Hometown Broadcasting Sports Monday 1/20/20
20 January 2020 Sports
Raheem Mostert rushed for 220 yards and four touchdowns to make quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo mostly a spectator, Nick Bosa harassed Aaron Rodgers from the start and the 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers 37-20 for the NFC championship on Sunday. The 49ers (15-3) advanced to their first Super Bowl in seven years and will play the Kansas City Chiefs in two weeks in Miami for the championship.
The Niners won just 10 games in the first two seasons under coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, going 4-12 last season after Garoppolo went down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 3. Now, San Francisco is one of two teams remaining after delivering a second thorough beating of the season to Rodgers and the Packers (14-4). The 49ers are the third team to make it to the Super Bowl a year after winning four or fewer games, joining Cincinnati (1988) and the Rams (1999).
Bosa, the prize for last year’s rough season as the No. 2 overall pick, helped set the tone when he ended Green Bay’s second drive of the game with a 13-yard sack of Rodgers.
Mostert got started when he burst 36 yards on a third-and-8 trap play to open the scoring on San Francisco’s second drive and kept ripping off long runs behind impressive blocking. He added TD runs of 9 and 18 yards in the second quarter and had 160 yards rushing at the half, becoming the only player in NFL history to rush for at least 150 yards and three TDs in the first half of a playoff game. Mostert added a 22-yard TD run in the third quarter. The Niners asked very little of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who threw only eight passes thanks to the big-play running game and lopsided score. He went 24 minutes of game time between his sixth and seventh passes and finished with six completions for 77 yards.
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers were unable to match that performance as they got overwhelmed by San Francisco’s dominant front for a second time this season. He lost a snap from center to end Green Bay’s only promising drive of the half, threw an interception to Emmanuel Moseley late in the half and didn’t convert his first third down of the season against the Niners until connecting on a 6-yard pass to Aaron Jones on the opening drive of the second quarter for his first third-down conversion in 18 attempts this season against the Niners. Rodgers capped that drive with a 9-yard TD pass to Jones, but the game was too far out of hand by that point. He led Green Bay to two more TDs and finished with 326 yards passing, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Packers lost the NFC title game for the third time since their last Super Bowl trip following the 2010 season. Rodgers’ two TD passes gave him 40 in his playoff career, breaking Brett Favre’s franchise record of 39. Rodgers also has seven straight playoff games with at least two TD throws, one shy of Joe Flacco’s record.
Packers safety Adrian Amos left after injuring his pectoral muscle in the first half and cornerback Jaire Alexander left in the second half with a thumb injury.
The 49ers meet the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 54 in Miami.
Another remarkable rally and offensive masterpiece led by Patrick Mahomes has the Kansas City Chiefs back in the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1969 season. The second-seeded Chiefs rallied from a first-half deficit with 28 consecutive points to down the sixth-seeded Titans, 35-24, in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game to claim a berth in Super Bowl LIV. A week after falling behind 24-0, Patrick Mahomes quickly wiped out a 10-0 first-quarter deficit.. The Chiefs scored touchdowns on three straight drives to close the half with a 21-17 lead and skated their way through the second half at a chilly Arrowhead Stadium. After K.C. got down 17-7, Mahomes and Co. blasted their way for 342 yards compared to 39 yards for Tennessee to essentially put the game away before garbage time began with 7:30 left in the fourth quarter. Mahomes finished 23-of-35 for 294 passing yards and three TDs. The spectacular QB also led the Chiefs with 53 rushing yards and a game-changing TD run.
Everything went right for Tennessee early. Derrick Henry was churning. Ryan Tannehill took advantage of play-action for chunk gains. A.J. Brown blasted out of the gate with a big run-after-catch. The Titans scored 17 points on their first three drives. Tannehill, who passed for 72 yards and 88 yards in the past two playoff games, generated 114 passing yards through three drives of the AFC Championship Game. Then it all came screeching to a halt. After taking a 17-7 lead, the Titans earned 33 total yards and earned two first downs on their next four possessions to make it 35-17.
In the NBA tonight, the Bulls play the Bucks in Milwaukee. The Bucks, with the best record in the league at 39-6, have won six straight and lead Miami by six games in the Eastern Conference.
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