The Kansas City Chiefs are now just one win away from becoming the first team to three-peat in the Super Bowl era, as Patrick Mahomes and company got the job done at home in an absolute thriller against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night.
As has been the case whenever these teams have met in recent years, it came down to the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. After Mahomes led a Chiefs march for a touchdown and two-point conversion to open the fourth and put the Chiefs back in front, the Allen found Curtis Samuel for a game-tying touchdown on 4th-and-goal with six minutes to play. The Chiefs would quickly move it down into the red zone, but stalled out after a sack set them back on first-and-goal, and they had to settle for a go-ahead field goal to make it 32-29.
That sent Allen back on the field for the critical drive of the game, and rather fittingly, it came down to a fourth down after a few huge fourth down conversions and stops throughout the game with the Bills on offense. This time, facing 4th-and-5, the Chiefs dialed up an exotic pressure, showing pressure up the middle with their linebackers but having them drop out and bringing two DBs off the right side of the formation.
That blew up the play immediately, forcing Allen to retreat, but he somehow still got a throw downfield to an open man, but Dalton Kincaid could not reel it in despite getting hands on it as he came back to the ball.
The reverse angle shows how painfully close the Bills were to not just converting that fourth down, but moving into the edge of field goal range on that one play.
Kincaid replay
The Chiefs took over and picked up a pair of first downs, including the backbreaker on a third-and-10 pass from Mahomes to running back Samaje Perine, who ran for a first down to allow the Chiefs to put the game on ice with knees. For Kansas City, it’s their fifth Super Bowl trip in seven years, with a chance at an historic three-peat. For Buffalo, they, like the Ravens last week in Buffalo, will be going into the offseason replaying a few miscues and wondering what could have been.