Championship Weekend Recap: Who’s to Blame for 49ers & Bengals Shortcomings? By Hank Indictor

The Philadelphia Eagles are off to the Super Bowl. As a Giants fan this is sickening and disgusting, but taking off the fan blinders for a minute I have to admit this isn't a big surprise.

After all, I did mention the litany of Pro Bowlers at so many positions when I talked about why the Giants couldn't beat them. Having said that, I was also pretty high on the San Francisco 49ers all season (and Nick Morgasen can vouch for me on this as he and I both spoke highly of them on a Review and Preview Episode months ago!) After all, up until today the Niners hadn’t lost a game since before Halloween when they got destroyed by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs!

So what went wrong? Well, to answer that question we have to go back to the beginning of the game and the Eagles' opening drive. Driving into 49ers territory, Nick Sirriani made a bold call to go for it on 4th-and-3 as opposed to settling for either a punt or a 50+-yard Field Goal, and when Jaylen Hurts threw the deep ball that DeVonta Smith caught, bringing back flashbacks to a certain Odell Beckham play that broke the internet. First down Eagles!

And sure enough, Miles Sanders crossed the end zone for the first score of the game. Except, Kyle Shanahan made a big mistake! Replays showed that as Smith reached the ground he might not have had full control of the ball and so the Niners should've gotten the ball back, but the problem is there was no challenge, which ultimately swung 30 yards and seven points to the Eagles. Challenge flags exist for a reason! Then again, the Eagles did a great job of getting back to the huddle very quickly, but if a coach sees that then shouldn't that be enough of a red flag that there was a missed call?

Sorry, Kyle Shanahan, I’ve praised you a lot over the years and I still believe you’re one of the best offensive coaches in the league and should be in the COY conversation, but you dropped the ball big time!

This play, in my opinion, changed the whole flow of the game. Sure the Niners' defense did their best to keep the game from getting out of hand early on and Christian McCaffrey scored that Touchdown to tie things after shedding a few tackles. But this game never truly felt to me like one where the Niners had a chance.

And so it begs the question: Did Kyle Shanahan cost the 49ers this game? And so I bring you another written episode of a revived Top 5 Reasons you Can’t Blame!

5. Penalties: Even after this blunder, the Niners eventually lost their cool and were guilty of being undisciplined. San Francisco took 11 penalties compared to four for the Eagles. I understand there were some questionable calls the refs made in favor of the Eagles, but in the second half alone, the Niners took some ill-timed penalties, including multiple Delay of Games when Josh Johnson had to enter the game.

Several of the penalties that the 49ers took occurred on Eagles touchdown drives, which further swung the game in favor of Philadelphia. On the Eagles’ drive following McCaffrey’s touchdown, any momentum San Francisco had went away when they were called for three penalties, one of which happened on a third down while another negated a sack.

Dre Greenlaw, in particular, not only got called for a facemask when tackling Boston Scott for a loss but much later in the game he showed his frustration as he attempted to punch the ball out of Eagles running back Kenneth Gainwell’s hand while he was already down. Whether or not he attempted to punch Gainwell, throwing a punch in the first place was still wrong and this was the play that sparked the brawl at the end.

In other words, the Niners self-destructed and if you want to blame Shanahan or something else it's possible to do so for the lack of discipline his team showed later on. Still, there were other mistakes made too!

4. Turnovers: One of the biggest battles either team could ill afford to lose was the turnover battle, in which the 49ers lost 3-0. When Hasson Reddick sacked Brock Purdy and caused the first fumble, injuring Purdy in the process, it was a miracle the Niners even forced a 3-and-out there.

