The stage is set for NFL Championship Sunday.

In the NFC, the Los Angeles Rams opened as a 3.5-point home favourite against the NFC West rival San Francisco 49ers, with the total at 47.

Right now, the juice is leaning towards the 49ers +3.5, which indicates that number could drop to +3. The total has dropped from 47 to 46.5.

In the AFC, the Kansas City Chiefs opened as a 6.5-point home favourite against the Cincinnati Bengals, but that number quickly moved to -7.

Meanwhile, the total for that game continues to move.

Apparently, no one wants to bet the under.

That total opened briefly at 50.5 on Sunday night before quickly moving all the way to 53.5. As of this morning, that total is up to 54.5 and is juiced to the over, signalling that it could continue to climb.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Tuesday Jan. 25, 2022.

AFC Championship total continues to climb

The Chiefs are the first team in NFL history to host a conference championship game in four straight seasons.

In the 2018 AFC Championship, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots beat Kansas City 37-31 in overtime.

In 2019, Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs to a 35-24 win over the Tennessee Titans en route to his first Super Bowl win.

Last season, Kansas City beat the Buffalo Bills 38-24 before losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl.

All three of those games went over the total.

This year, the Chiefs beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 42-21 in the super wild-card round, then pulled off a thrilling 42-36 comeback win over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round.

Kansas City covered as an 11.5-point favourite against the Steelers and a 2.5-point favourite against the Bills. Both of those games soared over the total.

In fact, the total has gone over in seven straight Chiefs’ games, dating back to Week 14 of the regular season.

That includes a 34-31 loss to Cincinnati in Week 17, which is Kansas City’s only loss over that span.

The Chiefs led 14-0 in that game, but Joe Burrow threw for 446 yards and four touchdowns as the Bengals rallied for the victory on a walk-off field goal by Evan McPherson.

Ja’Marr Chase finished that game with 11 receptions for 266 yards and three touchdowns.

As mentioned above, even at 54.5 the total is juiced towards the over at some spots, signalling that we could see a move to 55.

In terms of recommended plays, here’s how I would approach this game.

First, I’ll take the Chiefs Team Total Over 30.5 points.

Kansas City has landed on 42 points in each of its first two playoff wins, including versus the No. 1-ranked scoring defence in the NFL on Sunday.

Since 2018, the Chiefs are 5-1 in their second meeting versus teams that beat them earlier in the season. In those six games, the Kansas City offence averaged 38 points per game.

Their lone loss was to the Patriots in the 2018 AFC Championship, which went to overtime

If the Bills defence couldn’t slow down the Chiefs, then why should I expect the Bengals to keep them in check?

Second, I’d recommend a two-leg, 6.5-point teaser where those are playable, pairing the Chiefs to win outright with the over 48. 

The Bengals offence has a lot to clean up after Burrow was sacked nine times by the Tennessee Titans in a game in which they needed three interceptions and two 50+ yard field goals to get to 19 points and escape with a win.

Still, they put up 34 points versus Kansas City in the first meeting, and I’ve already made the case for why I like the Chiefs to score 31+ points.

Almost everything went right for Cincinnati to secure a second straight playoff win last week on the road in Tennessee.

If Burrow and the Bengals go into Kansas City and upset Mahomes and company to reach the Super Bowl, I’ll tip my hat to them. As it stands right now, I don’t see it happening.

Then again, we’ve seen bigger surprises in the NFL playoffs before.

Shapovalov goes the distance with Nadal

Denis Shapovalov went head-to-head with Rafael Nadal (-300) in the Australian Open semifinal, going the distance before ultimately falling just short.

Nadal defeated Shapovalov 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 in a match that turned into a real battle after the Canadian dropped the first two sets.

Nadal is now two wins away from a record-breaking 21st major championship win. He’s +270 to win the men’s singles title.

Meanwhile, the lone Canadian still standing on the men’s side is set to face the lone player with shorter odds to win the title than Nadal.

Felix Auger-Aliassime will battle the pre-tournament favourite Daniil Medvedev in a game that Canadians will need to either stay up for or get up very early in the morning on Wednesday to watch. 

Auger-Aliassime is currently +530 to advance. Medvedev, who is now -110 to win the tournament, is a monster -750 favourite to win the match.

NBA favourites go 4-0 outright

NBA favourites went a perfect 4-0 straight up on Monday night.

However, the underdogs went 3-1 against the spread, including a brutal beat for anybody that bet the Chicago Bulls -1.5 in a 111-110 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Chicago led that game by four with one second left on the clock when Oklahoma City took a time out.

The Thunder had one second to get a final shot off, and Mike Muscala nailed a wide-open three with no time left to cover at the buzzer.

The totals went over in three of the four games.

If you didn’t catch it yesterday, our NBA analyst Wesley Cheng took a closer look at the key to the Dallas Mavericks’ recent hot streak.

While Luka Doncic has been excellent since returning to the lineup, Wesley highlighted another important factor in the Mavericks’ success, with a key trend to consider heading into their showdown against the Golden State Warriors tonight.