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Home / Sports News / New England hits the road for Kansas City Sunday and the Los Angeles Rams will head for New Orleans, with the NFL conference winners matching up in the Feb. 3 Super Bowl in Atlanta

New England hits the road for Kansas City Sunday and the Los Angeles Rams will head for New Orleans, with the NFL conference winners matching up in the Feb. 3 Super Bowl in Atlanta

By Arnie Leshin 
Arnie Leshin

Up, up and away. The defeated Los Angeles Chargers will fly back to the West Coast, the victorious New England Patriots will land inKansas City. That’s the American Conference.

 

Traveling to New Orleans will be the Los Angeles Rams. That’s the National Conference.

 

And that’s the NFL’s Final Four on Sunday, that’s the day when the winners will be making plans for the Feb. 3 Super Bowl No. 50 to be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

 

Number one seed versus number two seed in the doubleheader. Kansas City (14-4) against New England (12-5) and New Orleans (14-3) versus the Rams (13-4) The 6th seeded Philadelphia Eagles will be home after the Saints came from 14-0 down after one quarter to combine their offense and defense and carry off a 20-14 victory over Philly, which made a game try but finished at 10-8.

 

At the LA Coliseum where the Rams play, the 4thseeded Dallas Cowboys quickly took a 7-0 lead that Los Angeles answered with a touchdown and field goal. Then it scored two more TDs to go up 27-7. But the Cowboys didn’t quit, cutting the deficit to 27-17 and then running out of time in the 30-22 setback.

 

In New England, the 5th seeded Los Angeles Chargers arrived with plenty of confidence after flying from coast to coast. But as they usually do at Foxboro Stadium, its home field, the Patriotswere well prepared, stunning LA with three rapidtouchdowns and grabbing a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.

 

Their offense was in full gear and their defense was keeping the visitors in check on the ground and through the air. They upped the margin to 31-7, and then cut short a late Charger run for a 41-28 win that ended the LA quest at 13-5.

 

But now New England (12-5) will hit the road, something it is unaccustomed to, for it usually stays home at this point of the playoffs. But it’s going to Kansas City, and the Chiefs (14-4) will host the conference championship at home for the first time in their long history.

 

They did so by cooling off the visiting 4th seeded Indianapolis Colts, who had won nine of their last 10 starts. The KC offense did enough passing and plenty of running the ball. Its ground game scored the first three touchdowns and just like that, Indy was already down 21-0.

 

And the Chiefs played their best defense of the season, keeping quarterback Alex Luck from finding his targets and putting the rush on the offense to keep it from making big plays.

 

Indianapolis was too far behind when it did move the ball in the fourth quarter, and fell 31-13. The Chiefs, who play in perhaps the loudest outside stadium in the world, can hardly wait, and their fanatic fans are getting a late Christmas gift.

 

In the regular season, their Chiefs played the Patriots in New England and lost a 44-40 thriller inone of the best games of the campaign. In fact, New England went 8-0 at home.

 

New England does have the playoff experience. It has won five Super Bowls and lost in last year’s classic to the Eagles. Kansas City won its only Super Bowl by defeating the Minnesota Vikings in 1973.

 

While the Pats have been a successful franchise over this decade plus, the Chiefs have had dismal years in a long span, losing 11 of 12 playoff games.

 

No matter, they are back in business and home again, and they face the challenge of New England.

 

From coast to coast will come the Rams. They had been there earlier this season and came away with a 43-35 defeat. But this one is still up for grabs between two talented teams.

 

Ditto for the Patriots and the Chiefs. In fact, these four teams have so many weapons, it could be quite a day.

 

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