Each team’s Achilles Heel

by Brandon King

The NFL playoffs are down to four teams. We saw the Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, and New York Giants all get their respective seasons ended. Remaining are the teams that beat them - the Cincinnati Bengals, San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, and Philadelphia Eagles. Each of these have one major downfall that could prevent them from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. These range from the Chiefs having to send out an injured Patrick Mahomes to the 49ers who are on their third QB of the year.

The weekend started with the Chiefs defeating the Jaguars 27-20 to move on to the AFC Championship. The Chiefs led for most of the

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game even after Mahomes went down with a high ankle sprain in the second quarter. Backup QB Chad Henne came in and scored a touchdown to keep the lead in favor of KC. Mahomes came back to play in the second half, for the win.

After the game it was revealed that Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain, an injury that can keep mobile, scrambling quarterbacks like himself out for multiple weeks. The only problem with that time frame is if they lose any game from here on, their season is over.

With a tougher opponent next week, will Mahomes be able to overcome his injury to lead his team to another super bowl or will the Bengals defense who shut down Josh Allen, do the

Ashley James leads way for PSU Hazleton

Ashley James has returned from injury and is playing a big role for the Penn State Hazleton women’s basketball team.

On Saturday, the Weatherly Area graduate scored a season-high 15 points and dished out three assists as the Lady Lions roared past Penn State Wilkes-Barre 79-51 in PSUAC play at Highacres.

With the win, the locals improved to 7-8 overall, and moved to 6-5 in the PSUAC East standings.

In six games, all starts, James is averaging 5.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and

2.2 assists per game, while making all six of her free throws.

Weatherly runners at Kutztown U same to this superstar QB?

Kutztown University has 71 student-athletes representing its track & field program for the 2022-23 season. Among them are Rhianne Markovchick and Jacob Solonoski of Weatherly.

The Golden Bears season is underway, with full schedules and results at www.KUBears.com.

The Cincinnati Bengals are firing on all cylinders. They have won 13 straight games. The Bengals started out the year 2-4 and the season looked gloomy when last year’s AFC champs could not find their footing. On October 9th they lost to the Baltimore Ravens, a game which showed the NFL that the way to beat the Bengals is to apply pressure and swarm the offensive line. The Ravens would sack Joe Burrow three times in that game and pressure him many more times. This was Burrow and crew’s wake-up call as that’s the last game they would lose to this point in the season. The only way Kansas City will beat the Bengals would be for them to exploit the same weakness that the Ravens used back in week 6 - beat the offensive line and get in Burrow’s face.

On the NFC side of things, the weekend started out with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the New York Giants, a game that was over right after the coin toss. Right after kicking off, Eagles QB Jalen Hurts would find Devonta Smith for a 40 yard strike down field and a few plays later the Eagles would score, then they would score again, and again. It was 28-0 by halftime. The Eagles are probably the most balanced team left in the playoffs as they have both a dominant offense and a stifling defense. The team is led by MVP nominee Hurts. The defense recorded 70 sacks this season - two shy of the NFL record held by the ‘84 Bears. The one thing that can slow this hot team down is if the opposing team can manage the clock. The Eagles started out the year 10-0, then the Washington Commanders came to town and gave the rest of the NFL the script on how to beat this team. Run the Ball was the main game plan. Washington ran for over 150 yards and two touchdowns. The other is to simply play keep-away and not let the high-flying Eagles offense run up the score. Do the Eagles have what it takes to overcome the 49ers’ defense or will the 49ers with rookie QB Brock Purdy get their chance to hoist the Lombardi?

The San Francisco 49ers will be away for the first time all playoffs, taking on the Eagles in Philly for the

Championship. The 49ers, lead by their defense, have shown exactly why they are on this stage as last week they took a Cowboys offense who averaged over 30 points a game to just 12 points all game. Their pass rush ranks 5th in the league in win rate, and has numerous all-pros in the front seven from defensive end Nick Bosa to middle linebacker Fred Warner. This team is aggressive and scary.

The Niners have time and time again been beaten by the deep ball, which is Philly’s specialty. Two notable names to watch out for with their overaggressiveness and poor discipline are cornerback Deommandre Lenoire and safety Talanaoa Hufanga. If AJ Brown is lined up across from one of these two early in the game don’t be surprised if Jalen Hurts sends one deep.

So, will the rookie seventh round, last pick in the draft quarterback Brock Purdy accomplish the unthinkable and lead his team to the Super Bowl, or will the ferocious Eagles defense prove to be too much?