No matter the setting — Arrowhead Stadium or Orchard Park — Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs keep finding ways to beat Josh Allen and Buffalo Bills in the playoffs.
Mahomes on Sunday threw two touchdown passes to Travis Kelce and the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs advanced to their sixth straight American Football Conference championship game with a 27-24 win over the Bills.
The Chiefs move on to Baltimore to face Lamar Jackson and the conference’s top-seeded Ravens, who beat Houston 34-10 on Saturday.
Photo: AFP
The Chiefs are accustomed to ending the Bills’ season, having done it now in three of the past four playoffs, with the first two wins coming at home in the 2020 AFC championship game and the 2021 divisional round.
“All-time classic again. Any time we play Sean’s teams, it comes right down to the end,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, referring to Bills coach Sean McDermott.
The Chiefs scored on five of their first six possessions, not including a kneeldown at halftime, and went ahead for good on Isiah Pacheco’s 4-yard touchdown run 40 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Neither team led by more than seven points and they traded leads five times. The outcome was decided when Buffalo kicker Tyler Bass missed a potential game-tying field goal wide right from 44 yards, allowing the Chiefs to run out the remaining 1:47.
“Ultimately, completely on me,” said Bass, who had a field goal blocked and missed from 27 yards in a playoff-opening 31-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. “I feel terrible. I love this team, man. It hurts. This one hurts bad.”
In Detroit, the Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 in the divisional to lift the National Football Conference championship for the first time in 32 years and just the second time in franchise history.
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