It's the best of the Super Bowl matchups, it's the worst of Super Bowl matchups. What does that even mean? In this case, we did get the two home favorites winning and advancing to the big game. Unfortunately, we didn't get the two teams it would probably have been more enjoyable to talk about for two weeks.

Eagles 55, Commanders 23. I'll start out with a mea culpa; not good calls on this one. I thought Washington would cover the 6-point spread and potentially win, I thought Jalen Hurts would be moving around like a Frankenstein monster, and obviously neither of them came close to happening. My arguments that follow in no way contradict the reality that my expectations for this game were incorrect and apologies to those who benched Hurts or bet on the Commanders or whatnot. Eagles by far the better team yesterday.

But man, it could have been different. When the Commanders pulled off a cool fake punt to turn 14-3 into 14-6, then got a sack to end one drive in a missed field goal and drove down again for a Terry McLaurin touchdown to make it 14-12 it seemed like game on. And even after Jeremy McNichols lost a soft fumble on a kick return, and it was a 15-point game, Washington wound up getting within 11 (34-23), getting a defensive stop, and driving again. But another soft fumble (Austin Ekeler) later, and the rout was on.

I suppose one good call was that Hurts only ran for 16 yards, so that under bet was good. But he was moving fine, with a TD run, another wiped out by a hold, a couple more tush push plays and plenty of successful passing. Not much more to say about this one but the right team -- better offense, better defense, better everything -- definitely won and deserves to go back to the Super Bowl. Hats off to Saquon Barkley, and I guess Nick Sirianni can tell all his critics where to go, too. Get a team to multiple Super Bowls and you're clearly doing something right.

Kansas City 32, Bills 29. I apologize to the diehard Kansas City fans reading and seeing my negative remarks. I know it sucks to have a large portion of the country rooting against your juggernaut team. You remember what it was like when you were doing the same with the Patriots, I'm sure. So you understand when I say that now you're the Patriots, and people don't like you and all the rigmarole around the team. We're tired of you.

But the better team won this game. Kansas City is definitely better coached, both offense and defense. Better defense, period. No question. They got more defensive stops (and near-stops, which we'll get to in a moment) and had more successful offensive drives and plays. Buffalo could have lost this game by 10 points or more but for Josh Allen and James Cook pulling off a couple of remarkable plays along the way. How many short-yardage, 3rd and 4th and 1 plays did Buffalo need to convert in this one? A whole lot. Better plays on first and second downs would have led to fewer such critical plays, and you're never going to convert all of them.

That being said, I don't know how Allen wasn't given credit for a first down on the critical 4th and 1 in the fourth quarter, Buffalo leading 22-21 and driving. Seemed like at least one official had it right. There was a review, with footage that looked pretty clear that he'd got the ball over the line. Even the official the announcers buzzed in thought he got it. Because he did. But nope, Kansas City ball, quick TD drive to put KC up by a TD instead of Buffalo maybe going up 8. Kind of an important play.

But the Bills tied it, with a huge Mack Hollins catch and a clutch play by Allen on his fourth-down touchdown to Curtis Samuel. Then they got the big defensive play to hold KC to a field goal, and it all seemed to be there for Allen to march the team down the field for a winning touchdown. All you could ask for as a Bills fan. Instead we got one Allen scramble for a first, a couple of incompletions and a quick out that had little chance of getting 10 yards, and a great defensive call that led to a desperation heave by Allen...which should have been a miracle completion to Dalton Kincaid, except he punctuated his lousy season by dropping it. Yeah he was diving, not an easy catch, but if you're alone in a space and get both hands on the ball and don't make the catch...drop. And that was it.

(Buffalo could maybe have got the ball back but for a weirdly bad angle taken by Terrel Bernard on KC's final third-down play to Samaje Perine. Seemed like could not only have tackled him short of the first down but maybe actually pushed him out of bounds, given the way Perine ran the route, getting Buffalo the ball back down 3 or at worst 6 with more than a minute left.)

There was another controversial first-half play where what looked like a potential Bills interception wound up being a catch to set up a touchdown by Xavier Worthy. It was debatable, but I thought the call was OK, and there was a defensive penalty on the Bills anyway, so it wasn't a game changing ruling. I think the refs messed up that critical fourth-down spot somehow, but not enough there for me to say the Bills lost this one to the refs. JuJu Smith-Schuster stepped up out of nowhere with a couple of big plays, as champs often do. Better team won.

Sum total of the AFC playoffs was Lamar and Josh again came up a little short, and at least one of them will be coming up short again a year from now. (And based on what we keep seeing, possibly both.) Win a couple more games, get this matchup at home (I realize that didn't work for either one a year ago), maybe they get the win. But it's gonna be a long 12 months until then.

So we've got the Super Bowl most didn't want, but was maybe expected as recently as midseason, when it was clear the Eagles had the much better defense than Detroit, and that KC had the best AFC defense and would make all the clutch plays on offense. I see that Kansas City is a 1.5-point favorite, and (for what it's worth) I think I'd be giving the points. I suppose I'm not going to believe KC will lose until someone puts a stake in them, cuts their head off, and salts or garlics the earth or whatnot.

But we'll spend the next two weeks talking about it, and maybe I'll make the mistake of believing this time things will be different.