The Kansas City Chiefs will host the AFC Championship Game for an NFL-record fourth consecutive year, after a thrilling 42-36 Divisional Round victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday evening at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Patrick Mahomes rallied Kansas City from the brink of playoff elimination, pushing the Chiefs from their own 25 yard line to Buffalo’s 30 on back-to-back passes to Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. A 49-yard field goal from Harrison Butker at the regulation buzzer sent the game to overtime, stunning a Buffalo team that had taken the lead on the fourth touchdown pass of the contest from Josh Allen to Gabriel Davis with just 13 seconds remaining on the fourth quarter clock.
In overtime, the Chiefs won the toss, with Mahomes driving the team down the field, and ending the game on an 8-yard pass to All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce, sending the Arrowhead crowd into hysterics.
In the final two minutes of the fourth quarter alone, the lead changed hand three times, with 25 points scored in that stretch. Mahomes finished with 378 passing yards and three touchdown passes, including a 64-yard laser to Hill in that final two minute surge.
Josh Allen was spectacular in defeat for the AFC East champion Bills, with 329 yards passing, with Davis alone finishing with eight catches for 201 yards, only to see Buffalo lose its ninth-straight playoff road game, a streak that includes last year’s AFC Championship Game loss in Kansas City.
The Chiefs will host the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon at 2 o’clock in the AFC Championship Game, with the NFC Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers to follow at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the site of the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 13th.
