rookie QB to go on the road and thrive in the win or go home scenarios he was faced with is something that is truly unbelievable. Both of these teams couldn’t have arrived in more different ways, which is part of what makes this game so interesting. All of the pressure is on the Eagles to win this game. They are the team that has consistently made the playoffs but fallen short of winning the big one, so the expectations at this point are to go all the way. Despite how awesome the season has been to this point, losing here would be considered a failure in the eyes of Eagles’ fans. Meanwhile, the Commanders are just happy to be here! They never in their wildest dreams would have pictured going from the 2nd worst team in the NFL to playing in a game with a chance to go to the Super Bowl. There is no pressure on this team, as they have already surpassed everyone’s expectations, even Josh Harris’ if he was being truthful about it. So what does this all mean for the game itself? Let’s take a look.

The Commanders offense has no reason to be scared of the Eagles’ number 1 ranked defense, as they dropped 36 on their head about a month ago. Still, there are some aspects of this defense that should make you adjust your game plan a little bit. The Eagles have the most dominant defensive line left in the playoffs, as they are constantly able to create pressure on the quarterback by only rushing 4 players. Defensive Tackles Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter not only get after the quarterback from the interior, but also bring the opponents run game screeching to a halt. They dominate the opposing teams interior offensive line possession after possession, play after play. The Commanders just lost their right guard to a torn ACL in the Lions game, so you need to do whatever you can to help out your line. For me, that means playing spread offense, getting the ball out quickly, and playing with pace to try to tire out the Eagles’ defense. If you can get this defense on their heels, you have to feel confident about your chances. I think this will be a big game for Ekeler, as he is one of the best receiving running backs in the league. If you can get him mismatched with a linebacker, he should be able to win that matchup most of the time. Expect the Commanders to feed him screen passes and even line him up in the slot from time to time. If you can take advantage of this early you may be able to force the Eagles to put a safety on him, which either means they have only 1 safety deep or that they have 1 less linebacker on the field. If they have 1 less linebacker, this is an open invasion to run the ball. If they have the same number of linebackers and only 1 deep safety, that means you should have the chance to throw deep. I know the Eagles’ secondary is much improved, but Daniels has been so good on the deep ball this year that you can’t shy away from it now in the biggest game of the season. I’m not saying to chuck it deep all day long, but when the opportunity presents itself, you have to be ready to pounce. Daniels won’t force a play that isn’t there, so trust him to make the proper read and utilize his check downs if he needs to. Speaking of Daniels, I think it will be very important to utilize the read option or RPOs, as the traditional run game will more than likely struggle against this defense. You have to find a way to make 2nd and 3rd down manageable when it comes to distance, so utilizing the threat of Daniels’ legs will be super important for them to come out with a victory. I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up getting 15-20 carries out of Daniels in this one. Now that we know what the offense needs to do to pull off the upset, let’s take a look at how the defense can get enough stops to support the offense.

For the defense, all they have to do is slow down Saquon. Obviously, this is a lot easier said than done, but it is truly essential to slowing down the Eagles. For me, I would load the box and heavy blitz on most downs throughout this game. Could you possibly give up big plays? Absolutely. But the reward is potentially forcing the Eagles into obvious passing situations, which is already a huge win for the defense. You want to dare Hurts to beat you in this one, as he hasn’t really shown that he is capable of winning a game on his own this year. If you neutralize the threat of the run, Hurts will have no choice but to play more aggressively, which is hopefully where you can force turnovers. Your cornerbacks aren’t exactly lockdown guys, but if you pressure Hurts you can hopefully force inaccurate throws that give your defense a chance to make big plays. I honestly don’t care if Hurts somehow gets 400 passing yards and 4 touchdowns, I’d rather lose like that than lose to Saquon getting 30 carries for 200 yards on me. I haven’t seen Hurts play like that this year, so I would do my best to make sure he feels the need to take over the game. As I mentioned earlier, it is way easier said than done to accomplish this, which is why I have the Eagles winning this game. Let’s take a look at what the Eagles’ need to do to win this one.

I could sit here and go into detail about how the Eagle’s offense and defense work, go over the strategy needed to win and make myself sound super smart and full of ball knowledge. But honestly, I think you can very simply describe what the Eagles need to do to win: more of what they have been doing. Keep winning the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, as this team is built and designed to win in the trenches. Let Saquon lose; he has a bye week before the Super Bowl to recover from this game, so work him as much as you possibly can. For Hurts, have him execute very simple passing concepts that require very little risk for turning the ball over. On defense, keep rushing 4 and dropping back 7 like you have done all year. It’s led to the best defense in the NFL up to this point, so why sway away from that strategy in the biggest game of the year. Plus, Daniels has excelled all year long versus the blitz, so there is no point in getting pressure on him, it just doesn’t faze this guy. Just drop back in coverage with 2 deep safeties, and whatever you do, don’t allow the big play. Trust your defensive line to dominate their offensive line and make the Commanders have to slowly drive the ball down the field. I know Daniels has been superhuman at times, but he has to make a mistake at some point, right? Make the Commanders beat themselves and don’t get too cute. Despite the formula of best running game and best defense, I still think the Commanders make this a very close game. I’m going to root for the Commanders in this one personally, but I don’t actually see them pulling out the win. I have the Eagles winning 28-24 in this one, punching their ticket to their 2nd Super Bowl in 3 years. The only question is, who will they be facing?

