The NFL Playoffs are down to four teams, as the San Francisco 49ers will battle the Detroit Lions, and the Baltimore Ravens will play the Kansas City Chiefs for a Super Bowl berth. Following a less-than-stellar Wild Card Round, the Divisional Round did not disappoint. The Ravens blew out the upstart Texans and C.J. Stroud, but the other three games were decided by a touchdown or less, culminating in the most dramatic contest of the weekend.
Sunday night, with a chance to get the Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City Chiefs monkey off of their back, the Buffalo Bills hosted the Chiefs in frigid Orchard Park, New York. Bills fans have been tormented by Mahomes since he entered the league, and considering the Chiefs limped into the playoffs, it appeared this would finally be the Bills year to exorcise those demons.
Unfortunately for all of Western New York, those demons are alive and well, as Mahomes rallied the Chiefs from a fourth-quarter deficit, defeating the Bills and Josh Allen in dramatic fashion. Mahomes threw two touchdowns to Travis Kelce as Taylor Swift and a shirtless Jason Kelce looked on.
The ending wasn’t without drama, as the Bills had a chance to force overtime, but kicker Tyler Bass badly shanked a 44-yard attempt, allowing the Chiefs to run out the remaining 1:47 for the win. To his credit, Bass took full responsibility after the game.
He said: “Ultimately, completely on me. I feel terrible. I love this team, man. It hurts. This one hurts bad.” Quarterback Josh Allen defended Bass: “I wish he wouldn’t have been put in that situation. You win as a team you lose as a team. One play doesn’t define a game, doesn’t define a season. Losing sucks. Losing to them, losing to anybody.”
The Bills came into the playoffs on a six-game heater as arguably the hottest team in the league but once again found a way to lose against the Chiefs. Buffalo has won four consecutive AFC East titles without a Super Bowl appearance thanks to Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes, and ultimately are seeing their window close in real-time as key players age or depart in free agency.
Star safety Jordan Poyer said: “Just lost in the playoffs to a team that’s kicked us out. It’s tough. You work so hard throughout the season to fight and claw back, our backs against the wall, everybody doubting us midway through the season and we get here and just that close.”
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Perhaps sensing what was about to happen, or perhaps just displaying bad behavior, Bill fans spent the balance of the evening reigning snowballs down on Chiefs players anytime the team neared the end zone. The salty Highmark Stadium crowd had ample ammunition as a tremendous amount of snow had fallen in recent days, and in a display that would make Philadelphia Eagle fans jealous, pelted Patrick Mahomes with snowballs post-game as he tried to approach a young fan in a Mahomes jersey.
Watch the snowball incident here:
It was an ugly ending for the Bills, both on the field and after the game. Granted, it’s just snow, but NFL players literally put their lives on the line to entertain the fans and certainly deserve better treatment in visiting stadiums. The Chiefs travel to Baltimore for the AFC Title Game, and hopefully, win or lose, Raven fans act classier than Buffalo fans did Sunday night.