With a lot of luck and a catastrophic final phase from the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs qualified for the AFC Championship Game again with a 27:24 win. A late miss from Tyler Bass sealed another loss for Buffalo against KC in the playoffs.
Chiefs @ Bills: At a glance
- As every year since 2018, the Chiefs are in the AFC Championship Game and will now face the Baltimore Ravens.
- The Bills have once again lost to their feared opponent and are still waiting for a win against Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs.
- The Chiefs had several chances to make an early decision, but once lost the ball at the goal line and once failed to recover a fumble by Allen near the halfway line.
Chiefs @ Bills: The analysis
The game got off to a crazy start with the Bills’ first series of attacks: on the first play, Stefon Diggs fumbled, which Dalton Kincaid hit out of bounds, which resulted in a penalty. Josh Allen then threw a lateral that led to a 4th&1 at their own 40. The Bills played the attempt and Allen got the new 1st down himself.
However, video images suggested that the lateral may not have been a lateral at all, but rather an illegal forward pass, as Allen had already crossed the line of scrimmage. Chiefs coach Andy Reid, however, waived a challenge. As a result, the Bills were stopped in the red zone and settled for a field goal by Tyler Bass.
The Chiefs only managed a field goal after that because cornerback Dane Jackson fended off a pass from Patrick Mahomes in the end zone. The Bills then emphasized the run game and Josh Allen ran for a five-yard touchdown. The Chiefs responded with another field goal from Harrison Butker and were lucky that a fumble from Justin Watson didn’t end up with the opponent. As a result, the Chiefs forced the first punt of the game, in part because Trenton Sherfield dropped a deep ball from Allen.
Afterwards there was no longer any trace of defense. The Chiefs marched down the field primarily with the passing game and Mahomes found a completely open Travis Kelce on a corner route for the Chiefs’ first touchdown over 22 yards – Jordan Poyer relied on his partner Micah Hyde, who didn’t come. In return, things went the other way until halftime and Allen scored another rushing touchdown. Halftime score: 17:13 Bills.
Chiefs @ Bills: Chaotic final phase brings decision
By halftime, the Bills had lost linebacker AJ Klein, while the Chiefs had to replace safety Mike Edwards (concussion) and linebacker Willie Gay due to injury.
The second half continued as before: The Chiefs marched and Mahomes found Kelce after a quick drive for another lead change. The Bills struck back with a scramble and an incredible pass from Allen into the end zone to Khalil Shakir. But once again the guests didn’t waste much time and turned the game around again. Isaiah Pacheco ran for a four-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to make it 27-24 for KC.
As a result, the Chiefs defense gradually took over and stopped the Bills twice. The first time, the home team attempted an unsuccessful fake punt in their own half against ten Chiefs on the field. And they were lucky that the Chiefs didn’t close the door after a 29-yard run by Pacheco. Rather, Mecole Hardman fumbled the ball at the 1 through the end zone for a touchback.
The Bills were stopped again and the Chiefs were once again lucky that on the following drive on 3rd down, what felt like an eternity after an incompletion, a very questionable pass interference was called against the Bills, in which the ball was not even in the air. A few minutes later, the Chiefs were forced to punt.
From then on, Buffalo, led by Allen, marched into the red zone once again and took a lot of time off the clock. It was lucky that no KC player managed to recover a fumble from Allen. After the two-minute warning, however, they literally threw it away with poor decisions – Allen at least had Stefon Diggs open for another 1st down, but decided to make a difficult throw into the end zone that missed. In the end it was supposed to be a field goal from Bass, but he shot wide to the right. The Chiefs then played down the clock.
Thanks to this success, the Chiefs are in the AFC Championship Game again, as they have been for the last five years, and will face the Baltimore Ravens in Maryland next Sunday.
Kansas City Chiefs (#3) @ Buffalo Bills (#2)
Result: 27:24 (3:3, 10:14, 7:7, 7:0) BOXSCORE
Chiefs @ Bills: Key stats
- With Mahomes’ two touchdown passes to Kelce, the duo now has 16 touchdown passes between the two. They passed Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski (15) for the most by a QB-receiver duo in playoff history.
- With his second touchdown pass to Kelce, Mahomes now has 38 touchdown passes in the playoffs, passing Drew Brees for the sixth-most in playoff history.
- Shakir’s touchdown was a rarity. According to Next Gen Stats, it was the first touchdown catch allowed by cornerback L’Jarius Sneed as the next defensive back in coverage since Week 15 of 2022.
- It was Patrick Mahomes’ first road win in the first game of the playoffs. For the Bills, however, it was the third defeat in the third game against Mahomes.
The star of the game: Patrick Mahomes (quarterback, Chiefs)
Mahomes made no mistakes and was there when it counted. Through the air, but also on the ground. It wasn’t the best performance from their own offense, but it was enough in the end.
The flop of the game: Receiving Corps (Bills)
Who knows how this game would have ended if Diggs or Sherfield had caught Allen’s sometimes perfect long passes? But they dropped too many of them, which caused the Bills’ offense to falter from time to time. Allen would also have been a candidate for the flop for the last two passes, but he was the reason why they were in position to turn this game around in the first place.
Analysis: Chiefs @ Bills – that stood out tactically
- The Bills almost completely avoided blitzes, which was still an effective tool against Mahomes in Week 14. Accordingly, they hardly managed to put pressure on the quarterback.
- On the other hand, the Bills ran so effectively against the Chiefs’ easy boxes on early downs that they rarely got into obvious passing downs, which resulted in the Chiefs rarely blitzing either.
- The Chiefs lost linebacker Willie Gay early in the game, who was a spy on Allen in Week 14. Without him, Allen always had enormous space to run, which he consistently exploited.
- The Bills repeatedly relied on plays with a sixth offensive lineman or several tight ends, in which they also threw passes.
- In the passing game, the Chiefs specifically targeted linebacker AJ Klein, who was only playing because so many starters were injured. And he also had to go out injured during the game.
- The Chiefs mostly did a good job covering in the red zone. Although they sometimes only sent three men in the pass rush, they left few gaps in the end zone.