NFL championship games are set for Sunday

Jacob Nevis Sports Editor

With the Super Bowl on the horizon, football fans know they’ll soon have to wait for September to get to watch their team play again. The 103rd NFL season is coming to a close. It’s always a sad feeling when the season ends, but this year has been very exciting.

The season concluded on Jan. 8, and the playoffs have already been in full motion. In the Wild Card Round in the AFC, fans saw the Buffalo Bills barely defeat the Miami Dolphins, the Jacksonville Jaguars make an all-time comeback against the Los Angeles

Chargers and the Baltimore Ravens get defeated by last year’s AFC representative in the Super Bowl, the Cincinnati Bengals.

Over in the NFC Wild Card Round, fans saw the San Francisco 49ers handily defeat the Seattle Seahawks, the New York Giants slip past the Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys beat the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

This past weekend, the Divisional Round was played. In the AFC, Patrick Mahomes, who suffered a high ankle sprain, came back in the game in the second half to help lead the Kansas City Chiefs past the Jaguars. The Bengals ended the Bills’ hope of finally winning a Super Bowl by defeating them fairly easily.

This year will see a repeat of last year’s AFC championship game, with the Bengals traveling to Kansas City to try and earn back-to-back Super Bowl appearances. Mahomes has struggled against the Joe Burrow-led Bengals, with a record of 0-3. He and the Chiefs will look to end that streak on Sunday.

The NFC’s Divisional Round was in full swing as well. The

Philadelphia Eagles demolished the Giants, ending the hopes of a team that was able to quickly turn their luck around thanks to the help of first-year head coach Brian Daboll. The Cowboys continued their playoff struggles by losing to the 49ers. The Cowboys haven’t been able to reach a championship game since the 1995 season.

The 49ers will be playing in their second straight NFC championship game. Last year, they were barely defeated by the Los Angeles Rams, who went on to win the Super Bowl. The 49ers will be trav- eling to Philadelphia to face Jalen Hurts and the Eagles.

The NFC championship will be played at 3 p.m. on Sunday on FOX, while the AFC championship will be played at 6:30 p.m. on CBS.

Editor’s end-of-season award picks:

MVP: Patrick Mahomes

OPOY: Tyreek Hill

DPOY: Nick Bosa

CPOY: Geno Smith

OROY: Brock Purdy DROY: Ahmed “Sauce” Gardner Coach of the Year: Brian Daboll