But when John Johnson took his eyes off the ball, this one was damaging because the Eagles got the ball back deep in SF territory where Boston Scott would score a rushing TD just before the half ended to make the game 21-7 Eagles. At this point, everybody watching knew the game was over. But there was another thing going beyond the Niners' control

3. Injuries to the Quarterbacks: Going into this game, the Niners were down to third-stringer Brock Purdy, who up until now had yet to lose a game since taking over for Jimmy Garropolo. In came fourth-stringer Josh Johnson, aka the well-traveled veteran backup QB we keep forgetting is still in the league, and he too got injured at the end of their first drive of the second half. This meant they briefly had to use Christian McCaffrey in this spot before Brock Purdy ultimately returned. Often losses happen due to reasons out of a team's control and in that respect for the Niners this game wasn’t much different.

2. The Eagles were better: Normally a reason like this would be No. 1, but I’ll get to that person in a bit. Let's not forget the Eagles were the No. 1 seed for a reason being that they would win 11 of their first 12 games!

Now granted many will point to the Eagles' schedule and say that the quality of opponents was too weak, but then again so is that reasoning because you play who's on your schedule! I briefly mentioned their loaded roster that had a litany of Pro Bowlers and All-Pros but it should also be noted that the Eagles were ranked No. 3 offensively (behind only the Chiefs and Bengals) and only a hair behind the Niners defensively! It should also be noted that the loss in the 12-game stretch was their only one with Jalen Hurts as their starter all year long.

And if we're going to nitpick the Eagles' schedule, it's only fair to point out that the only above .500 teams the Niners beat with Purdy as their starter were the Dolphins and Cowboys (the latter coming in the playoffs against a team who beat arguably the least deserving team to make the playoffs in NFL history).

Sorry to say but as a Giants fan, I’ve seen enough to know the Eagles are a worthy representative of the NFC. However, there is one other way this game could've had a different result, and that's because of a few moves the Niners made years before that came back to haunt them.

1. John Lynch: He deserves a lot of credit for improving the Niners into a yearly contender ever since he became the GM in 2016 (Particularly with picks such as Fred Warner and Deebo Samuel). But there's one significant move that could have solved the injury problem. Holding the third pick via trade, everyone knew the Niners were trying to get the new QB to replace Jimmy G, the problem is they might have taken the wrong one in Trey Lance (who got hurt in Week 2 and was lost for the season) and likely would be in better shape if they had Justin Fields instead.

And to go further we can even make a case that if Christian McCaffrey had been taken in in the third spot in 2017 instead of Solomon Thomas maybe they have a Lombardi Trophy already and at the very least are in a three-way tie with Pittsburgh and New England for the top of the list in Super Bowl wins! Bottom line as great as the Niners have been they might have been in a prime position to be champions if Lynch could turn back time.

So there you have it. Kyle Shanahan made a mistake early that changed the flow of the entire game, blame him all you want but ultimately the better team won it fair and square, injuries or not.

And they will go on to face the Kansas City Chiefs, who won an epic AFC Championship rematch over the Cincinnati Bengals in a game many of us expected to come down to the wire. After Joe Burrow’s last drive stalled out the Chiefs got the ball back with 41 ticks left, not a lot of time for most QBs but an eternity for Patrick Mahomes, especially since the Chiefs were able to get the ball to midfield after a decent return.

Facing a third down and in 50-yard range, Mahomes ran with the ball for a first down but was hit by Defensive End Joseph Ossai while out of bounds tacking on 15 yards to the play and ultimately giving Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker an easier Field Goal opportunity, a kick that he would easily make to seal the deal.

As for the Bengals, they're going to be facing a lot of second-guessing and what-ifs, especially Joseph Ossai whose penalty essentially gift-wrapped the victory. As Ernie Banks often said, “Let’s Play 2!” And so with this in mind, I present to you the Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Ossai for costing the Bengals a trip to the Super Bowl.

5. Penalties: Excluding Ossai, the Bengals committed eight penalties to the Chiefs' four, and don’t tell me the refs rigged this game in favor of the Chiefs! There were multiple instances where the Bengals were called for holds. More often than not, the teams that commit more penalties don’t end up winning. But do you know who else needs to be held accountable?

