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THE KANSAS CITY Chiefs kept their bid for an historic third straight Super Bowl alive Sunday, holding off the Buffalo Bills 32-29 in an AFC Championship thriller to set up an NFL title clash with the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles’ explosive ground game carried them to a 55-23 triumph over the Washington Commanders and into the NFL’s championship showpiece in New Orleans on 9 February.
In another tense duel between Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Bills counterpart Josh Allen, Mahomes ran for a 10-yard touchdown and completed the two-point conversion to put Kansas City up 29-22 early in the fourth quarter.
After Allen answered with a four-yard touchdown pass to Curtis Samuel to knot the score at 29-29, Harrison Butker booted a 35-yard field goal that capped the scoring — the Chiefs defense thwarting the Bills’ last bid.
“I’m just so proud of my teammates and how they responded,” said Mahomes, who ran for two touchdowns and threw for another. “That was a great football team and I’m just, I’m just lost of words.
“I’m just excited to get down to New Orleans — let’s go make history.”
Kansas City have now ruined the Bills dreams in four of the last five post-seasons — twice in the conference championship. The Bills haven’t made it to the NFL’s championship showpiece since 1993.
Cheered on by Taylor Swift, the pop singer girlfriend of Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce, the home side took the lead in the first quarter with a 12-yard rushing TD from Kareem Hunt.
The Bills responded with a 53-yard Tyler Bass field goal followed early in the second quarter with a six-yard rushing score from James Cook that put the Bills up 10-7.
But then the Chiefs turned on the style with Mahomes showing all his class to find Xavier Worthy with an 11-yard touchdown pass.
The quarterback’s one-yard touchdown run put the Chiefs 11 points up.
Allen answered with a touchdown pass to Mack Hollins and the Bills took a 22-21 lead on Cook’s one-yard scoring plunge.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said his team will have to set aside the hype surrounding their bid for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl and focus on the Eagles.
“It still comes down to the game and the purity of the game and each play and how you handle it,” Reid said.
“And so you don’t get yourself too far out of that box. You just concentrate on the opponent and what you’ve got to get done against them.”
In Philadelphia, quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley rushed for three touchdowns apiece, rookie running back Will Shipley ran for another and Hurts threw for one TD as the Eagles set a record for points scored in a conference championship game.
They’ll have a chance to avenge their 2023 Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs. Barkley, who came aboard as a free agent for just such an opportunity, set an early tone with a 60-yard touchdown run on the Eagles’ first play from scrimmage.
He added two four-yard scoring runs while Hurts twice plunged into the end zone from one yard out and also delivered a nine-yard TD run.
Hurts also connected on 20 of 28 passes for 246 yards.
Washington’s Jayden Daniels, trying to become the first rookie quarterback to reach the Super Bowl, played with his trademark aplomb.
His 10-yard rushing touchdown followed by a two-point conversion had the Commanders within 11 points late in the third quarter.
Daniels threw for 255 yards with one touchdown. His one interception was one of four Commanders turnovers that ultimately proved too much to overcome.
Barkley called reaching the Super Bowl “amazing” but warned the Eagles weren’t satisfied with the conference crown.
“The goal wasn’t just getting there,” Barkley said. “The goal is to win. And we’re going to celebrate and enjoy this and get right back to work.”
Written by AFP and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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Speechless! Stunning photos!
An anyone else see a white cloud in the shape of Ireland at the centre of the crab supernova? Begorra!
I do now. Thank’s Irish Jesus for putting that there.
I suddenly feel very small and insignificant …
It was Séasus.
Was a amazing telescope . I think one day science will totally replace religion. Can’t wait. The world will be much more peaceful !
It will probably split into those who believe in Hubble and those who believe in HLA :)
Just like oil and water, religion and science just don’t mix, no point in taking cheap shots,because religion is here to stay. Even if science was to prove without any doubt that God doesn’t exist people will still believe, and will never let go no matter what. Atheism is much braver stance in my opinion, because we know this is it, and we will stand on our own two feet.
Southpark did an episode about it. Watch it. Whether it be religion or science we’ll find something to get dogmatic and violent about… its what we do. Religion is only the vehicle of delivering our violent and disagreeable nature.
Amazing as Hubble and our constant discovery of the universe is – we’ve shown consistently this has very little impact or changes human behaviour at all …… , we always seem have an amazingly high % of basically idiots on the planet , an ability to always fight over land , resources like oil or water or religious beliefs and sadly the evidence would suggest that no matter how many more amazing wonders of the universe we learn – we somehow seem incapable to significantly change human behaviour – evidence to dare would suggest we will probably only pay attention to how much we screwed up our own planet in this amazing universe when we have finally broken it altogether
You are deluded if you think science replacing religion will lead to peace. You should see some of the fights that happen in universites about the interpretation of results.
10,000 galaxies. Imagine how big that is compared to our galaxy. Then imagine how big it is compared to Earth. Then imagine how big that is compared to Ireland. We are nothing but the smallest drop of sand on a unthinkably big beach.
