Bills at Chiefs - AFC Championship Game - The Take

Earlier in the year I put up a blog post for the Bills-Chiefs game that was mostly my notes. As I perused my posts through the year, I thought that was one of the better posts, actually. With this one here I thought I'd just do that again, there were so many different dramatic elements in this game.

We started with some miscues: Thornhill unable to haul in an interception, Hill dropping a long pass, Kelce dropping another one, and the worst of all Hardman muffing a punt the Bills gathered at our two-yard line. The Bills shot out by scoring the first nine points, and it would've been ten if their kicker did not bonk the PAT off the top of the upright. How about that. It was almost yet another instance when we got down by double digits in a playoff game.

Hardman made up for his blow-it almost immediately. He gathered in our first touchdown catch, and on our following possession scorched around left end on a reverse that went for 50.

Thing is, on the Bills possession between those plays Chris Jones punched a Bills player and the refs missed it. Good thing they missed it because in our regular season game against the Saints they kicked out an important Saints D-lineman for doing exactly the same thing. Will Jones face a suspension for this one even though we escaped without a penalty? That could be very costly if he is suspended.

What in the world are we doing that crap for? I can't say I wasn't disappointed with the raw outbursts of our players. Yes, the Bills were being ding-dongs too -- at one point Josh Allen threw the dead play football at the face of one of our D-linemen. Later in the game after a great sack by Tanoh Kpassagnon, Alex Okafer hovered menacingly over Allen and a Bills lineman pummeled him. All kinds of personal foul calls resulted and I was really nervous our players would get the worst of it. Fortunately the sack held up and really pinned the Bills back.

Still. That behavior has no place in our game. Even if the Bills do it, what in the world are we doing that "bush league" crap for? We're the Super Bowl Champions, come on. Even so no one should be doing that stuff. I really hope our main leaders come through with a few words for these guys. It has been this way for eons: Let your game do the talking. The Chiefs have really actually been very good about that, what happened to them today?

Back to the game:

The Chiefs got another touchdown on a nice Darrel Williams punch-in. It was sad we just couldn't figure out how to get Clyde Edwards-Helaire going -- he was so dominant when we played the Bills in that earlier regular season game. Even though CEH did have a nice run for our third touchdown on the day, we went with Williams mostly, and he is really showing he can be a terrific workhorse for us.

Even though Charvarius Ward dropped an easy interception, our defense held the Bills on their next possession. Our defensive backs just played terrific ball today, really making it hard for Josh Allen to get untracked. NFL receiving leader Stefon Diggs was practically invisible today. I saw that they'd said the Chiefs defense was a little bit better than the Bills defense -- indeed somewhat underrated overall, really.

In the middle of the 2nd quarter though was when the the most stunning highlight reel action took place. On two successive plays Mahomes showed everyone why he truly is the present version of GOAT, by far. He evaded sure sacks on both plays and managed to get the ball to Kelce first for a nice grab off the turf, then to Hill for a huge gain.

These guys are from another planet.

Halftime score: 21-12 Chiefs.

We got the kickoff to start the 2nd half and went to work, doing exactly what I thought we should be doing, hitting our receivers with quick, sure strikes. We stalled in their end and kicked a field goal making it 24-12. They countered with a FG themselves as our defensive front was doing a fine job of pressuring Allen.

On our next possession their guy shoved Mahomes way out of bounds deserving of a penalty, but the refs kept the flags in their pockets. We took care of business on the field, however, as Hill then took a quick-strike pass for 71 yards. A shovel pass to Kelce at the goal line made it 31-15.

Our D-backs continued their fine play, and at the beginning of the 4th quarter, the Bills were driving and Rashad Fenton took a tipped ball and ran it back to midfield. As he was running it felt really good -- it seemed we had this one under control. The Chiefs methodically started pounding the ball with Williams until the knockout punch, a soft toss to a wide open Kelce who came across the line to snatch it at the goal line.

Thing is, we lost Eric Fisher, and it does not look good. Achilles. For the Super Bowl we will now likely be without our two really good tackles, Fisher and Schwartz, . Our coaches had better be at the top of their game prepping for their absence -- I think if I remember the Tampa Bay defensive line is pretty good.

After upping the score to an apparently insurmountable 38-15, the Bills naturally tried an onsides kick which, with the new rules for kickoffs, makes success almost impossible.

Except for now.

Armani Watts bobbled the kick and the Bills recovered. Ouch. With 4:00 left they score a touchdown, but inexplicably try for two. If they kick the PAT they are at that point just down by two scores. They fail on the conversion attempt and are now still down by three scores.

Now down 38-21, they try it again but on this onsides kick return effort we are successful, with WR Marcus Kemp doing the duties. In fact this one was just as difficult because it took a really nasty bounce that Kemp adroitly handled.

A few more runs for Darrel Williams and it was over.

Our defense really shined, making their QB fight really hard to get anything he wanted. And my word, the Mahomes-Kelce-Hill triumvirate is just out-of-this-world. I'm seeing that already the Chiefs are three-point favorites over the Bucs. It'll be interesting to see where that line goes if it moves any.

What a ride. What-a-ride.

And it doesn't stop! How amazing will it be with Mahomes taking on Brady for GOAT bragging rights!

Two weeks we invade Tampa where the Bucs are playing in their home stadium! 

Run it back!

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The first photo is from Chris Donahue, the second from Andrew Mather, at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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