Participants,

It was the best of games; it was the worst of games.  Not to quote Dickens, but Sunday’s conference championship games were dramatically different.  It was also the best of times and worst of times for the HSBT participants (more on that later.)  Let’s get to my wrap-up for the Conference Championship games:

Philadelphia Eagles 31, 49ers 7
If we told you that the 49ers starting QB started the game, ended the game, did not have an incompletion or INT, you would have thought they might have won!  That was the case, but it was a Purdy miserable day for the 3^rd string QB.  And the 4^th string QB.  And the 5^th string QB (RB McCaffrey).  So, the vaunted 49ers D then stepped it up, right?  Dead wrong.  What did they have, 15 penalties?

Everything that could have gone wrong for the 49ers did, and everything that could have gone right for the Eagles did.

This was not even close and might have been one the least interesting Conference Championship Games since the Buffalo Bills beat the Raiders, 51-3 (anything to try to bring a smile to Bills fans) back in 1992.

No sense beating this dog to death – that had to be a Purdy long flight back to the Bay area for the 49ers.  Eagles back in the SB for the 1^st time in 5 years.

HSBT Update
HenricoFiveOh jumped into the lead, earning 152 points.  Everyone picked the Eagles to win.

Kansas City Chiefs 23, Who (Were) Dey? 20
A thriller.  Mahomes playing with a high ankle sprain.  Burrow making a comeback twice in the 2^nd half to tie it up.  Bengal penalties were frequent and at the very worst time, especially that last one that allowed Chiefs K Butker to kick the winner with 00:04 on the clock.

This game had you on the edge of your seat for almost the entire game.  The Bengals almost beat he Chiefs for the 4^th time in a row at Burrowhead, but came up short.  A game full of drama, penalties, backups making great plays in the clutch, and the Cincy banged up O line finally succumbing to a tough and scheming D.

The Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl and the Bengals are not.  Mahomes has 2 weeks to get better.

HSBT Update
Comeback Kid posts 129 points and accumulates the most points (209) for the Sunday games.  Greg the Great continues his momentary struggles and posts the only goose-egg of the weekend.

12 games down and 1 to go.  This is the closest race in HSBT history, and the trophy could rest in anyone’s hands in 2 weeks.

• 2023 Winner (574 points) – stays in the lead by an insurmountable 1 point
• Comeback Kid (573 points) – a “distant” second place right now. He also has the Chiefs for his Super Bowl Bonus pick
• HenricoFiveOh (543 points) – 2^nd most points over the weekend and oh, so close
• Pete the Terp (517 points) – a solid pick in 2 weeks and he might have the bronze chicken wing
• Buffalo Bill (439 points) – a winning pick in 2 weeks and he will have his 1^st trophy in 20 years
• JTB (412 points) – lackluster weekend, but trails the leader by only 162 points
• Greg the Great (302 points) – look out for his Super Bowl pick!

I’ll have the league’s official analysis and game prediction for Feb 12 out to everyone sometime next week.  Enjoy this time to start planning out your strategy to win the trophy.

Until then, I remain
The Commish