KC Chiefs: 3 reasons why this AFC Championship is so important

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are 0-3 versus Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals and they simply can’t afford to make it 0-4.

It’s official. The stage for the 2022 AFC Championship game has been set and the Kansas City Chiefs will be hosting the Cincinnati Bengals in what will be a rematch of the infamous 2021 AFC Championship in which the Chiefs totally collapsed.

While the AFC Championship is important solely because it determines who goes to the Super Bowl, there will be increased importance placed on this specific matchup versus the Cincinnati Bengals.

The prime area of importance

Firstly, you’ve got to consider who is on the other side of this one. This is a rematch of last year’s AFC title game in which the Chiefs blew what was a 21-3 lead and ended up losing in overtime after a complete collapse. They watched the Bengals celebrate on their field knowing that the AFC should’ve belonged to them.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are 0-3 versus Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals and they simply can’t afford to make it 0-4. This game is once again at Arrowhead, which means the Chiefs have home-field advantage. It’s going to be very hard to explain to fans how you can lose to this same team again with what people consider to be the best quarterback/coach duo in the NFL at home with revenge on your mind. The Chiefs have to win this game and get over this mental hump that seems to play a factor every time Kansas City faces Cincinnati.

A prove-it opportunity for Chiefs players

There are also smaller individual storylines that stem from last year’s game that loom as important For example, last year this team’s pass rush let them down and couldn’t get to Joe Burrow when it mattered. Chris Jones had him in his grasp and let him go. Frank Clark did nothing. Melvin Ingram was the only defensive lineman with a sack in that game and he’s gone.

This game will be a good barometer for whether or not the Chiefs did what they needed to fix the pass rush because they will have a hard time beating Cincinnati if they can’t get pressure. It’s a prove-it game for a lot of players.

Maximizing this stretch of Chiefs’ history

Lastly, this is the fifth straight AFC Championship game that the Chiefs are hosting in the Patrick Mahomes era. In the last four, the Chiefs are 2-2 in those and have one Super Bowl win and two Super Bowl appearances. While we can’t forget, as fans, how extremely hard it is to sustain such success, it would be hard to stomach a losing record in AFC Championships with only one Super Bowl to show for it. Again, we should be grateful for this run that the Chiefs are on—and even saying this may even seem entitled—but the team can’t blame fans for being a bit upset at that success rate.

The Chiefs have plenty to avenge in this game and a lot on the line next Sunday—including their pride. This game is important for many reasons, and the Bengals have been a true monkey on their back since last year. Can they match the toughness and physicality of a scorching hot team that just ran over Buffalo in the divisional round? Can they finally claim victory while playing at home? We’ll just have to see.