Bills at Chiefs

Just like we did with the last matchup, let’s take a look at how these teams got here. I’m not going to go too deep on this one, because if you don’t know the history between these 2 teams, you just have not been watching football in the 2020s. For the Bills though, I am a little shocked that they are here. They fell just short against Kansas City last year, falling to 0-3 against them in the Josh Allen-Patrick Mahomes era. The loss clearly made an impression on Bills GM Brandon Beane, as he decided to let multiple key veterans loose last off-season. To me, this signaled that this season was going to be a gap year, one where they can get their cap situation fixed, swallow the tough season, then come back in 2025-2026 with an absolutely loaded roster. They moved on from multiple key starters on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball, with the highlight being them trading Stefon Diggs to the Texans. They got rid of him and wide receiver Gabe Davis, offensive lineman Mitch Morse and Ryan Bates, and that’s just the offensive side of the ball. They were really set to test the limit of how much Josh Allen can carry an offense. The result? Only the best season of Allen’s career, turning over the ball at a career low rate while still having the nose for explosive plays that he has always had. They also saw James Cook have a career year, scoring 18 touchdowns while rushing for 1,00 yards for the 2nd time in his young career. Behind Cooks, Allen, and an island of misfit toys at wide receiver, the Bills earned the 2nd seed in the AFC with a 13-4 record, including a regular season win over the Chiefs that is still the only loss that Patrick Mahomes has taken all year. The Bills wiped the floor with the Broncos in the wild card round, and just narrowly escaped with a win over the Ravens last week. They now have to face the 1 team that has blocked them from the Super Bowl 3 different times: The Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs story is well known by diehard fans and casuals alike. They are coming off back-to-back championship years, going for the first NFL 3-peat ever. How have they done it? Well, this Patrick Mahomes guy is pretty good at football, that’s a start. Same with that Travis Kelce guy, I heard he has a famous girlfriend or something? Good for him that he has fallen in love, I’m sure that every football fan is happy for him. They still have head coach Andy Reid, who currently sits at 4th all time in regular season wins and 2nd in postseason wins. As comedian Stavros Halkias said, “he’s a master tactician” (Please don’t look up where that quote comes from unless you want to hear Stavros describe the sexual tendencies of Andy Reid). But the part of this team that consistently gets overlooked is the defense. They haven’t ever been the best defense, but they are constantly ranked anywhere from 6-12th in the league, which is enough when you have Mahomes and Reid on the other side of the ball.  Spagnolo is the only coordinator to ever win 4 super bowls, finding a way to get the most out of his players every single season. They finished 15-2, securing the 1 seed and the first-round bye. As I detailed in my article last weekend, the Chiefs beating the Texans was just one more chapter of the silly ass story that has been their request for a repeat. This all leads up to the 4th postseason meeting between the Chiefs and Bills within the past 5 years, another epic chapter in the NFL’s best current rivalry. While I may end up regretting this, I am predicting the Bills to pull out the win, and here’s the game plan for how they will do it.

For the Bills offense, this is a tough one. On one hand, the Chiefs offense hasn’t been great in generating big plays all year long. This would mean to run the ball, play risk averse football, and you should have a good shot at winning. On the other hand, this is Mahomes in the playoffs, so you might want to just unleash Josh Allen and encourage him to go for home runs all game long. Personally, I’d run the ball as much as you possibly can in this one, whether it’s Cook, Allen, or any of the Bill’s backup running backs. It worked for you last week against Baltimore, so it should theoretically work again this week as well. While I think this is what they should do, something in my gut tells me that this will be a shootout where Josh Allen goes supernova on the Chiefs. But let’s just assume they go with my gameplan of running the ball, what should they do when they drop back to pass? I think they should play it safe in this one, as Allen has shown he is capable of winning football games by dinking and dunking his way down the field. Expect lots of curl routes, zigs, outs, corners, and flats. Essentially, make it so that there isn’t much opportunity to run after the catch, as that is where Mark Andrews really screwed the Ravens last week. Keep the ball towards the sidelines and get it out quick, as that should hopefully limit the impact the Chiefs defensive line will have on this one, whether it’s preventing sacks or tipped passes that always tend to go the Chiefs way.

