13 seconds left. The sport all however received.
Till it wasn’t.
The agony of being a Buffalo Payments fan — 4 misplaced Tremendous Bowls, the Music Metropolis Miracle, years of futility — added a brand new painful reminiscence Sunday evening in Missouri. Simply because it appeared the Payments have been going to slay the dragon, the dragon bit again.
That might be Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, the staff that denied the Payments a return to the Tremendous Bowl final 12 months, after which did it once more in a wild extra time shootout that may go down as an NFL basic and a showdown between two spectacular younger quarterbacks seemingly destined for Canton.
How a couple of mixed 25 factors within the closing two minutes of play? Or a record-setting four-touchdown efficiency by 22-year-old Buffalo receiver Gabriel Davis, till then strictly a 3rd choice on the high-powered Payments offence?
On an NFL playoff weekend of spine-tingling performs, dramatic finishes and stunning upset wins by highway groups, one of the best was saved for final, a 42-36 extra time win by the Chiefs that left the vaunted Payments Mafia completely shocked.
“It was an important sport between two nice soccer groups,” Mahomes mentioned. “Now we’re going to try to preserve it rolling.”
The Chiefs, with their hopes of attending to a 3rd straight Tremendous Bowl nonetheless alive, will now host the Cincinnati Bengals, who shocked No. 1 seed Tennessee on Saturday, within the AFC closing. Over within the NFC, the Los Angeles Rams knocked off Tom Brady and the defending Tremendous Bowl-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers regardless of fumbling 4 occasions, and can host the San Francisco 49ers subsequent weekend. The 49ers shocked the Packers at Lambeau Area, sending the controversial Aaron Rodgers residence and starting a brand new spherical of hypothesis over his future.
The Chiefs-Payments sport, in the meantime, might be remembered for years. It was a brilliantly performed sport by each golf equipment, a much-anticipated rematch of final 12 months’s AFC championship sport, with no turnovers and few penalties. At occasions, the 2 defences appeared nearly powerless to cease the 2 high-powered offences.
The Payments, who trailed going into the fourth quarter, had purpose to consider they'd received the sport when Allen discovered Davis uncovered in the long run zone with 13 seconds left in regulation. It was Davis’s eighth catch for a exceptional 201 yards. There have been hugs and tears on the Payments sidelines and within the stands. Victory was at hand.
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However Mahomes wasn’t finished, and the Payments wouldn’t contact the ball once more.
Someway, with Buffalo making defensive selections that might be debated for months, the Kansas Metropolis quarterback rapidly moved the Chiefs from their very own 25 to the Buffalo 31 in 10 seconds. That allowed place kicker Harrison Butker to ship the sport into OT with a 49-yard area aim.
When the Chiefs received the coin toss for extra time, it was clear the Payments, with a defence left gasping after chasing Mahomes all day, have been in large hassle. They merely had nothing left with which to cease the previous MVP. He easily moved his staff down the sector, then hit Travis Kelce for the game-winning rating within the nook of the top zone to win the sport.
It was a crushing defeat for the Payments, who drafted two move rushers with their first two picks final 12 months particularly in order that in the event that they confronted Mahomes once more within the playoffs, they’d have the ability to sluggish him down. They couldn’t do it, even with the additional motivation of figuring out that they'd host the AFC championship sport in opposition to Cincinnati with a win.
Kansas Metropolis is a hurdle the Payments simply can’t recover from. Not but, anyway. This sport was a lot nearer than final 12 months’s one-sided defeat, however that just about makes it extra painful for the loyal followers in western New York.
Allen did all he might. He tore the proud Chiefs defence to shreds, and used his personal legs to generate enormous chunks of yardage. However Mahomes, with 378 yards passing and three landing passes, did much more harm to a Buffalo defence that was rated one of the best in all of soccer.
The questions might be requested all winter in Buffalo. Why couldn’t the move rushers get to Mahomes? Why couldn’t the Payments maintain the lead with 13 seconds left? After the ultimate Davis landing, was it a mistake to kick the ball by means of the top zone fairly than pressure a Kansas Metropolis return to take extra break day the clock? Is it honest in NFL extra time that each groups don’t get to own the ball at the least as soon as?
The exhausting fact, nonetheless, is that Buffalo wasn’t fairly able to beat one of the best. Buffalo didn’t lose the sport. Mahomes received it. Allen might need been pretty much as good as Mahomes —each have been superb — however within the different elements of the sport the Payments have been outplayed.
The excellent news in Buffalo is that the Payments are nonetheless younger and may return subsequent 12 months with most of their roster intact. However this defeat will depart a scar. Significantly on the defence.
Proper now, it feels slightly like these days from way back when Bum Phillips and the Houston Oilers might need been one of the best staff in soccer however simply couldn’t get previous the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Iron Curtain.
The Payments, arguably, are adequate to win the Tremendous Bowl, however apparently simply not adequate but to beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead.