The AFC and NFC Championship knockouts will be a little different this year.
For the first time since 2010, both No 1 seeds were eliminated, with the Titans losing to the Bengals and the Packers falling to the 49ers on Saturday, both by away goals. The next day, the No 2 Buccaneers were knocked out by the Rams on an off-field goal despite an unlikely comeback from 27-3 to close the game. The only game of the weekend that didn’t end in a goal was the extra-time thriller between the Captains and the Bill with a combined 25 points in the final two minutes of regulation. It ended with the Chiefs scoring a goal in the opening leg of the OT.
Cincinnati will now head to Kansas City to decide the AFC’s representation at Super Bowl 56, while it will be an in-state battle with San Francisco against Los Angeles in the NFC title match.
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Here’s everything you need to know about the AFC and NFC championship games.
NFL 2022 Qualifiers
The complete NFL playoff bracket for 2022:
AFC
2. Kansas City Chiefs vs. 4. Cincinnati Bengals
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1. Tennessee Titans vs. 4. Cincinnati Bengals
2. Kansas City Chiefs vs. 3. Buffalo Bills
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1. Tennessee Titans (goodbye)
2. Kansas City Leaders vs. 7. Pittsburgh Steelers
3. Buffalo Bills vs. 6. New England Patriots
4. Cincinnati Bengals vs. 5. Las Vegas Raiders
NFC
4. Los Angeles Rams vs. 6. San Francisco 49ers
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1. Green Bay Packers vs. 6. San Francisco 49ers
2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. 4. Los Angeles Rams
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1. Green Bay Packers (goodbye)
2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. 7. Philadelphia Eagles
3. Dallas Cowboys vs. 6. San Francisco 49ers
4. Los Angeles Rams vs. 5. Arizona Cardinals
NFL playoff schedule
Championship Round
Sunday, January 30
| Fit | Start time | Channel | Direct |
| Bengals at Chiefs | 3:05 p.m. ET | CBS | Paramount +, fuboTV |
| 49ers at Rams | 6:40 p.m. ET | fox | Fox Sports app, fuboTV |
AFC, NFC championship matches
AFC
- Captain 2 vs. 4 Bengali
Patrick Mahomes longer than Josh Allen and the Bills in the division round. Now, he will have to face Joe Burrow and the Bengals to advance to the Super Bowl for the third year in a row.
These teams met in Cincinnati on 2 January, with Bengal edging past the Captains 17-3 in the second half to win 34-31 and claim the AFC North Championship. Mahomes threw 259 yards and two touchdowns while Burrow passed 446 yards and four touchdowns. Wideball rookie Ja’Marr Chase had a record-setting afternoon with 11 catches for 266 yards and three touchdowns.
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It’s no surprise that these offenses rank among the best passing fouls in the NFL during the regular season. The captain finished the 2021 campaign in fourth place with 4,791 passing yards, while the Bengal team finished seventh with 4,403. However, neither team was particularly good at defending the pass; The captain allowed the sixth most passes (4,273) and Cincinnati allowed the seventh most (4,222). This has the potential to become a back-and-forth attack.
NFC
- Number 4 Rams vs Number 6 49ers
NFC West sent three of its four teams to the knockout stages for the 2021 season, so it looks like the conference will feature one of them in the Super Bowl.
The 49ers secured their ticket to the NFC championship — their second trip in three years — by beating the Packers 13-10 at the snowy Lambeau Field on Saturday. The Rams will be in their second conference title game in four years after avoiding a complete massacre over the Buccaneers in Sunday’s 30-27 win. San Francisco has owned Los Angeles in recent years, having won each of its past six games, including in the final week of the 2021 campaign to qualify for the knockout stages.
49ERS-RAMS:
Jimmy GO’s cursed celebration | Stafford’s moment over Brady, Bucs
While Matthew Stafford and the Rams finished the season with the eighth-highest total yards (6,325) and tied with the seventh-highest score (460), they will face a hot defense that has stopped the Cowboys and Packers in the first two innings of the knockout round. San Francisco finished the season with the third-least total yards (5,270) and tied with the ninth-least allowable score (365).
