Over in the CBS Sports Research group we’ve been crunching numbers furiously to get you hyped up for the NFL’s Championship Sunday. Read up so you can prove to your friend that you are smarter than they are.
Here are 15 facts to know for Sunday’s games:
1. Passing the torch. Either Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes has started a conference championship game in each of the last 13 postseasons. Brady made the conference title game in eight straight seasons from 2011-18 and Mahomes’ six-year streak overlapped with Brady’s, starting in 2018. Those are the two longest streaks by QBs in NFL history. Mahomes has made this round in every season as a full-time starter.
2. Best of the best: Lamar Jackson will win NFL MVP this year and Patrick Mahomes won last year, making their matchup the third between the last two MVP QBs in playoff history, along with Tom Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes in 2018 and Brett Favre vs. Steve Young in 1995
3. If you ain’t first, you’re last: Reese Bobby’s wisdom from ‘Talladega Nights’ holds true in the NFC Championship Game. Jared Goff (first overall pick in 2016) vs. Brock Purdy (262nd overall pick in 2022) is the first playoff matchup in NFL history between QBs drafted first and last in the draft.
4. Baltimore blowouts: Lamar Jackson has won four straight starts by 14+ points. Patrick Mahomes has lost four starts by 14+ points in his entire career (112 starts). Mahomes even has more conference championship starts (six including Sunday) than he has 14-point losses (four).
5. Rushing title curse: Christian McCaffrey has a chance to stop the “you can’t win a title with a great running back” talk. He can be the first RB to win a rushing title and make the Super Bowl since Shaun Alexander in 2005. The only rushing title winners to win a Super Bowl are Emmitt Smith (three times) and Terrell Davis (1998).
It won’t be easy going through Detroit. They haven’t allowed a RB to…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-nfl-conference-championship-game-facts-to-know-mvp-showdown-mahomes-flawless-streak-lions-on-road/
Author : Douglas Clawson
Publish date : 2024-01-23 16:32:40
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