For Martin Rogers
FOX sports columnist
This was supposed to be a look forward, not a look back.
These words were supposed to take what happened in the AFC divisional round clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills and make some sense of how it tied into next week’s AFC Championship.
It was supposed to assess where the winner stood in terms of the race to win Super Bowl LVI and analyze where one of the most compelling modern rivalries in the National Football League now stands.
It’s not going to be that. can not be
Because when something really spectacular happens, not just spectacular, but so unbelievably amazing that it makes you wonder if it really happened, you can’t look forward yet until you’ve unpacked everything that just happened.
On that front, where do you start? Some superlatives, perhaps?
What if the Chiefs’ eventual 42-36 victory was as extraordinary a postseason football game as you’re likely to see, a game-changing battle where the brilliance of both quarterbacks was guaranteed, but everything else was at stake? the air? .
It was a barn where everything we thought we knew was questioned, truths like that defense wins championships, that it takes a perfect performance to beat the Chiefs when they’re rolling, that a weekend where the visiting underdogs continued to prevail would finally end the game. same way and those 13 seconds is not enough time to go down the field and tie a game.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen did everything, absolutely everything that was asked of him, produced the momentum of his career and then got an even better one just 58 seconds of playing time later. It was perfection, but this time perfection wasn’t enough.
Elite defense counted for nothing. The Bills were the best in the league in that regard, but they were powerless to stop Patrick Mahomes’ fast-moving attacks in the final moments of regulation, or when he delivered the dagger in overtime.
As for those 13 seconds, there will be some recriminations about why Buffalo didn’t kick into the field to eat up precious time, but come on, it was 13 ticks off the clock. Remember when Aaron Rodgers needed 37 seconds to get past the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3 and how it was presented as a sign of his immortal greatness?
This was a third of the time. It wasn’t just logic that said enough was enough, it was decades of football history. But…Mahomes.
The final two minutes of regulation generated 25 points, three lead changes and a tie, a trio of touchdowns (Allen to Gabriel Davis, Mahomes to Tyreek Hill, Allen to Davis again) and 221 yards of combined passing offense.
If you missed it, sorry, I have nothing for you. You may never get the chance to see something this good again.
If we have to look forward, let’s do it in the context of this battle and hopefully there’s more to come between these Chiefs and Bills, and these quarterbacks with a combined age of 51. It’s hard for the heart not to bleed a little. little for Allen, wherever his allegiance lay, because he was calm and masterful, but more importantly, immensely brave and nerveless when it counted.
If there is a discussion within the NFL hierarchy about whether postseason overtime rules should be changed, this game will be presented as incontrovertible evidence that they should be changed. Because Allen deserved better than sitting helplessly on the sidelines, without a chance to refute Kansas City’s decisive touchdown (Mahomes to Travis Kelce, of course) in overtime.
Allen gave his team a three-point lead with a boost of sheer brilliance with only the amount of time it will take him to read this paragraph aloud remaining on the Arrowhead watch. He never touched the ball again.
It was the most twisted dose of drama at the end of a weekend packed with it, each of the four exciting games in their own right and separated by slim margins.
We walk away with some new realities, that playoff football is the ultimate choreographer of our nerves and emotions, that the Chiefs are now a heavy favorite to reach a third straight Super Bowl and also to win it all (+125 with FOX) Bet ), and that the future of professional football quarterbacks is in absolutely safe hands, wherever Rodgers goes or whatever Tom Brady does.
It was a great game that will only grow in its legend over time, an instant classic to stand out from others with the same description. It also provides a sense that while the Super Bowl is still three weeks away, a game worthy of it is already in the books.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism