The identity of the two teams who will be competing at Super Bowl LVIII will be revealed on Sunday night and the first to book their place in Las Vegas will be the AFC representative when the Baltimore Ravens host the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kansas City have grown accustomed to hosting the AFC Championship game but this time around they have to go on the road to the number one seeds Baltimore Ravens who will be aiming to head back to the Super Bowl for the first time in 11 seasons.
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens have certainly been the best team in the AFC this season if not the NFL as a whole and now they are a win away from showcasing their talents at the Super Bowl. There were thoughts that they could have been rusty last week when they took on Houston Texans in the divisional round after three weeks without their starters being on the field and for the first half of that game that narrative looked to have plenty of legs.
Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore offense upped it in the second half though and in the end the Ravens ran out comfortable winners. They can control a game with their running game, with a much stronger receiving unit and if their offense is surprisingly stopped then they can also dominate a game with their defence. When you throw in home advantage as well they are entitled to feel incredibly tough to beat.
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Kansas City Chiefs
Two things that the Kansas City Chiefs aren’t used to have already happened in this postseason. They are not accustomed to playing in the wildcard round and they are equally as not used to being on the road in the divisional week of games but the Chiefs have taken both things in their stride and come through relatively comfortably. They eased past the Miami Dolphins in Baltic conditions in the first of those two matches and then came up with the goods when it mattered in the second one in Buffalo.
This will be the acid test for the Chiefs because their offense really hasn’t powered up to the levels that we would expect it to often enough this season and it is hard to see how they win this in anything other than a shootout so their star players are really going to need to stand up and be counted here. Their defence is obviously going to be up against it here so they will need their offense to help out both in scoring points and keeping the defence off the field.
Betting
I’m a little surprised that the point line is as low as 43.5 in this match. I get that both defences are good but in the main the latter postseason matches these days tend to be high scoring with so much on the line and the prize at stake so real. The Baltimore Ravens have overpowered the better teams with their offense all season and their pride will want them to do that here and with the injuries the Kansas City Chiefs have on defence you would imagine they’ll be able to do that here.
To be fair to the Chiefs though, their offense has come to the party when they have needed it the most in the last couple of weeks and Patrick Mahomes and co have been known to find a way when they have had to. I think they’ll trouble this Ravens defence and that can lead to a higher scoring game than we might otherwise have got. The fact is this doesn’t need to be a high scoring game for the over to land here and I expect these two great sides to come up with at least 44 points.
Tips
Back Over 43.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with Paddy Power
