Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs get better of Bills again in playoff thriller
Travis Kelce caught two touchdown passes from Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs advanced to their sixth straight AFC Championship Game with a 27-24 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday evening.
Isiah Pacheco scored the go-ahead touchdown on a four-yard run 40 seconds into the fourth quarter in a game where the teams traded leads five times. The Chiefs then clinched the victory by running out the clock after Buffalo’s Tyler Bass was wide on a 44-yard field goal attempt with 1:43 remaining.
“The defense turned it on in the fourth quarter,” Mahomes said.
The defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs will take on the conference’s top-seeded Baltimore Ravens, who defeated Houston 34-10 on Saturday.
Kansas City has never lost in the divisional round since Mahomes took over as starter in 2018, and the Chiefs have won five consecutive playoff games since a 27-24 overtime loss to Cincinnati in the AFC championship game during the 2021 season.
Mahomes, a two-time NFL MVP, also added another first to his record by winning his first road start in the playoffs — not counting Super Bowls — and improving his postseason mark to 13-3.
“First of all, this is a great environment, man,” Mahomes said of Buffalo. “It’s real. We’ve been hearing it all week, man, about playing a road game, and we’re here to prove a point and show that we can play anywhere.
The Bills had their third consecutive postseason ending in the divisional round, following losses to Cincinnati last year and the Chiefs in 2021. And the Chiefs ended Buffalo’s season for the third time in four years, including a 38-24 decision in Kansas City in the 2020 AFC season championship game.
It was another disappointing result for a Bills team that won their fourth consecutive AFC East title and played six games since a 20-17 win in Kansas City on Dec. 10.
Kansas City is 0-1 in the playoffs against the Ravens after losing 30-7 in the 2010 wild card round. Baltimore defeated Kansas City 36-35 in their most recent regular season game in Week 2 of the 2021 season.
“There’s no weakness there,” Mahomes said of the Ravens. “We will do our very best. Defense, offense, special teams, they do it all. It’s always a great challenge and the stadium will be rocking, so we’re excited about the challenge.”