The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Buffalo Payments added one other playoff traditional to their rivalry Sunday. However once more, the Chiefs got here out on high with a 27-24 win over the Payments at Highmark Stadium.
The Chiefs will journey to Baltimore to face the Ravens within the AFC Championship subsequent Sunday at M&T Stadium. Kansas Metropolis will play in its sixth consecutive AFC Championship Recreation.
The Payments, in the meantime, are despatched house by the Chiefs for the third time in 4 years. Kansas Metropolis beat Buffalo within the convention championship within the 2020 playoffs, divisional spherical within the 2021 playoffs and once more within the divisional spherical Sunday.
“It sucks,” Josh Allen mentioned postgame. “Shedding sucks. Shedding to them, dropping to anyone, at house, sucks.”
Payments kicker Tyler Bass missed a 44-yard subject aim large proper with 1:43 remaining within the recreation that may’ve tied it.
The Chiefs’ Isiah Pacheco picked up the game-winning rating as he broke via for a 5-yard landing run lower than a minute into the fourth quarter to go up 27-24.
However a collection of untamed turns within the fourth quarter hindered each groups after the Pacheco landing. It began by Buffalo failing to choose up a primary down on a pretend punt try in its personal territory. Kansas Metropolis solely deployed 10 gamers for the punt return and nonetheless stopped the Payments’ Damar Hamlin in need of the primary down on the pretend punt try. The Chiefs took the ball over on downs on the Payments’ 32-yard line.
“The protection, they turned it on in that fourth quarter. That may be a nice offense, that’s a terrific soccer participant in Josh Allen and a terrific workforce and so they had been going up and down the sector and the protection mentioned sufficient is sufficient and so they obtained the stops,” Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes mentioned.
Two performs later, the Chiefs’ Mecole Hardman caught a cross from Mahomes and fumbled the ball as he was tackled close to the aim line. Initially officers dominated Hardman down. Buffalo challenged the decision efficiently, as officers dominated the ball went out of the top zone for a touchback giving possession to the Payments.
The Payments appeared to place themselves in place to not less than tie the sport, however the Bass miss ended the Payments’ season.
Allen’s two first-half dashing touchdowns propelled the Payments to a 17-13 halftime lead. The primary got here on a 5-yard run early within the second quarter. The second helped Buffalo regain the lead at 17-13 on a 2-yard TD scamper close to the shut of the primary half.
The Chiefs took a 13-10 lead when Mahomes related with a wide-open Travis Kelce on a 22-yard landing reception with 3:33 left within the second quarter. Kelce blew a kiss and shaped his fingers right into a coronary heart within the course of the suite the place pop star Taylor Swift, Kelce’s girlfriend, watched the sport within the stadium. Shortly after, Eagles middle Jason Kelce, Travis’ brother, got here to the entrance of the open-air suite shirtless to bellow his satisfaction for his brother’s landing.
Kansas Metropolis’s protection stepped up
With the Chiefs’ season on the road, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo relied on his greatest personnel, his dime bundle. With three safeties on the sector — Justin Reid, Deon Bush and rookie Chamarri Conner — the Chiefs’ protection was in a position to forestall the Payments from coming into the top zone on their remaining drive of the sport. Chris Jones, the Chiefs’ greatest cross rusher, was distinctive, too. He created sufficient strain to influence Allen’s remaining two cross makes an attempt, each of which fell incomplete.
Much more spectacular, the Chiefs didn’t quit the massive cross to Allen regardless of security Mike Edwards sustaining a concussion on simply the second play of the sport when he broke up a cross in the midst of the sector. The Chiefs’ cease simply outdoors the crimson zone within the closing minutes pressured the Payments to take a possible game-tying subject aim. When Payments kicker Bass missed his 44-yard try large proper, a number of of the Chiefs’ defenders celebrated by leaping into the air and in one another’s arms.
Just like their season, the Chiefs’ offensive gamers ought to thank their defensive teammates. Halfway via the fourth quarter, the Chiefs’ offense has two possibilities to attain with a 27-24 lead. Their golden alternative arrived when the Payments failed on a pretend punt play deep in their very own territory. However two performs later, on a pop-pass jet sweep, Hardman fumbled the ball close to the pylon, the ball rolling into the top zone and out of bounds for a turnover. — Nate Taylor, Chiefs beat author
The Payments’ playoff curse continues
For the third time in 4 postseasons, the Payments have had their Tremendous Bowl desires dashed by the Chiefs. Even with totally different phrases this time round, having the prospect to play the Chiefs at house within the playoffs for the primary time since Sean McDermott turned head coach, the Payments nonetheless couldn’t recover from the hump. They had been met with a near-perfect recreation by Mahomes, who delivered an announcement win in his first-ever highway playoff recreation. Now the Payments are left with yet one more untimely playoff exit and nothing however offseason questions with an ageing roster and an enormous cap sheet that probably wants loads of trimming.
The Payments had no solutions in the midst of the sector for the Chiefs, as Mahomes, Kelce and Pacheco had been gaining chunk performs at will. The Chiefs clearly had a plan to assault linebackers A.J. Klein and Tyrel Dodson via the air, and it labored persistently. Kelce was open seemingly all recreation, and as soon as that was established, Pacheco got here via with clutch runs all through the second half. Outdoors of a late pressured punt, and a Hardman fumble, it was an ideal recreation from Mahomes, who continues to be a thorn within the Payments’ aspect when it isn’t the common season. — Joe Buscaglia, Payments beat author
Required studying
(Picture: Timothy T Ludwig / Getty Photos)
