We would have bet money, if we were the betting kind, on the Cincinnati Bengals to beat the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday in the AFC Championship Game. You know why. Instead, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow had a terrible game, and the Chiefs prevailed at home to advance to the Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles—thus bringing an end to the 2022 rendition of the Joe Burrow Agenda … thankfully.

Burrow posted a 70.2 QB rating in the game, as the Chiefs won on a last-second field goal made possible (mostly) by a bonehead Cincinnati defensive penalty. Before that, though, Burrow managed just 270 passing yards on 41 attempts, threw just one touchdown pass, and tossed two interceptions. The officials, who had done everything possible to get the Bengals to this game in the prior two postseason games, couldn’t do anything here to save Cincinnati.

The Bengals had beaten the Chiefs three straight times, somehow, including last year’s AFC Championship Game on the same field when Kansas City somehow blew a 21-3 lead. The scene was set to do it again, but on the final Cincinnati offensive drive of this game, Burrow only could move his team 22 yards in 7 plays with 2:30 left in the fourth quarter. The league’s wannabe star took both an intentional grounding penalty and a sack to cost his team 16 yards in those 7 plays, and the Bengals had to punt.

This is where Burrow’s failure(s) were compounded by his special teams and the defense. On the Cincy punt with just 39 seconds left, Chiefs returner Skyy Moore gained a whopping 29 yards, putting the ball on the Kansas City 47-yard line with just 30 seconds to go in the game. This where the minute defensive breakdown happened, as the Chiefs moved the ball 11 yards in 22 seconds before the stupid penalty added another 15 yards onto the final gain.

What this all proves is that even with attempts to influence the outcome of games, the favored players themselves still need to get their shit together, and Burrow utterly failed in this game—as did his special-teams friends and (specifically) one of the defensive players. Now, we can put this all to rest for the 2022 season and watch the Super Bowl with purity in our hearts for once. But look out next year, as the league will be triply motivated now to crown Burrow with some sort of set up … guaranteed.

Bet on it.