The Conference Championships take place in the NFL on Sunday, with the Kansas City Chiefs facing the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC, while the Philadelphia Eagles play host to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC.
It's all come down to this, and all four teams are just one win away from booking their ticket to the Super Bowl, where they will have a chance to win the ultimate prize in football. It's familiar territory for the Chiefs, Bengals and 49ers, but not a stage the Eagles have reached since 2017.
It's the third-straight season in which the 49ers have reached the NFC Championship game, but they still head into Sunday as slight underdogs to overcome the Eagles. However, Kerry Hyder Jr told Mirror Sport that the 49ers are "excited" for the trip to Philadelphia, and are focused on keeping MVP nominee Jalen Hurts quiet.
The 49ers are on an incredible run, winning their last 12 games in the NFL, and showing no signs of slowing down. They've had one of the best defences in the league for some time, but the addition of Christian McAffrey has really boosted their offense, and given even more freedom to the likes of Deebo Samuel and George Kittle.
Nine of their last seven games have been at Levi's Stadium though, and their trip to Philadelphia may disrupt their rhythm slight - some would assume anyway. But according to Hyder Jr, playing away from home actually helps the 49ers limit distractions, and they're feeling great about Sunday.
"We feel good about it, a lot of guys on the team to be honest like getting on the road as it takes away a lot of the distractions," Hyder Jr exclusively told Mirror Sport . "Takes away and let's us focus on ball, and a big game like this it really helps to try and take away as many distractions as you can."
The 49ers certainly can't get distracted from Hurts, with the Eagles quarterback thriving this year in all areas. Hurts looks to have recovered from his injury, and will be the main dangerman for the 49ers defence to deal with.
"You've got to account for him, he's their quarterback he get's their team going and their MVP so, as a group we have to try and stop him," Hyder Jr added. "He's had a great year but we have too, so we're excited for the challenge."
It was expected to be a challenge all season, as the 49ers have gone through three quarterbacks on their way to the NFC Championships. First it was Trey Lance that saw himself ruled out, which gave Jimmy Garoppolo an unlikely route back to the starting spot.
But when Garoppolo also saw his season come to an abrupt end, rookie Brock Purdy was given the nod, and he's yet to lose a game when starting. The very last pick of the 2022 NFL draft has been anything other than 'Mr Irrelevant', and has even thrived in his first ever postseason.
However, the 49ers have experienced very different games so far in the play-offs. They blew the Seattle Seahawks away on Wild Card weekend, but then edged past the Dallas Cowboys last week by a narrow 19-12 victory.
They've proved their versatility already this season, but Hyder Jr also feels like the 41 points they scored against the Seahawks was an outlier, and they're very much aware of what play-off football is all about. "Absolutely, I mean it's play-off football, we expect the game to be tighter and we expect every play to matter a little bit more<" Hyder Jr said.
"We don't get into the play-offs expecting blowouts. We feel the Seattle game was a little outlier, we expect close games, these are the best teams in the league so they usually only come down to one or two plays."
