1. The 13 Seconds.
With a minute left and down by four, Buffalo impossibly zipped down the field and scored the go-ahead touchdown leaving Kansas City only 13 seconds to take the kickoff and valiantly try to get into field goal range. Yes, every Chiefs fan's heart was surely right there camped at the bottom of his or her feet. 13 seconds. Not even the great Patrick Mahomes can pull this off.
Well, a quick throw to Tyreek and another to Travis and ::BAM:: just like that we're in Butker's range, and sure enough he bangs it through to tie the game.
But what about two strategies the Bills could have employed to make it much harder for Mahomes magic to work? I mean, Bills coach Sean McDermott did a marvelous job coaching against the Chiefs, he really did.
Except that here you are ready to kick off. Instead of just blasting it into the end zone, which is what the kicker did, why not kick it around somewhere, as far as you can preferably, so the Chiefs have to do something with it? Once they touch it, the clock starts running.
The trick to that is the Chiefs could easily be instructed to take any kick and call a fair catch, or if it is kicked straight and skips along on the ground somewhere, a player may fall on it and give themselves up right away. There is no guarantee they'd do any of that and the kick has to be just right, but yes, I do think it would've been worth it. Honestly I really don't think it would have the impact the Bills detractors think it would, if indeed the Chiefs played it right on their end.
Then there is the other strategy not employed by McDermott which I thought would have been more effective. Mahomes has the ball at the 25 yard-line. You just get all your D-backs at the line of scrimmage and when the ball is snapped right away tackle the receivers. Mahomes has nowhere to go, he's stuck, time is running out, and... whatever. Point is the Bills will be called for defensive holding. Five yards and a 1st down for the Chiefs, but neither of those things matters because game time will have transpired. Do that three or four times in a row, time expires, game cannot end on a defensive penalty, Mahomes is now stuck with the ball at midfield for only one more play and a pending Hail Mary attempt -- a lot better situation for the Bills than a high-percentage Butker game-tying field goal.
Would that have worked? I don't know. I do believe, however, that this mere possibility should get the NFL to make a rule change, simply because exploiting the rules in such a way is a nasty way to try to win a game. We all want to see a Patrick Mahomes do what he did or even a Josh Allen do it if he had the chance -- see if any given players can work their magic with their actual game play.
So here's the rule change. Should a team commit defensive holding -- presumably for the purpose of expending time -- then no time is run off from the start of the play. So if last night the Bills did the defensive holding thing, it wouldn't matter because there'd still be 13 seconds left on the clock for each time the five-yard penalty is assessed. I mean, in other circumstances when the offense does something to try to conserve time they take time off the clock -- even when a player is injured they have some kind of ten-second run-off with under a minute left, something like that. Why not do it if the defense is manipulating the game to expend time?
By the way, one of the other rules-oriented things they've been talking about is the overtime rule of first-touchdown-wins no matter what. For one thing I've always hated that rule -- for what its worth I've hated the college overtime rule even more. I'm more of a traditionalist, here's what I think. Put five minutes on the clock, and have a full five-minute overtime. No more sudden death. Whoever's ahead at the end, they win. If the playoff game is still tied, then have another one. And another one. I know there are liabilities to this, such as a team trying to milk every second of that five minutes and kicking a last second field goal, I get it. But I think it would be best if they do something like this to make it more likely both teams get a chance.
Oh, and there's the other reason not to complain about last night's Chiefs win with Josh Allen not getting the football in OT -- we had that happen to us three years ago, remember? So there.
2. The 1971 Divisional Playoff Game.
This is that other thing I wanted to post about, something I thought about as I watched a replay of the last few minutes of this amazing game -- one that the CBS Sports site has already ranked as the third greatest postseason game in NFL history, only trailing the 2014 Super Bowl and the 1981 NFC Championship Game.
As I sat there looking at Harrison Butker there on my television screen get lined up for that game-tying field goal, I had a thought I'd had before in some way just about every time I'd reviewed in whatever way I could the 2018 Colts win, the 2019 Texans Titans Niners wins, the 2020 Browns Bills wins -- any of them, that this is just all the utter and contemptible pukitude of the past horrific Chiefs postseason experiences just heaved up from the depths of our gut spewed all over Arrowhead Stadium, right there. In a good way. Yes, indeed, in a very very satisfying way, for sure.
Yeah, it isn't a pretty picture, but you know what I mean.
You can start with that 1971 Divisional Playoff Game against the Dolphins, which by the way was exactly 50 years ago from this Divisional Playoff Game. Not by date, but by Divisional Playoff Game. Back then the NFL playoffs started much earlier, yep, we all remember, it was on Christmas Day. 1971 season then, 2021 season now.
Everyone thinks it is just the one of the greatest (it made that CBS Sports list of great postseason games). Not to any Chiefs fan. It was one of the worst. Just seeing in my brain that image of Ed Podolak returning that kick down the sideline all the way into Dolphins territory all for naught just shreds my insides. Not that is wasn't a great game, but it was the first of many wretched heartbreakers for the Chiefs. Not going to go into depth about them all, but hey, just to mention, all one-and-outs...
1986 Jets. 1990 Dolphins (that one was really painful). 1992 Chargers. 1994 Dolphins. 1995 Colts (OUCH). 1997 Broncos (extraordinarily excruciating). 2003 Colts (OUCH MORE). 2006 Colts. 2010 Ravens. 2013 Colts (how much more agony can we take?) 2016 Steelers (mmnfnknghkm). 2017 Titans (MMNFNKGHKMMMNGHCK).
Thing is, really, two things actually and then I'm done. I've shared them both before but they're worth repeating.
As perverse as it is, those horrors have actually made all this Chiefs amazingness that much greater. It is almost as if God is saying, "Hey, cool your jets, huh? I know this is painful, but life is painful. Just so you know, it is going to be glorious. But you've just got to hold on, okay? I've got this." What a lesson, and a beautiful one at that.
Remember it is an odd truth, but really, if the Chiefs win every single Super Bowl for 57 straight years, what will happen by the time we're "enjoying" the 18th one? It is really odd, but tough losses are good things. Even if we lose next week or the 49ers get into the Super Bowl again against us and exact their revenge, well then what?
We still got our Super Bowl win two years ago and we were tremendously blessed to have a very very very good time hocking up all over everywhere all that past ugliness.
That second thing for this note is just the Patrick Mahomes factor as suuuch a twist on what our quarterback situation was for eons. Remember The Quarterback Project. Yes, it definitely needs an updating, but only to show the stark contrast between the cold, barren wasteland of no Chiefs drafted and developed quarterbacks that lasted forever...
And now this.
Nirvana. Utopia. Paradise. Elysium. Valhalla. Whatever you want to call it.
It is amazing.
And it is not just Mahomes, but it is Brett Veach's brilliance at finding him and then surrounding him with the Kelces and Hills and every other role player who's done so much -- how about that offensive line rebuild in what-in-NFL-time was a nanosecond. It is Andy Reid doing amazing things for Mahomes and the team both in chemistry and playmaking and all the rest. People shredded him a new aye-hole for that Blake Bell option play that cost us a possible touchdown, but danged-it-all, back off. Those plays do work and they keep the defense scratching their heads and on their heels.
Sometimes the beauty and glory and joy of where you are doesn't mean anything until you remember where you've been.
And for the Chiefs and the Kingdom, this whole thing is an incredibly delightful reality.
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The image is from Mark J. Rebilas at USA Today, at the ESPN sports site. Thank you.
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