4. Joe Burrow: Unlike last year, he wasn't able to work his magic. Although he led the Bengals on a game-tying TD drive at the start of the fourth quarter, he would also throw two costly picks in this game (and would have had three if one of them wasn’t negated by a Pass Interference penalty).

The Joshua Williams interception was a bad one because Burrow attempted to throw that ball to Higgins despite the latter being double-covered. In addition took five sacks, three of which were in the first quarter alone -- a quarter where the Bengals couldn't get anything going offensively. True his O-Line was banged up, but there were critical moments where Burrow could’ve gotten rid of the ball earlier, such as his last drive where he took an intentional grounding penalty and ended it with a 7-yard sack. Neither of these mistakes came on a High Ankle Sprain!

When an elite QB makes those mistakes on the road when going up against an elite Quarterback, you can't say he deserves to win the game, even if he was undefeated against that same team not too long ago.

3. Cockiness and Karma: When you win a big game, there's a reason coaches often will say “Act like you've been there before.” The last thing you want is to give extra motivation to a superpower.

“Better refund those tickets,” Burrow said, about what would've been a neutral site matchup in Atlanta had the Bills beat the Bengals in the previous round due to the series of events following the Damar Hamlin game.

Is Eli Apple unable to keep his mouth shut and being too active on Twitter? What a surprise. In other news, water is wet. The "Cancun on 3" tweet in particular was in poor taste because it appeared to be about Damar Hamlin.

“Burrowhead?” No such thing! The idea that Joe Burrow ever “owned” the Chiefs is preposterous. Sure, he started 3-0 against him, but none of those games were decided until the fourth quarter at the earliest, nor were they won by more than a touchdown.

In other words, luck was on their side until the law of averages finally caught up oppositely. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval should’ve known better than to try to give the Chiefs added motivation and bulletin board material.

2. Patrick Mahomes: Even with a high ankle sprain, Patrick Mahomes still managed to go 29-for-43 with 326 yards, 2 TDs, and 0 INTs. The only mistake he made was the fumble, which led to the Bengals tying the game with a touchdown. But as I said, Joe Burrow made several big mistakes, whereas Mahomes made the big plays to help the Chiefs win the game and as a result, he will play in his third Super Bowl in the last four years!

Were the Chiefs the better team? Yes, they were, or at least that was the case in this game. But with two elite QBs, this is the type of game where both teams have a chance to win anytime they matchup (re: every game between these two was close), and so I can't use this as the main reason to absolve Ossai for the penalty. And last I checked Ossai doesn’t have a second job as an offensive lineman, nor is it his fault that his QB took the last sack to leave the Chiefs with too much time to win!

1. The Game was tied and it might not have mattered that much: Ultimately, Ossai’s penalty can be viewed in the same breath as Bill Buckner's in the sense that their big mistakes occurred while the game was still tied.

However, there's another thing to consider, even if Mahomes doesn’t get tackled while out of bounds, the Chiefs are still in field goal range. Granted it's probably in the 50+ yard range but remember Harrison Butker once kicked a 62-yarder so the Chiefs probably win the game anyways. Ah, but what if he misses? Well then we go to overtime and the result of that game could be anything. It could even be a mystery box! Or, in this case, a 50-50 coin toss to see who gets the ball.

The bottom line is there's no guarantee the Chiefs win even without the ill-timed penalty at the end. That being said, they still won this game fair and square!

So there you have it. The Super Bowl has been decided and we will get a great matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, the two teams that finished with the best records in the league.

Right away there are a few storylines, most notably Jason and Travis Kelce being the first siblings to play against each other in Super Bowl History. This will also be the first time in Super Bowl history that two black Quarterbacks (Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes) will face off against each other. And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who will not only coach in his fourth Super Bowl but he will do so against the team that he had coached for 14 seasons before coming to Kansas City and one where he is the all-time leader in games won.

The game itself will be an interesting matchup between the team with arguably the best quarterback in the league and the team that has arguably one of the best-constructed rosters in the league. And as always after Championship Weekend we are kept in suspense as we wait two weeks for the most epic Day in America!