KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs are headed to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals on Sunday in a rematch of the AFC Championship game.
Kansas City jumped out to an early 21-3 lead and led 21-10 at halftime before falling apart in the second half.
The Bengals pulled out the come-from-behind win with a 27-24 victory to advance to the Super Bowl.
This game is one that has stuck with the Chiefs ever since.
“Yeah, I don’t know if it means more. I think you got to keep things in perspective, it’s a brand-new football season," Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. "Obviously, anytime somebody beats you the year before, you want to beat them, especially in game like they beat us in to go to the Super Bowl. And we understand it’s a great football team that’s playing great football right now. So, we’ll go out there and put our effort forward and play our best football and try to get that win because it’s a big win in the season to try to hold that number one seed and win our division.”
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid acknowledged his team being motivated by last season's loss, but is focused more on execution and finishing out each game.
"It was the last game, so you love to have an opportunity to play them and do better than what we did, that’s for sure," Reid said. "If something motivates you, that’s kind of it. But you also know you have to play within yourself and do the things that you know are right and be able to — don’t get so high that you can’t execute so that’s the trick there.”
Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones has watched his fair share of Bengals games this season, but the AFC Championship game is one he still hasn't turned on yet.
"I've watched a few games of theirs this year, they've got a completely different offensive line, so I haven't gone and revisited last year yet because of the change in offensive lineman, everyone is new," he said. "I've been trying to get a beat on how they set, how they group is blocking together, so I haven't had the time to go back to last year."
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