The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens are just one more win away from reaching the Super Bowl in the NFL playoffs.
In pouring rain on the west coast of the USA, the 49ers won their home game against the Green Bay Packers 24:21. In the final of the National Football Conference (NFC) next weekend, either the Detroit Lions against German pass receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown or the Tampa Bay Buccanneers, who meet today.
The Ravens previously had much less trouble beating the Houston Texans 34:10 and are in the final of the American Football Conference (AFC). There it’s against the Kansas City Chiefs or the Buffalo Bills. Lamar Jackson was directly involved in all four touchdowns for his team – twice he threw the ball into the end zone, twice he carried the football there himself. NBA superstar LeBron James wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Man, I love Lamar Jackson.”
Exciting duel
The duel between the Packers and the 49ers was more exciting than the Ravens’ victory. Quarterback Brock Purdy played below his level, but led the best NFC team in the main round to the winning touchdown 67 seconds before the end by Christian McCaffrey. “We put together an offense when the season was on the line. We got it done,” Purdy said.
“The way I started, it had to get better.” Jordan Love, the Packers’ playmaker, had his part in the entertainment value of the game with three touchdowns within five minutes in the third quarter, but in the end he threw one bad pass too many and deprived his team of any chance of victory.
The Lions go into their home game against the Buccaneers this evening as favorites. The team, notoriously unsuccessful for decades, has never been to a Super Bowl, but has gained a lot of momentum in the past two years with St. Brown, quarterback Jared Goff and coach Dan Campbell. For the Chiefs, it is the first away playoff game with Patrick Mahomes as quarterback. The previous two playoff games against the Bills in Kansas City were both dramatic comparisons with the better ending for Kansas City. The Super Bowl takes place on February 11th in Las Vegas.
