I'm SHOCKED that the Bengals are in the Super Bowl

I suppose I should say that I am shocked and also very excited for them because I do love an underdog story and especially where all the people who were making predictions about Cincinnati, including myself, didn't give them much of a chance at beating the Chiefs. Anyone who was watching the game would have thought that the pundits and the Vegas oddsmakers were correct when the Bengals went down by 18 points and somehow managed to pull out an amazing come-from-behind victory.

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When the Bengals started this game there was a lot of hope on them repeating what the managed during the regular season but a lot of people and again, including me, that felt as though Kansas City didn't really bring their top game to the regular season showdown because KC didn't need to win as they already clinched their playoff spot and the result of that game wasn't going to change anything. Obviously, when you take the field in the Championship final things are going to be a bit more serious and that is exactly how the Chiefs started this game out in a dominant fashion.

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When they went up by 18 points in the 2nd quarter it looked like this game was going to be an absolute blowout and honestly Cincinnati looked as though they were truly out of their element. Then, like a switch on a light, something magical happened and it looked as though the Bengals couldn't possibly do anything wrong.

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Coming back from 18 points down is no small feat and I wonder if the Chiefs may have actually screwed up in the coaching side of things by underestimating their opponents and not doing more of a defensive strategy playstyle that included more running out of the clock and less passing plays. It appeared as though the Chiefs may have wanted to embarrass the Bengals with a massive defeat as they head into the Super Bowl. Instead, the Bengals eeked their way back to a tie that forced overtime - where as the story goes, they pulled off the impossible.

I'm not sure about the statistics about if a comeback of this magnitude has been done before but it has to be a rarity.

Even though I am bound by family to be a Chiefs fan I can say that I feel bad enough for the Bengals based on the 90's and 2000's obscurity where they became known as the "Bungles" that I definitely be rooting for Cincinnati in the Super Bowl... probably along with everyone else that isn't from Los Angeles.

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Now one thing that I would have loved to have seen happen would have been if the 49'ers had won the NFC Championship and for one really important reason.

The Bengals have been to the Super Bowl twice in their 52 year history and they lost both of them...... Both times to the San Francisco 49'ers.

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But I suppose the Rams will do but as luck would have it they will be playing the Super Bowl in their own stadium. Will home field advantage be a factor? I don't know if that will be the case because it seems as though Cincinnati actually does BETTER on the road than they do at home. Oddly, and only because it is an arbitrary decision as far as I can tell, the Bengals are designated as the "Home team" in the Super Bowl despite the fact that it is literally the Rams' stadium.

Right now the Vegas odds are favoring the Rams by -4.5 points. I wouldn't get emotionally attached to that though seeing as how the Bengals have been Vegas underdogs in nearly every one of their playoff games and defied the odds in all of them.