The 32 things we learned from the AFC and NFC championship games of the 2021 NFL playoffs:
1.The Super Bowl 56 matchup is set, the Los Angeles Rams – technically the visiting team – set to host the Cincinnati Bengals, the Super Sunday venue the home stadium of one of the participating clubs for the second straight year after that had never happened in the first 54 years of the Super Bowl era (since 1966). The Rams are opening as a 3½-to-4-point favorite.
2. The Bengals are one of 12 teams in the league that have never hoisted a Lombardi Trophy. The Rams have never done it while representing Los Angeles, which has only experienced Super Bowl glory with the 1983 Raiders.
3. You'd have to say the Rams' trade for Matthew Stafford a year ago was worth it, LA's new QB leveling his playoff record at 3-3 – he's 3-0 this postseason – after going 0-3 in his dozen years with the Detroit Lions. Sorry, Jared Goff.
NFL NEWSLETTER:Sign up now for exclusive content sent to your inbox
4. You'd have to say Sunday was the final game for QB Jimmy Garoppolo in a San Francisco 49ers uniform. Though he's won 70% of his starts (35-15), playoffs included, with the Niners, the team will save $25.5 million by moving on from him before he reaches the final year of his contract. The wins, obviously, have been great ... and yet Garoppolo's final throw Sunday was yet another costly interception from a player who finishes this postseason with two TD passes and three picks. And coach Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch didn't mortgage the future to keep youngster Trey Lance, the No. 3 pick of the 2021 draft, on the bench for another year.
5. Per Elias, the Bengals, who finished the 2019 season at 2-14, joined the 1981 49ers and 2003 Carolina Panthers as the only teams to reach the Super Bowl two years after owning the league's worst record.
6. The Bengals' 6-25-1 mark (.203) in the previous two seasons is the worst ever for a team that advanced to the Super Bowl the following year.
7. Talk about cats who don't change their stripes. Going back to their time together at LSU, where they won a national title in 2019 on perhaps the greatest college football team ever, Bengals QB Joe Burrow and WR Ja'Marr Chase are 7-0 in postseason games.
8. Burrow was the first player drafted No. 1 overall (in 2020) to start a conference championship game in his first two seasons and now becomes the first to reach the Super Bowl. Dan Marino and Ben Roethlisberger are the only other first-round picks to start on Super Sunday in their second NFL season.
9. JOE Burrow can join JOE Namath and JOE Montana as the only quarterbacks to lead a team to a college football national championship and a Super Bowl title.
9a. JOE Theismann and JOE Flacco are also Lombardi-winning QBs. Theismann was the only member of the Joe fraternity to not win Super Bowl MVP honors.
10. The Bengals are now 3-0 all time in AFC championship games, though both previous triumphs occurred at Cincinnati's old Riverfront Stadium.
10a. They are 0-2 in Super Bowls, both losses coming to the 49ers (Super Bowls 16 and 23).
OPINION:Cincinnati Bengals stunned everyone with ahead-of-schedule Super Bowl ascension
11. The Niners-Rams game was only the fourth championship game since divisional realignment in 2002 to feature division rivals. The 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers were the only team to complete a 3-0 season sweep, taking out the archrival Baltimore Ravens.
TB12. Good as it was, championship weekend was doomed to be overshadowed by Saturday afternoon's revelation that Tom Brady will retire from the NFL after 22 unparalleled seasons. There will (almost certainly) never be another like Brady, the NFL's ultimate winner (7 rings) and holder of all of the league's major passing records. This will only be third Super Bowl in the past eight seasons without Brady, who finished 7-3 overall on Super Sunday.
WHO'S NEXT BRADY? Probably no one, but these seven quarterbacks might have a shot
TB12 WINNERS, LOSERS:Buccaneers QB's plan sends shockwaves through NFL
TB12a. With Stafford or Burrow set to become a Super Bowl champion for the first time, the league won't have a single QB1 with multiple Lombardi Trophies as Brady calls it a day.
13. Chase's 279 receiving yards in this postseason are most ever by a rookie.
14. Yet it's the Rams' Cooper Kupp who is officially having the best single season of any wide receiver in NFL history. He piled on another 11 catches for 142 yards Sunday, scoring both Los Angeles touchdowns for good measure. In 20 games this season, Kupp has 170 receptions for 2,333 yards and 20 TDs.
14a. Super Bowl 56 will be Kupp's first. He missed Super Bowl 53 after suffering a torn ACL midway through the 2018 season.
14b. Kupp's 13 100-yard efforts are the most ever in one NFL season, including playoffs. The Rams are 11-2 in those games, both defeats coming to San Francisco.
14c. Kupp's new sidekick, Odell Beckham Jr., chipped in with nine grabs for 113 yards – his first time topping the century mark since Week 6 of the 2019 season, a 33-game span.
15. Speaking of "receivers," Deebo Samuel's 2,061 yards from scrimmage this season are the most ever by a San Francisco pass catcher – yes, that includes Hall of Famer Jerry Rice.
16. Since Sean McVay became their head coach in 2017, the Rams have won just two games when trailing by at least 10 points in the second half: the 2018 and 2021 NFC title games. LA was down 17-7 entering Sunday's fourth quarter before rallying to score the game's final 13 points. They're 0-23 otherwise in that situation.
17. Let's not dethrone Adam Vinatieri, circa 2001, just yet, but Cincinnati rookie Evan McPherson is building a case for the best postseason ever enjoyed by a kicker. McPherson's 12 made field goals without a miss – including game winners on the final play each of the past two weeks – are the most ever in one calendar playoffs. Entering Sunday, he was the first rookie with two four-FG games in one postseason, and now he's done it three times.
17a. Vinatieri is the only other player in the Super Bowl era with three playoff games with at least four FGs ... and he played in 32 postseason contests.
17b. McPherson's 12 field goals from 50+ yards are the most ever in one season (playoffs included).
18. The Bengals, who swept the Chiefs despite trailing them by 11 points at the half both Sunday and in Week 17, become the first team in league history to beat a team twice in one season when trailing by double digits at intermission both times.
19. Please, tell us we're not going to have Michael Buffer at kickoff of Super Bowl 56, too?
20. No team has won consecutive overtime games in playoff history, Kansas City's loss making teams playing in such back-to-backs 0-4.
21. The Chiefs, the first team to host four consecutive conference championship games, are 2-2 in those games, both losses occurring in overtime. The New England Patriots beat them 37-31 three years ago.
OPINION:Mahomes, Reid learn the Grim Reaper isn't a homer as Chiefs have epic meltdown
MORE:Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes blames himself for late collapse in OT loss to Bengals
21a. The only other AFC championship game to reach overtime came in the 1986 postseason, when John Elway's Denver Broncos defeated the Cleveland Browns 23-20 in the game that became known as "The Drive."
22. Tough day for Bengals TE C.J. Uzomah, who was knocked out in the first quarter Sunday with a left knee injury. Uzomah, who had a career season despite coming back from a blown Achilles that ended his 2020 campaign, hopes to be back in two weeks rather than face his uncertain future – which includes free agency and potentially another injury rehab.
22a. Rams TE Tyler Higbee (knee) was also forced out Sunday.
23. Mahomes served up two interceptions in both of his Super Bowl starts, but Sunday was the first time he'd been picked off twice in any of his nine other playoff appearances. Both turnovers led to Cincinnati FGs, including McPherson's kill shot.
24. Mahomes finishes these playoffs with 11 TD passes, tied for most ever in one postseason with Kurt Warner, Montana and Flacco. The other three QBs advanced to the Super Bowl, Montana and Flacco winning that, too.
25. Shoutout to Burrow's offensive line, which surrendered one sack a week after giving up nine to the Tennessee Titans. Mahomes went down four times Sunday.
26. Travis Kelce's 106 career playoff receptions are the most by a tight end. Sunday, he surpassed former record holder Rob Gronkowski (98 catches). Only Rice and Julian Edelman have more career postseason grabs.
27. Note to Snoop, Dr. Dre, et al.: Ensure the Super Bowl halftime show is better than CBS' halftime show Sunday.
28. Anyone else constantly have a Chad Johnson/Ochocinco flashback every time WR Tee Higgins, who now wears No. 85 for the Bengals, catches a pass?
29. Per Joe Buck, per Troy Aikman, "You're only as good as your third wide receiver."
29a. Note: Cincinnati's WR3, Tyler Boyd, has averaged just shy of 1,000 receiving yards over the past four seasons.
30. What if? That's what coach Andy Reid and Mahomes will be asking themselves all offseason after the shoddy decision to go for it on second-and-goal from the Bengals 1-yard line with 5 seconds left in the first half – Mahomes rolled and threw a pass to WR Tyreek Hill shy of the end zone that was stopped for no gain – cost Kansas City an almost certain three points as well as its momentum. "I probably gave him the wrong play," said Reid. "Could've given him something better ... I'll take responsibility for that." Just so unsettling – and wholly unexpected – to see Kansas City
31. What if? That's what 49ers S Jaquiski Tartt will be asking himself all offseason after dropping what should have been an easy interception on a badly underthrown ball from Stafford with the Niners up 17-14 with less than 10 minutes to go. The Rams recovered to mount a 63-yard drive and game-tying FG.
32. On to the Super Bowl, the first to be hosted by LA's SoFi Stadium – which will become the first venue to stage Super Sunday and a conference title game in the same postseason. Let's hope the game two weeks from now is as good as what we witnessed these past two weekends.
***
Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.