As opposed to being a tiny grain of water in the ocean ? 8-)
Even taking into account the laws of probability – with all these galaxy’s – we can’t be alone -in fact – there should be hundreds and thousands of civilisations – que the Star Trek music
Yeah but at the start of all that something started it… and all the coincidences that made our world possible – are about the same odds. We’ll never know, perhaps in a few hundred years when we’re ready for ‘first contact’.
Also do not forget the slow speed of light (or the outside of spectrum wavelengths). These galaxies were there millions of years ago. It is a snapshot of the past. Civilizations may already be extinct. Others appeared
Another astonishing idea (that I heard on a documentary) is that space is so vast that it will eventually run out of ways to arrange the atoms and eventually another you is out there. But they did not talk about the fact that most repeating thing is… well nothing that leaves so little to be “something”. No atoms in space I mean. Or very little that is meaningless (and repeats itself maybe). Another aspect is time. Time is also adds another dimension which scales up the Universe.
Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast..
pictures like this really put into perspective the unimportance of humans. this is the kind of thing that should make us want to band together in the realisation that we are alone and we need eachother to survive and progress. stopping wars and securing the future of the human race. but no, lets kill each other because my invisible man in the sky is better than yours.
Amazing pictures and yet somehow there’s a lot of people out there who still believe in creationism. Why?
With All those other galaxy’s I’m sure there is intelligent life out there.
If anyone thinks that in all the vast universe that we are the only life forms they are naive. But if it were true and we are alone, we own everything we rule the universe.
Sometimes I wonder is there intelligent life on Earth….
In what sense do we own it? We have only worked out how to live on a small fraction of an insignificant planet. We are bombarded daily and a rock the size of Ireland could drive us to extinction. The sun is dying, but even if we get off the planet in time, the Andromeda collision will see off the entire galaxy a bit later. We are just lichen clinging aimlessly to a rock. But we have the capacity to enjoy ourselves for a brief time.
Most likely not alone but intelligence is unique. There are millions of different species on this planet but only one intelligent civilisation. Could be planets out there full of cockroaches or flies.
Who is to say that we are intelligent in the grand scheme of things? We are only a fledgling species of less than 1 million years old. There could be much more sophisticated species in the universe
We are a species that figured out and understand how the universe works, invented a way to live outside of this planet, landed probs and a machine as big as a car on another planet. That’s pretty intelligent if you ask me. Disregard all the other moronic things that go on on a daily basis though.
Not trying to diminish human achievement for a second but there is no guarantee that it doesn’t pale into insignificance compared to the intelligence of other possible species.
Rule the universe , we can’t even manage a small island in the Atlantic.
From when I first turned over a dead horseshoe crab on the beach I realised that we are certainly not alone.
To be fair chief, the Hubble had to be built and sent up to get these amazing pictures, and that takes remarkable intelligence, so wonder no more my friend.
Ah I was just having my usual banter with Glen…
A rock 6 miles across is enough to drive us into extinction
Only two scary thoughts when it comes to looking out into that vast expanse of the Universe: one, is that we aren’t alone; the other, is that we ARE alone!
Safe to say we are
Not the only ones.
Weather others are called aliens, humans or mickeymackeymoomoos.
Odds are their out there
True Glen, but trying to get around “our” universe is going to be tough!
We own an entire universe yet can only get to our closest moon.
You said the moon landing was a hoax!
No Charles
I said there is a lot of evidence that supports it was a hoax.
There is no evidence. All easily explained. Can you explain how we can see the moon moving further away every year. We left something there. Conspiracy theorists always conveniently ignore this
It’s easier to go to the moon than to fake it.
So Kim kardashian’s hole is the centre of the universe???
I took a snap of the moon yesterday with my old Nokia. it was as good as any if these.
I wanna live on Jupiter it looks mental altogether.
You do all know that NASA are master hoaxers and produce the artistic images to persuade Congress to keep giving them money (tongue planted firmly in cheek) – The Gospel according to Conspiracy Theorists.
So glad people like you are in the minority
It could all be a massive loop. The end of our universe causes the Big Bang of another universe,allowing other species and civilisations to have a go at life.
Astronomers believe that a type of dark matter is forcing the expansion of the universe by its negative gravity. (I can’t explain this, it was on a recent documentary)
They also believe that this matter will reverse at some stage and the universe will stop expanding and start to come together again until it is completely condensed causing another Big Bang.
Your theory isn’t too mad.
And this is just how big the universe is.
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/elon-musk-tweeted-the-universe-is-a-really-really-big-1680703461
Still amazes me when I look at stars in the sky. It’s mad to think where we actually really are.
It’s even crazier to think that some of those stars that we see in the sky may not even exist any more! We are simply looking at the light they emitted thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of years ago!
I saw a program recently about the data that is being sent back from Hubble. In the search for another planet that can hold life on terms of the chemical make up of earth they found a planet that ,chemically and distance wise from its Sun, is almost exactly like earth. This planet is something like 1000 light years away from us so we may never get to know what lives on it.
Read a statistic recently were it stated that there are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on the entire Earth.
With each star being orbited by planets such as our own.
It’s an unimaginably large and wonderful place.
Read a wonderful statistic earlier where it stated that there are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on the entire earth.
With each star being orbited by planets such as ours.
It’s unimaginably large and wonderful place.
have your say