NFL Championship Sunday: 49ers decimate Packers and Patrick Mahomes magic takes Chiefs to the Super Bowl

We have our lineup for Super Bowl LIV. Here's what happened on an eventful Sunday evening in the NFL Championship games.

San Francisco 49ers 37 Green Bay Packers 20

Kyle Shanahan coached the perfect game in his father’s image, as the San Francisco 49ers destroyed the Green Bay Packers with a devastating ground game to book their ticket to Super Bowl LIV.

Jimmy Garoppolo only threw the ball eight times, instead becoming the world’s most handsome handoff machine, as Shanahan’s scheme allowed undrafted running back Raheem Mostert to run wild.

Mostert - a former track star who had less than 800 rushing yards throughout his college career - is on his seventh NFL team, and was nothing more than a bit-part special-teamer before joining San Francisco in 2016.

But on Sunday night he rushed 29 times for a whopping 220 yards and all four of the 49ers’ touchdowns. He became the only player in NFL history to rush for more than 200 yards and four touchdowns in a play-off game, and the Packers just had no answer for his dynamism, coupled with Shanahan’s creative play calling.

There was an hour and a half between Garoppolo’s sixth and seventh pass attempts. He is just the second quarterback to finish a play-off game with than than 10 pass attempts in the Super Bowl era, after Bob Griese did so for Don Shula’s 1971 and 1973 Miami Dolphins.

He simply wasn’t needed here, as Deebo Samuel also proved to be a useful weapon out of the backfield on end arounds.

The Niners took the lead on their second possession, with Mostert ripping a 34-yard touchdown run off the left edge. A 54-yard Robbie Gould field goal made it 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.

San Fran then added 20 unanswered points in the second quarter, with their third touchdown - which came off an ugly Aaron Rodgers interception - being made up entirely of Mostert runs. That’s the second time in two weeks they have scored touchdowns on drives consisting of nothing but rushing plays.

The game was over by the halfway point, and while Rodgers (31 of 39, 326 yards, two TDs, two INTs) came out fired up in the second half, he never looked like dragging Green Bay back into the game.

He tossed a short touchdown to Aaron Jones to open the third quarter, but Mostert immediately cancelled it out with a 22-yard scamper off the left edge.

The Packers also scored on their next two drives, as Rodgers sought to involve Davante Adams in the game. Adams finished with nine catches for 138 yards and helped set up both Aaron Jones’ one-yard rushing score and Jace Sternberger’s maiden NFL touchdown.

But Rodgers threw a desperate interception to Richard Sherman on Green Bay’s final possession, and Garoppolo knelt the closing seconds away for a victory that was not even as close as the one-sided scoreline suggests.

While Shanahan’s offense will rightly take the headlines, the 49ers’ defense also deserves a lot of the credit - as it has all season.

They were largely excellent in coverage and put pressure on Rodgers up front, sacking him three times.

The way they match up with the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense in Miami in two weeks’ time should be fascinating to watch. We could be in for a classic.

Kansas City Chiefs 35 Tennessee Titans 24

Patrick Mahomes ended the Tennessee Titans fairytale play-off run, and is taking the Kansas City Chiefs to their first Super Bowl since 1969.

Only the New York Jets had gone longer without reaching the showpiece before Sunday’s action, but things are different in Kansas City now. Mahomes produced yet another stellar performance in front of a rocking Arrowhead crowd, orchestrating a second comeback in as many games to ensure his team went one better than last season’s disappointing exit at the hands of the New England Patriots.

Mahomes threw three touchdowns and rushed for another - a 27-yard rush that made him look like Lamar Jackson and gave Kansas City a lead they never relinquished.

He joins Joe Montana as they only player to have more than 250 passing yards, three touchdowns and 50 rushing yards in multiple career play-off games.

Things started ominously for the Chiefs, as the Titans jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, courtesy of a Greg Joseph field goal (the first they had made since week 15) and a four-yard Derrick Henry touchdown off a direct snap - a call they actually copied from Andy Reid’s playbook.

But while Henry did find the end zone, he was less effective than we’ve become used to these last couple of months, rushing 19 times for 69 yards. The Chiefs defense tackles hard and did a good job of nullifying Henry’s significant threat, forcing Ryan Tannehill (21 of 31, 209 yards, two TDs) to throw the ball more - to 10 different receivers.

Mahomes moved the ball down the field, connecting with Tyreek Hill for a big 28-yard gain before capping his first touchdown drive of the night with an eight-yard strike to the same receiver.

But the Titans restored their 10-point advantage in enjoyable fashion, with offensive tackle Dennis Kelly becoming the heaviest player - at 321 pounds - to catch a touchdown in NFL postseason history.

After that the game belonged entirely to Mahomes and Kansas City. He hit Hill for a 20-yard touchdown to open the second half, then scored again on that 27-yard scramble to take a 21-14 lead.

Damien Williams went three yards off the right edge for another score on their next possession, before Mahomes opened the fourth quarter with fireworks. He threw a beautiful ball over the middle to Sammy Watkins for a 60-yard touchdown which all but sealed the Chiefs long-awaited return to the Super Bowl.

Tannehill connected with Anthony Firkser for a 22-yard consolation touchdown, but by that point the Titans fans knew their dream was dead. The Patriots and Ravens might have fallen to their old school smash mouth style, but Mahomes is too good to be kept down.

He and the Chiefs are narrow favourites to be standing under the confetti in two weeks’ time - and no one would deserve to hoist the Lombardi trophy more than Andy Reid.

Whatever happens, we’re getting a Super Bowl contested by two of the most creative offensive play callers in the game. A repeat of last year’s defensive punt-fest feels blissfully unlikely.