Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) celebrates after defeating the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship NFL football game on Jan. 26 in Kansas City, Mo.Ed Zurga/The Associated Press
Patrick Mahomes threw for 245 yards and a touchdown, ran through the Buffalo defence for two more scores, and relied on his defence at key moments to help Kansas City beat the Bills 32-29 on Sunday night and reach the Super Bowl for the third consecutive season.
Now, the AFC champions will try to do something no other NFL team has done: Win all three.
KC will get a familiar foe in the Eagles, whom they beat two years ago for the first title in this run. Philadelphia romped to a 55-23 victory over the Washington Commanders earlier Sunday to earn a shot at the champs on Feb. 9 in New Orleans.
It’s the fourth time since January 2021 that KC ended the Bills’ season in the playoffs. And like all the rest, it came after a heavyweight fight between two of the top teams in the AFC, one that was tied 29-all after Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen found Curtis Samuel in the back of the end zone to set up a little more drama at Arrowhead Stadium.
Mahomes was simply unflappable, though. He completed four consecutive passes on the ensuing possession, setting up Harrison Butker’s go-ahead field goal with 3:33 left and putting the Bills in another do-or-die situation in KC.
Allen got their drive going by running for a first down, but his next two throws were batted at the line of scrimmage and fell incomplete. He hit Amari Cooper for a short gain on third down, and the Bills chose to go for it – they were 4 of 5 on fourth down at that point – and the Kansas City blitz forced Allen to loft up a prayer that Dalton Kincaid could not catch.
KC took over, picked up a couple of first downs and began to celebrate once again.
Kareem Hunt had a touchdown run and Xavier Worthy had six catches for 85 yards and a score for KC, which became the fourth franchise to reach three consecutive Super Bowls with its ninth consecutive playoff victory.
Allen threw for 237 yards and two scores for Buffalo. James Cook ran for 85 yards and two touchdowns of his own.
The Bills still have not been to the Super Bowl since a run of four straight during the 1990-93 seasons.
The Bills and KC have become well acquainted over the years, meeting seven times since KC beat Buffalo under the exact same circumstances – the AFC title game at Arrowhead Stadium – to reach the Super Bowl in January 2021.
Buffalo had won all four games in the regular season. Kansas City had won the three that mattered in the post-season.
And that familiarity, along with the fact that Bills coach Sean McDermott once worked for KC counterpart Andy Reid, was evident as the game transpired. The Bills simply refused to let KC tight end Travis Kelce beat them, like he did against the Texans in the divisional round, while KC was prepared for Allen’s propensity to take off and run.
It was KC who took a 21-16 lead into the locker room after a topsy-turvy first half.
Mahomes and Hunt ran for scores and Worthy had a touchdown reception as the teams traded the lead. Cook reached the end zone for Buffalo, and a spectacular touchdown catch by Mack Hollins just before halftime kept the Bills in the game.
It remained a game of inches in the second half: Cook barely reached across the goal-line for a touchdown, KC stopped Allen inches shy of the marker on fourth down, Mahomes bulldozed into the end zone for a score, and the Bills answered with a 70-yard drive in which their MVP-candidate quarterback hit Samuel on fourth-and-goal to tie the game at 29-all.
Fifty-three minutes and 45 seconds had been rendered moot. Everything came down to the last 6:45 of the game.
Injuries
Bills cornerback Christian Benford was carted off in the first quarter and declared out with a concussion. He had spent the week in the concussion protocol before getting cleared to play Sunday.
Up next
KC is headed to the Big Easy to face the Eagles in the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. In the first game, they rallied from a 24-14 halftime deficit with Butker hitting a 27-yard field goal for the 38-35 win.