Three weeks after cardiac arrest, Hamlin sees Super Bowl fairy tale Bills come to an end

Halfway through the second quarter, a figure clad in a warm red coat stepped forward. He raised his fist, whipped up the audience and made the gesture of a heart to the crowd.

Less than three weeks ago, American Football player Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the Cincinnati Bengals field. On Sunday night, he was a spectator at his Buffalo Bills’ Divisional Championship game against the Bengals.

All signals were green for a beautiful end to his tragic season. Even the snow in Buffalo seemed to favor the Bills. But the Bengals thought otherwise.

The Bengals won 27-10 to advance to the last four of the playoffs and stay on track to reach the Super Bowl. Last year, the Bengals lost the Super Bowl to the Los Angeles Rams.

They could have known. Beforehand, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow had compared himself with a wink to Jon Snow, the ‘King of the North’ from the Game of Thrones series.

Burrow embraced Buffalo’s snow and two touchdown passes in the first quarter put him ahead 14-0 in no time. The first was to Ja’Marr Chase, the sophomore receiver who also topped college football with Burrow at Louisiana State University.

Yet Burrow is still rated slightly lower than his colleague Josh Allen of the Bills.

On Sunday, Allen didn’t get a foothold until he put his team on the scoreboard in the second quarter with a so-called ‘quarterback sneak’ (a touchdown of a yard or less from the endzone) himself.

Even after the break, the Bengals controlled the game. The Bills got another lifeline when a catch by Chase in the endzone was reversed after extensive scrutiny of the footage.

Cincinnati’s excellent defense allowed only one more field goal and steadily built the lead through home kicker Evan “Almighty” MacPherson.

Burrow threw an almost perfect game: only in the fourth quarter his first lesser pass came, without consequences.

Next week, the Cincinnati Bengals will travel to Kansas City, where they will compete with the Chiefs for a spot in the Super Bowl, just like last year. The Chiefs dealt with the Jacksonville Jaguars with a surprising amount of effort on Saturday: 27-20.

That had everything to do with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who injured his ankle early in the game. The question is whether he will be fit enough to play against the Bengals on Sunday.

With Mahomes at half strength, another Chiefs star, Travis Kelce, stood up this weekend. The big, strong one tight end caught 14 passes (a record for a player in his position in the playoffs), including two touchdowns.

Last year, Cincinnati surprisingly won after overtime in Kansas City and qualified for the Super Bowl.

Philadelphia Eagles had no trouble with New York Giants on Saturday night. At halftime it was already 28-0 for the Eagles, who then calmly finished the game: 38-7.

As a result, the chance of a brotherly quarrel in the Super Bowl is still present. Jason Kelce, the mighty center of the Philadelphia offensive steamroller, is Travis Kelce’s older brother.

The final hurdle for the Eagles, the team with the most regular season wins, is the San Francisco 49ers (with Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy).

The 49ers outscored the Dallas Cowboys 19-12 in a game in which both teams’ defenses excelled.

Quarterback Purdy played a solid game and avoided the mistakes that his Dallas colleague Dak Prescott made.

In the end, George Kittle, the 49ers’ charismatic tight end, gave the final push.

Deep in the third quarter, he caught a pass from Purdy with one hand and a little help from his helmet.

After that curious catch, Christian McCaffrey was allowed to run the ball into the endzone.

That was the 49ers’ lone touchdown in the game, but enough for a trip to Philadelphia.