MAF sensor??

I have a 2003 chevrolet silverado and as i
was driving back to my house the other
day my vehicle went into te last gear and
made a bad knocking noise (sounding like
its coming from my CAT) and my check
engine light came on but was flashing (not
usually good at all) i drove home got my
cousin over and he plugged his check
engine light reader into my truck and it said
MAF sensor and something else i cant
remember i have a 4.8 v8 in it and it takes
it forever to change gears also my cousin
looked at my filter that was right by the
MAF and it was pretty dirty cleaned it out
and im going to replace the MAF tomorrow
along with a new filter also as i feel my
truck go into gear its like it doesnt pick up
that im hitting te gas until it has enough to
jerk it as i did it thefirst time i thought well
you dumbass you have to stop before you
shift and even if i do to make sure it goes
into gear it still does it.. Could my MAF
really cause all of this???