Kansas City Chiefs 38, Buffalo Bills 24
1) The score of the box and the ribbon of the game of that game were very similar to the victories of the Chiefs. Kansas City peppered his offensive possessions with gains of 10-15 yards, taking advantage of what the Buffalo defense gave as the goal of the accounts to prevent the explosive moves the Chiefs are well known for. The problem was that the Chiefs’ smaller pieces turned into explosive moves, and by the time the second half came, the Chiefs had made three touchdowns of five minutes or less. It is a surprise for few to see that Tyreek Hill ended with nine receptions for 172 yards, Travis Kelce took 13 balls for 118 yards and two touchdowns and Patrick Mahomes ended with a passer rating north of 127. Kansas City provided the internet with a bushel easy-to-share clips of Hill running across the field and Mahomes extending his moves to find open targets for big wins, all with the same theme for the unfortunate defenses that try to stop them. In the end, it was once again simple: Buffalo failed, just as Cleveland failed, and neither did the vast majority of the teams the Chiefs faced in the regular season. Except for a futile attempt to return to make the score a little more respectable, the Bills lost that competition by a wide margin in a way that is very familiar to many clubs unhappy enough to find themselves on the way to Kansas City.
two) The exciting confrontation that many of us thought would come never materialized, because the Bills’ explosive attack failed to get the powder out of the barrels that had rolled to the sideline. The credit is due to the defense of Kansas City, which sabotaged Buffalo’s attempts to place significant points on the board, limiting the Bills to 5 out of 14 nights on the third downhill, and kept Buffalo to three field goals on trips to Kansas City territory – including two possessions that ended within the 10-yard line. The key to Kansas City’s defensive success centered mainly on the Chiefs’ ability to get Stefon Diggs out of the game. In the break, Diggs had just two receptions for 12 yards and reached the start of the fourth period with a total of four receptions for 28 yards. Josh Allen was forced to look elsewhere, achieving initial success in situations of a few yards, throwing him to the tight end Dawson Knox, but without his top receiver making a big impact and without a hurried game to speak (Allen led the Bills 88 yards in seven attempts), Buffalo’s attack entered a routine he could not get rid of until the game was decided. Add Kansas City’s ability to go after Allen – the Chiefs put pressure on him for 25% of his strokes, keeping him with a 33.3 percent completion rate on such attempts – and his four bags for a combined 53-yard loss , and we saw what a diluted Bills offense would look like in a crucial competition.
3) It is interesting (if not downright frustrating) to witness coaches who normally manage their teams without fear and suddenly become more tense in big moments, turning to earn points just to keep a game within reach instead of flirting with a break. . That was Sean McDermott’s approach on Sunday night. McDermott sent the field goal unit to attempt the ball on the Kansas City 2-yard line just before the break in a 21-9 game, then did it again from the Kansas City 8-yard line in a 24-game. -12 in the middle of the third quarter. Sure, he kept the Bills at an attack distance – if a touchdown plus a field goal is considered the attack distance against the league’s most explosive attack – but he didn’t make the mark that is absolutely essential in trying to take down the reigning champions. It wasn’t until Bills fell, 38-15, that McDermott threw caution to a wind that had already swept his team a quarter before, going to fourth e-1 to extend a drive that ended in a touchdown pass for Isaiah McKenzie to cut the deficit to 38-21. And yet, Buffalo’s two-point conversion attempt failed through interception in the final zone. Often, the Bills were on the verge of combining Chiefs’ touchdowns with their own, but elected to get the points and keep the score at nine, burning precious time and wasting rare opportunities to try to keep pace with the bosses on the move. There is coaching to win, there is coaching not to lose and there is coaching not to lose due to a huge difference in points. Only one of these really wins the game, and in a massive moment like the Sunday night conference championship game, McDermott did not train to snatch the AFC crown from the Chiefs.