Sport

San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals win to reach Conference Championships

Damar Hamlin attends Bengals-Bills game three weeks after cardiac arrest

Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals. Photograph: Winslow Townson/Getty

Mon Jan 23 2023 - 09:44

Cincinnati Bengals 21 Buffalo Bills 10

Joe Burrow threw two touchdown passes, Cincinnati’s defence swarmed Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen on a snow-slicked field and the Bengals advanced to their second straight AFC championship game with a 27-10 win over the Bills on Sunday.

Burrow completed his first nine passes for 105 yards while leading Cincinnati to a 14-0 lead after their first two possessions. Ja’Marr Chase opened the scoring with a 28-yard TD catch, followed by Burrow’s 15-yard TD throw to Hayden Hurst eight minutes later. Joe Mixon scored on a one-yard run, and Evan McPherson hit field goals from 20 and 28 yards in a game the Bengals never trailed.

“Domination from start to finish,” Burrow said after the game. “That’s what we expected. Job’s not finished.”

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The Bengals advanced to consecutive AFC championship games for the first time in franchise history, and will again travel to play the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bengals beat the Chiefs 27-24 to advance to last year’s Super Bowl, which they lost to the Los Angeles Rams.

The Bengals have won the past three meetings against Kansas City, including a 27-24 victory last month. The Chiefs are making their fifth straight appearance in the AFC championship game following a 27-20 win over Jacksonville on Saturday.

“It’s going to be a fun one,” said Burrow, who went 23 of 36 for 242 yards. “Two of the top guys in the league, two of the top teams in the league, great defences, great overall teams, great coaches.”

The Bills’ playoff run ends in the divisional round for a second straight season, after their 42-36 overtime loss to Kansas City last year.

“We were expecting their best punch and they came out and punched us,” Allen said.

Damar Hamlin’s inspirational presence while watching the game from an end zone suite was not enough to spark the Bills in a rematch of a regular-season game that was cancelled on 2 January when the Bills safety went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati.

Had Buffalo defeated Cincinnati, the AFC championship would have been held at Atlanta next weekend because the Bills (13-3) finished the season a half-game behind the Chiefs (14-3) after their game against Cincinnati was cancelled.

San Francisco 49ers 19 Dallas Cowboys 12

Christian McCaffrey scored on a go-ahead two-yard run in the fourth quarter and San Francisco’s defense did the rest, sending the 49ers to their second straight NFC title game with a 19-12 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

The 49ers used back-to-back long scoring drives in the second half to wear down the Cowboys and win their 12th straight game. San Francisco will play the Eagles in the NFC title game next Sunday in Philadelphia after losing in the same round to the Rams a year ago.

The Cowboys lost for a record seventh-straight time in the divisional round and have failed to make it to the NFC title game since winning their fifth Super Bowl title following the 1995 season.

Dak Prescott threw two interceptions and Brett Maher missed his fifth extra point of the postseason when his attempt was blocked. He later made two field goals.

The Cowboys had a shot when they took over at their own 18 with 2:59 remaining, trailing 19-12 after Robbie Gould’s fourth field goal of the game capped a nearly eight-minute drive.

But Prescott threw two straight incompletions and was sacked on third down. Coach Mike McCarthy opted to punt on fourth-and-10 with all three timeouts left.

Rookie Brock Purdy started the next drive with a 16-yard completion to George Kittle and San Francisco didn’t give the ball back to Dallas until there were 45 seconds left at the Cowboys’ six-yard line. Dallas never got close from there.

Purdy, the final pick in the 2022 draft, improved to 7-0 as a starter since replacing an injured Jimmy Garoppolo early in Week 13. He went 18 for 28 for 215 yards with no turnovers against the Cowboys, joining Joe Flacco (2008) and Mark Sanchez (2009) as the only rookie QBs to win two playoff starts.

“Wow. Brock Purdy getting us to the NFC championship game? I mean, he’s only won I think like seven in a row now. Good job, Brock,” Kittle said. “He’s playing at a high level, getting our best players the football, he’s awesome and confident in the huddle. He’s just doing a great job.”

The 49ers took the lead on the first play of the fourth quarter when McCaffrey capped a 91-yard drive with a two-yard run.

The drive featured a juggling 30-yard catch by Kittle and a pair of defensive holds against Dallas – including one on Donovan Wilson near the goalline that negated a third-down sack.

Maher made his second field goal of the game when he converted from 43 yards out to cut San Francisco’s lead to 16-12.

The NFL’s top two scoring teams over the past 13 weeks had trouble getting going as the defenses led by All-Pros Nick Bosa of San Francisco and Micah Parsons of Dallas controlled the play.

The Niners turned two interceptions in the first half by Prescott into field goals by Robbie Gould and led 9-6 at the half.

The Cowboys scored the only TD of the first half with Prescott connecting with tight end Dalton Schultz for the third time this postseason. But Maher’s low extra-point attempt was blocked by Samson Ebukam.

Maher got some redemption when he made a 25-yard field goal that tied the game at 9-9 early in the third quarter after Ray-Ray McCloud fumbled a punt return at the San Francisco 21.

– Guardian

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