 As for the defense, they limited the Chiefs to just 21 in their matchup earlier in the year. They did this by keeping Mahomes in the pocket, limiting his chances to improvise and create big plays. They sacked him twice and forced two turnovers, the type of plays they will need to generate again if they want to win this one. I expect the Chiefs will come out wanting to run the ball early more than they did last time, but that wouldn’t strike fear in my heart if I’m the Bills. Personally, I think the Bills have a better rushing attack than the Chiefs and will be able to beat them if that’s how the Chiefs decide to play it. I think Mahomes and Reid will realize rather quickly that they need to turn this into a shootout if they want any shot at winning. This means they will likely pass the ball a lot on first down, something that they were prone to doing throughout the year. In that case, I would send the blitz on early downs to create 2nd and longs, which will make it that much easier for you to get stops, or maybe even force turnovers. I expect the Bills to play heavy zone for most of the game, although I would make 1 exception to that: man up Kelce on every single play. Even if it means 1 less pass rusher or 1 less deep safety, Kelce is the zone beater for this team and must be guarded at all times. Finally, if I’m the Bills coaching staff. I would air the penalties and flops from Mahomes last week over and over until it is seared into the brain of your team. Don’t even give the refs an opportunity to make a call because they are very protective of Mahomes and will seemingly call anytime he gets scratched a penalty. I’m exaggerating a little bit there, but you get my point. Don’t leave it up to the refs, play disciplined football and you should be able to get enough stops to win. Let’s take a look at how the Chiefs can win this game and have a shot at the 3-peat.

For the Chiefs offense, I would make sure to get Worthy and Kelce involved early and often. These 2 are the biggest threats you have on the field, albeit for 2 completely different reasons. For Kelce, it’s the gravity he draws as one of the best playoff performers of all time. He consistently finds a way to get open right in the middle of the field, so I would make sure to get him a couple of those 6-10 yard checkdowns early. As for Worthy, line him up in the backfield on some plays, maybe send him in motion on others, whatever you have to do to get him touches. This dude has game-changing speed, so if you can get him the ball in the open field you may be able to bust open a big play. Doing both of these things early will make it so much easier for the rest of your offense to operate as the Bills will be so consumed with the middle of the field and the deep pass to Worthy, that the intermediate outside opportunities should be available. While I think the Chiefs offense will start out slow, they should be able to open things up more and more as the game goes on, with the defense starting to play more reactive than proactive. As I mentioned in the Bills section, I expect the Chiefs to run the ball more on early downs. They had less than 20 rushing attempts the last time these 2 teams met, so I think it will be a point of emphasis to get that number much closer to 30. Even if you only gain a couple of yards on the early down runs, that still makes 2nd down just a little bit easier for Mahomes. With a quarterback of Mahomes caliber, a little bit easier turns into a lot of big plays. The Bills should come out trying to keep Mahomes in the pocket, so I would use draw plays to keep them honest. They are going to be so focused on setting the edge outside to prevent a Mahomes scramble, that the running lanes up the middle should be open on these draw plays. Factor in all the attention that Kelce takes up, and you might really be able to run the ball effectively. Hopefully, the run game is so effective that it will then open up Mahomes ability to improvise by scrambling outside, which is where practically all of the Chiefs’ big plays come from. That is a lot of things the Chiefs need to execute perfectly in order to win, but I wouldn’t put it past Mahomes and Reid to be able to do so.

As for the defense, they will need to find a way to slow down this offense just enough to win. Even if it’s just a couple of unsuccessful possessions, that could be all you need to win when you have Mahomes on your side. I expect the Chiefs to blitz heavily throughout this one, as they will not win this game unless they force a turnover. The hope is that the pressure of the blitz combined with the pressure of the moment will make Josh Allen revert to last year’s version of osh Allen: Still a good player, but one that turns over the ball way too much. If you can force a desperate deep shot or an inaccurate short pass, you may be able to capitalize and get your offense the ball back. Surprisingly though, I don’t think that Josh Allen is the player you have to worry the most about. For me, that is their running back James Cook, who consistently has been the Bills best skill position player all year. I would make safety Justin Reid guard Cook all game long, as the Chiefs don’t have a linebacker that is capable of keeping up with his speed and route running. The Bills should utilize Cook a lot in this one, so putting a defensive back on him should be the play here, even if it means playing single high safety throughout the game. Speaking of, I think that is exactly what the Bills should do. Allen is good against any defense, so instead of trying to prevent Allen from making big time plays, focus on what your defense can do to generate big time plays themselves. For me, 1 high safety allows you to have more men in the box, which should help stop their run game. This will also encourage Allen to throw the ball deep more. Yes, this could totally bite you in the ass and cost you the game. However, there is also a chance that this wins you the game because you intercepted a deep pass, or at the very least deflected it and made the Bills waste a down on a deep shot. You also have good corners compared to the Bills mediocre wide receivers, so I would trust that my guys can lock up their guys and call it a day. Look, it’s Josh Allen, so you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You might as well play aggressive and try to dictate the terms that the Bills offense moves the ball, even if they are still able to so successfully. I think they will still be able to do so successfully, which is why I *gulps* am taking the Bills to win this game in a shootout, 38-35.