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Following what might have been one of the best Championship Weekends in NFL history, the stage is set for Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta two weeks from today.
The NFC Championship Game saw the Los Angeles Rams head into the Superdome and avenge their regular season loss to the New Orleans Saints. Greg Zuerlein crushed a 57-yard field goal (that would have gone through from 70) after the Rams intercepted Drew Brees in overtime to deliver a 26-23 victory for the Rams.
That was followed up by an AFC Championship Game that also went to overtime, marking the first time both Conference Championship Games needed extra time to come to a conclusion. The Chiefs tied things with a Harrison Butker field goal to tie the game at 31-31, but the Chiefs never saw the ball in overtime as Tom Brady marched his team down the field. The drive was capped by a 2-yard touchdown run by Rex Burkhead to put the Patriots in the Super Bowl for the third consecutive year with a 37-31 win.
Both of these teams are familiar to Minnesota Vikings fans, as the purple lost to both of these teams on the road during the regular season. The Vikings lost to the Rams in a 38-31 shootout on a Thursday night back in Week 4, while they fell to the Patriots in Foxborough in Week 13 by a final score of 24-10.
The last time that the Rams and Patriots met in the regular season came back in 2016, when the pre-Sean McVay Rams went out to New England and lost to the Patriots by a final score of 26-10.
There are only four meaningful quarters of football left in the 2018-19 NFL season, and we won’t get to see them for two weeks, but the stage is set for what could be a pretty entertaining Super Bowl. We’ll be talking plenty about it between now and then, that’s for sure.