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This weekend will be the highlight of the NFL season for television football fans — although it will take some doing to top what last weekend offered.

This weekend decides the conference champions and thus the Super Bowl combatants two weeks down the road. This games will both be Sunday, with defending champion Kansas City at Baltimore in what should be a fantastic match, at 2 p.m. Sunday for the AFC crown, followed by the Detroit Lions — my preseason pick — at San Francisco for the 5:30 p.m. NFC title.

Left along the wayside were some exciting and prolific teams, such as Buffalo, and the surprising Green Bay Packers, who were left drained and exhausted by last weekend’s four quarterfinals.

Every game but one was down-to-the-final-play exciting, except for AFC top seed Baltimore, which hammered the Houston Texans 34-10, but even that game was a 10-10 standoff as CJ Stroud proved a pure rookie could take a team all the way to the quarterfinals, and match up well with Ravens Lamar Jackson, an established quarterback star but one who has seemed to be the victim of his inconsistency as much as a beneficiary of his brilliance.

My prize for the most disappointing finish goes to the Green Bay Packers. I have no illusions that the Packers, as the youngest team in the whole playoffs, had no business giving NFC top seed San Francisco as much of a tussle as they did, before falling just short by 24-21, but it was even closer than the score indicated. Jordan Love, completing his first full season after replacing Aaron Rodgers as Packers quarterback, actually outplayed 49ers star Brock Purdy.

The 49ers were forced into the unusual position of playing from behind, but Purdy and the incomparable Christian McCaffrey led the way with his climactic run to cap the late drive with his second touchdown for the 24-21 lead with 1:07 remaining. Love led an inspired drive for a winning touchdown or at least a last-minute tie, but he threw one of his very few questionable passes into heavy coverage, and Dre Greenlaw intercepted the pass to let the 49ers run out the clock and assure their third trip to the conference final.

But check the final stats. In a steady rainstorm, great quarterback play was required and Purdy was 23-39 for 252 yards, one touchdown and one sack; Love, facing him, was 21-34 for 194 yards, two touchdowns, but two costly interceptions. Meanwhile, McCaffrey carried 17 times for 98 rushing yards, and two touchdowns, but he was opposed by Green Bay’s Aaron Jones, who carried 18 times for 108 yards in a spectacular effort.
 
In frigid Baltimore, earlier Saturday, the Houston Texans made a strong run at the Ravens, as Stroud continued to disprove the theory that good young quarterbacks — like Jordan Love — need to camp out as backup for two or three years before ever getting a chance to start. The Vikings, right now pondering whether to rehire Kirk Cousins or draft a new and more capable rookie out of college, should closely scrutinize how Stroud almost immediately developed the poise and awareness to bring his skills to life. But after the 10-10 halftime standoff, the Ravens came out and chewed up the Texans defense.

Stroud ended up 19-33 for 175 yards, while Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson was 16-22 for 152 yards and two touchdowns, and the Ravens marched up and down the field for enough touchdowns to put the game quickly out of reach. They will be at home, and big favorites this weekend, but I think they’ll find a much more balanced and experienced adversary in the Chiefs.

The heartbroken Buffalo fans watched the teams trade the lead five times in an outstanding quarterback duel. Josh Allen go 26-39 for 186 yards and a touchdown, but Patrick Mahomes showed that despite some regular-season inconsistencies, he has personally snapped everything back into order in Kansas City, and he proved it with a 17-23 day for 215 yards and two touchdowns in the 27-24 victory. Think about this: Patrick Mahomes has been Kansas City’s starting quarterback for six years now, and the Chiefs have reached the AFC championship game for the sixth straight time. This time, the Bills were loaded and set, but kicker Tyler Bass was just wide right on a 44-yard field goal try with 1:43 remaining, which would have tied the game. The Chiefs then ran out the clock’s and take a 13-6 record — and the history as defending Super Bowl champs — to Baltimore’s final test.

While I anticipated the Detroit Lions would beat Tampa Bay, I was impressed at how well Baker Mayfield performed to keep the Buccaneers in the game, before Detroit won 31-23. Mayfield was 21-41 for a whopping 349 yards and three touchdowns, while Jared Goff remained the steely, computer-perfect director of a versatile Lions attack that wouldn’t be denied. Goff was 30-43 for 287 yards and two touchdowns, with no interceptions, and he put Jahmyr Gibbs to work for 9 rushes for 79 yards, keeping David Montgomery for 10 carries and 33 vital yards. Gibbs exploded through a huge hole for a 31-yard touchdown run that broke a tie, and Goff zipped a 9-yard touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown to give the Lions a two-touchdown lead. Mayfield brought the Bucs back to within one TD, but when Tampa Bay got one final chance, linebacker Derrick Barnes nabbed the Lions second interception of the game to leave Mayfield crumpled in dismay, as the Lions fans erupted.

The Lions game at San Francisco will be their first NFC championship game in 32 years. At 14-5, the Lions have now won two playoff games for the first time since 1957, and they must beat the NFC’s top seed to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in their long, and long-suffering, history.

Hockey Day, Minnesota

Warroad will be the place to be for the focal point of Hockey Day Minnesota, 2024, and as usual, it’s well-deserved. An alumni game between as many assembled alums from Warroad and neighboring Roseau could be the highlight, despite some great high school games. Nothing will be as competitive, however, as finding a place to stay for a couple nights with every motel and place in Warroad, Roseau and Baudette booked.

Some great hockey action around the area and state last weekend, with the Minnesota Wild coming to life and driven by Kirill Kaprizov, who ended their struggling road trip with two goals at Florida in a 6-4 victory, in which a cheapshot, skate-pulling trick on goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury sent Filip Gustavsson on for crucial relief, and five power-play goals helped the cause. The Wild moved up to Carolina two days later and won 5-2 despite being heavily outshot. Kaprizov ended that one by blocking a shot, then firing a 185-footer into the empty net to complete an unusual hat trick, Five goals in two games lifts the Wild fortunes coming home.

The UMD Bulldogs surprised Western Michigan 6-3, erupting for five third-period goals last Friday at Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo, Mich., but Western returned the surprise, bolting from a 2-2 standoff after two periods to score with 3:17 left, then scored twice into the empty net in the final 1:13 for a 5-2 reversal.

UMD comes back to AMSOIL Arena this weekend to face Miami, while the UMD women’s team — which wa shut out 3-0 and 1-0 at Ohio State last weekend — plays Wisconsin at 3 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.