Shawn Sorter
The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills 42-to-36 on an Overtime TD pass from Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce and everyone in Chiefs Kingdom had their hearts nearly stop. This game was billed, sorry for the pun, as this generation’s Brady vs Manning and it did not disappoint. Some experts pointed to the 1st game this season where the Bills blew the Chiefs out, and some pointed to last year in the AFC title game where the Chiefs blew the Bills out, but this game was a stand alone legendary game where history really didn’t mean anything. With an inactive Josh Gordon, that experiment is likely over. Here’s to hoping he can stay clean. Rashad Fenton was the only real contributor that was not able to play today going into the game.
The Good
Running Patrick is Playoff Patrick, and in the first half he ran all over the Bills. When receivers were not open, or the pocket broke down, he just took off with great skill. We don’t need Patrick to run in the regular season to win and we don’t want to often take that risk.
At this point it’s win or go home and Patrick and the Chiefs understand that.
Nick Bolton made two impact plays behind the line of scrimmage. It’s somewhat puzzling how little he gets to play with all the tackles he makes, but the future is so bright.
Melvin Ingram had two critical quarterback hits, one jarring the ball loose. Sadly the ball bounced right into Josh Allen’s lap, but Ingram is a big reason for the defense being able to get stops. This Bills team was never stopped last week against the Patriots, scoring touchdowns on every drive. The Chiefs defense overall was great tonight considering the opponent and the injuries.
Clyde Edwards Helaire had a run with some very impressive moves. It was important to have him back simply because Darrel Williams was unavailable.
Patrick Mahomes and his underhand missile throw made the announcers mention the late great Dan Quisenberry of the Royals. The throw was insane, the catch was insane.
I like the coaching staff sticking with Jerrick McKinnon. He did a number of great things again in this game. He almost lost a fumble, but played well for the most part.
Jarron Reed had a huge sack in the game, it was a big plus that he was able to come back from getting dinged up early in the game.
Tyreek Hill’s punt return late was big. It got the crowd involved and meant we didn’t need to convert several 3rd downs on the drive.
Think about something for a moment. Patrick Mahomes had 13 seconds from his own 25 yard line to get his team in field goal range. He made 2 perfect throws to get us in position for the game tying field goal. I’ve never witnessed a drive any more impressive than that.
Travis Kelce was clutch. He didn’t have gaudy numbers but he came through each and every time it was needed.
The Bad
I said before the game we win if we don’t let Josh Allen run all over us. An early 4th and 2 from mid field he converted told us that the Chiefs would need to match that aggressiveness. Thankfully I was wrong. Allen ran all over the place, and I’m not sure how a team stops him as a weapon if the Bills determine that’s what they want to do.
Tyrann Mathieu getting hurt on the first drive was a real killer.
It changes so many things that our secondary was able to do, especially with corner Rashad Fenton also out. The Bills had wide open receivers several times in this game.
On the Chiefs first 2nd down McKinnon whiffed badly on a block. Thankfully the drive continued but that could have come back to hurt us.
I am not at all a fan of running the football on 2nd and 10 or more. I counted at least 4 times the Chiefs did that. If you pass on 1st and it’s incomplete, you need to pass again on 2nd down. I just think having a 3rd and 6 is a scary proposition especially against a team like the Bills and a quarterback like Josh Allen.
I’ve never understood why when you have a player stood up and stopped that defensive players come in and hit them and push them several yards forward. It gave the Bills a 3rd and 1 instead of a 3rd and 4 or 5 on at least 1 occasion.
Special teams really hurt us today.
On the Bills first punt we were being cute putting both Hardman and Hill back deep. No one fielded the ball and it bounced about 20 yards to our 1 yard line. After Pringle had one of his 2 drops on the 1st down play and then Andy ran on 2nd and 10 we just had little chance, but it’s just hard to play call from your own 1. Pringle had another key drop later, I still don’t trust him. Next year a number 2 receiver is my personal number 1 priority.
Something I wondered on the end around to Tyreek Hill where he lost 3 yards was why can’t he just throw that ball out of bounds? Would there be an ineligible receiver downfield? I can’t think of another reason, but have always been curious about that.
Late in the game I was screaming for Tyreek to stop at the 1 yard line on his long touchdown catch and run. We left them way too much time. We could have at least taken some time off the clock and some timeouts from the Bills, but thankfully it ended up ok.
Watching Clyde run late right into the backs of his line and letting an easy shovel pass hit him in the facemask just made it clear to me that we should move on from him next year, or at least not have him any higher than 3rd on the depth chart. I don’t care where he was drafted, he’s just nothing more than average.
Tyreek giving the peace sign on his touchdown should not be happening. We are lucky we didn’t get a penalty on that.
Jerrick McKinnon not getting both feet down on a late toss to him was pretty unprofessional. And it was really odd to come back to the game and it was 2nd and 10 and no one had any idea why. The announcers sure caught it late.
The play call on 3rd and 1 from the 1 yard line I was not a fan of. Bring in Michael Burton and run that ball right up the middle. Or even a pass from Patrick Mahomes would be better. I don’t like taking the ball out of the hands of the best player on the planet in that situation.
The Averted Heartbreak
Twice Patrick Mahomes got hit in the head with no call. You can’t hit a quarterback in the head, but kicking him in the head is okay? Then later Mahomes endured a helmet to helmet with no call?
Do we think for a moment that Tom Brady would not get those calls? Please protect our quarterback. Please. It would be really upsetting if not for the fact that later Josh Allen I believe was roughed out of bounds, so at least the officials were consistent in their desire to not make very many calls at all.
Harrison Butker leaving 4 points on the board could have really come back to haunt us.
I can forgive him for the 50 yard field goal, but extra points can’t be missed. He’s actually been great this year, I believe that was only his 2nd one. Last year he had a number of them, so hopefully it’s out of his system going forward.
It was totally not okay to let Josh Allen scramble for a 1st downs. Especially on that 4th and 4 play at the end of regulation.
He ran backwards first and if either Chris Jones had more speed or Frank Clark had speed or any clue of angles he should have been sacked, and if not one of them, isn’t there anyone else with eyes and a brain that could see where he was going? For all intents and purposes the game should have ended there.
Seeing a fan run onto the field was a rare treat. Normally the cameras go away from them to make sure they get no fame. Hope he spends some nice time in jail.
Boomer Esiason called this game the best game he’s ever seen. My wife’s uncle, Larry Bromme called right after the game and said it was the best game he’d ever watched. The last time he said that was the Chiefs and Rams game a few years ago where both teams scored over 50. My phone blew up with family and friends reaching out via text about the game. Perhaps I care too much about this team when everyone I know is aware of that. It was literally a game for the ages. The Chiefs have opened as 7 point favorites to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship next weekend in Arrowhead. I’m surprised it’s so high… but I’m confident we can win next week if we play as well overall as we did tonight.
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Shawn Sorter — ArrowheadOne
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