Brawn Buffs to Cardiac Cats Awuzie and Tupou are Super Bowl bound

The Cincinnati Bengals shocked the world last night. Defeating the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes at home in overtime to make it to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989. The Bengals are one out of the 12 NFL teams to have never won a Super Bowl. Quarterback Joe Burrow says that is a thing of the past.

Many did not even expect Cincinnati to win a playoff game this season, much less 3 to get to the ultimate prize for the chance to become world champions. They were just coming off a tight game in Nashville winning 19-16 thanks to a 4th quarter field goal by rookie Evan McPherson. The AFC Conference Championship was no different. McPherson won the game again kicking the ball dead center through the uprights and defeating the Chiefs 27-24. He could go on to have the chance of breaking Adam Vinateri’s post season record of 14 field goals. However, the only record he is concerned about is winning at Super Bowl for Cincinnati for the first time in 54 years. It was their first AFC Championship since 1988, and their first Super Bowl appearance in over three decades.

Former Buff Chidobe Awuzie has been a force for the Bengals defense, and the AFC Championship game was no exception. He was at the forefront of most big plays on the defensive side of the ball. It wasn’t always pretty with Mahomes’ big arm and great receivers, but Awuzie had 5 tackles, and assisted in another 3. He is very excited to go back to Cali and play for it all where he was born. After getting 64 tackles in the regular season, he has already tallied for almost 20 in the post season. Drafted by the Cowboys in 2017. He will stand with Josh Tupou as former Colorado Buffaloes who are now in the Super Bowl for the Bengals who has been sidelined since the divisional round. Tupou has always played for Cincinnati since 2018. Playing 17 games in 2021, he also reigns from California, by way of Long Beach. Both former Buffs, and current Bengals will have a chance to help their team win the Vince Lombardi trophy in the same place they grew up in. The same place where they dreamed this dream to get the chance to become the greatest on NFL’s biggest stage.

The only balls Awuzie has let past him have been big time perfectly thrown passes. He earned the highest overall grade for all corners in the AFC this season, making the 2021 Pro Football Focus All-Pro team. A big part of why the Bengals made it to the Super Bowl. Defensive tackle Josh Tupou has spent his last two games been dealing with a knee injury. Hopefully with some time off he will be ready to go by the big show, and we will get to see both Buffs highlighted on the biggest stage in football.

In overtime the Chiefs won the coin toss. It seemed dismal for the Bengals who worked so hard after halftime to come back. Cincy rallied from 18 down. The entire country thought it was over. Tweets rang out all through Twitter already congratulating Kansas City on another Super Bowl berth.

However, the Bengals defense said not so fast. It’s not set in stone just yet, and it wasn’t. Cincinnati’s defense found even more heart and even more energy to stop one of the most prolific offenses and one of the best NFL quarterbacks in overtime. Very few thought the Bengals would get the ball back on offense but the defense made the biggest stops of their lives in a resilient fashion. Defense wins championships and they proved it the world.

Cincinnati will go on to play the Los Angels Rams, who just beat the San Francisco 49ers. Ironically the two times the Bengals have been in the Super Bowl they had played the 49ers each time and lost. History will not repeat itself again. It will be a matchup  of one of the lowest seeded Super Bowls of all time. Both coming in as a No. 4 seed. Nobody could have ever imagine a 1, 2, and 3 seed not making it to the Super Bowl in 2022. The battle of the underdogs will take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on Feb. 13th at 6:30 ET on NBC. The Rams look to once again have the edge on the Bengals, but that is something that Cincy is very accustomed to. Move over Cleveland this is the new breed of cardiac kids. Cardiac cats. Joe Burrow has no problem quieting anyone down and beating the best, to be the best.