The playoffs. The playoffs for the national football league or the NFL is always a joy to watch. There are many storylines and some of the biggest names in sports. This year’s biggest surprise is the breakthrough of Mr.Irrevalent also known as Brock Purdy. He is a rookie quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers and was selected 262nd overall in this year’s draft acquiring the name Mr.Irrelevant. There have been many surprises during this year’s playoffs from Superbowl contenders losing early and upsets all over the place. 

One of the biggest upsets of this year’s playoffs is our hometown team the Minnesota Vikings. It was a surprise to few but expected by many others. The Minnesota Vikings were seeded 3rd in the NFC with a fairly reasonable matchup being the New York Giants seeded 6th. This was a very disappointing loss for Minnesota Viking fans as every Minnesota sports fan thought we could make a push and “this was our year.” Despite the team’s record of 13-4 the Vikings were not favored in this matchup and were typically referred to as “frauds” to football fans. The reason for this was because of their point differential which was -19 for the season. Meaning their total points for us was lower than the points scored against them making us “lucky” to many. Another reason for being frauds is that we had 11 one-score games in which we won. 

Another big upset was the Buffalo Bills, led by Josh Allen. Josh Allen is regarded as a top 3 quarterback in the NFL and the Bills were the favorites to win the Superbowl at the beginning and throughout the season. Josh Allen now in his 5th season was ready to be the face of the NFL and finally get his first ring. Sadly this year did not go as expected as they fell to Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals who are now, in my opinion, a sneaky favorite. 

The Cincinnati Bengals are playing the Kansas City Chiefs led by Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. This should be a great game however, in last week’s win over the Jaguars, Patrick Mahomes suffered a low hit to his ankle and is visibly hurt as he doesn’t move as much as he usually does and limps in pain around the field. 

As expected the Philadelphia Eagles are still making a run for the superbowl as they haven’t really been challenged in the playoffs so far. They obtained a first round bye as they were the best team in the NFL with 13 wins and 4 losses. However for their next game, they are facing one of the toughest opponents with the number 1 defense and 3rd ranked offense the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers are also a team that is very underrated in terms of superbowl champions as they are a very good team. With the addition of Christain McCaffery in the middle of the season they have a very overpowered offense but questions still arise from their young quarterback as talked about earlier. 

The games have all been really close and nail biters down to the very end. For my predictions I think for the NFC Championship it is going to be a very close game but the Eagles are going to pull through and go onto the Superbowl. There they will be facing the Cincinnati Bengals as they have an advantage over the Chiefs because of Patrick Mahomes’ ankle situation. And for the Superbowl champions I think it will be the Eagles and all of the people who doubted Jalen Hurts will be wrong and see how great he really is.