The AFC championship is set, and it’s a rematch between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs, to be played at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 29 in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Chiefs opened as 3-point favorites at FanDuel Sportsbook, but that number steadily dropped and now lists Kansas City as just 1.5-point chalk as of Sunday evening.
On the money line, the teams are basically evenly matched, with the Chiefs a very slight -110 favorite and Cincinnati at -106. The game’s over/under is at 47½.
The matchup was set when Joe Burrow and the Bengals throttled the Buffalo Bills 27-10 on Sunday and the Chiefs held off the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-20 on Saturday despite a high ankle sprain suffered by quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes says he’ll play in the AFC championship but likely will be limited, which may explain why the Chiefs are such a short home favorite.
It’s the Chiefs’ fifth consecutive appearance in the AFC title game, all of them played at home in Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs are 2-2 in the previous four games, losing to the Patriots and Bengals and beating the Titans and Bills.
In last year’s game, the Bengals beat the Chiefs 27-24 in overtime after falling behind 21-3. It’s the first AFC title game rematch since the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Houston Oilers in two straight games after the 1978 and 1979 seasons, both at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
These teams faced off in the regular season, with the Bengals beating the Chiefs by that same 27-24 score on Dec. 4 in Cincinnati. Kansas City was a 2½-point favorite in that game.
Whoever wins the AFC game will face off with the winner of the NFC championship between the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Arizona.
