5 takeaways from the Bills and Chiefs AFC title game

If you're blaming a ref for a KC win, you're a baby soft sore loser.

If you were judging the final score of the NFL AFC title game by the reaction of Buffalo Bills fans, one could assume the Kansas City Chiefs won by a landslide and the referees handed them every drive and score on a silver platter. There are few things worse in sports fandom than sore losers the morning after a great game.

With that being said, let’s get into five takeaways from the 32-29 Chiefs win.

PURE AND SIMPLY A GREAT GAME

No matter which side you sat on, it was a thrilling four quarters of football. Down to the wire, stressful football. From the Chiefs opening drive touchdown to the final field score that sealed the deal to the final stop by Kansas City, the game was in hand by a touchdown or less for the majority of the evening. The lead changed hands at least four times.

Picking a winner at halftime or after was a tough task. Every break the Chiefs got was received by a break for Buffalo, with KC losing a fumble in the first half that turned a potential larger lead into a tight contest for the rest of the evening. How on earth could the refs allow that fumble to stand??

As a guy who watches two NFL games per year (this is one of them), there wasn’t a chance I was turning things off. Mission accomplished on bringing in casual fans, Roger. You still suck.

STOP BLAMING THE REFS

It’s bush league to pin a win or loss on a single play, yet here we are. Josh Allen went for a rush on fourth down late in the game that was ruled a stop by the Chiefs even though an angle may have shown the ball over the line. A line ref had a clear view and the other refs deferred to him, but Bills fans whined like wolfs howling at the moon. But don’t ask them about the face mask penalty in the third quarter on Buffalo that wasn’t called. Crickets would be on your plate if you mentioned that ref miss.

In the end, refs miss calls and get most of them right. You do have to thoroughly beat the Chiefs on this platform in order to get the best of them. It’s like beating Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Vegas. The best teams will get calls that the other team doesn’t get, but that doesn’t decide a game. Maybe, if the Bills had converted a couple of those other fourth down attempts, the result would be different. Maybe not. That’s the beauty of sports. You never know.

MAHOMES REMAINS A PLAYOFF PRO

The man will try to become the first NFL quarterback to win three Super Bowls in a row in two weeks. That’s how good he is. You don’t carve out a career like his and rest it on the laurels of officials. He’s carved his own path to greatness. The man goes super sonic late in tight games. Mahomes is the biggest difference maker of the lot of fourth quarter NFL do-or-die football.

He rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another last night, propelling his team past a very good Allen-led Bills team. From recognizing blitz packages to being able to zip out of the pocket for an easy first down run, nothing seems to faze him in big games. He gets stronger as the game ages.

No team wins more close games than Kansas City and it’s not a result of ref indulgence, but a sign of a quarterback who doesn’t seem to flinch at the sign of big trouble in a tiny pocket.

PROPS TO ALLEN

He’s like a new version of Ben Roethlisberger. A quarterback who can barrel through a defensive line for yards on the ground or fire a dart 20-30 yards down the field on one foot. He will eventually climb over that Mahomes wall in the playoffs and bring a championship to the cool kids of New York, but he has time. Allen has triumphed over Mahomes in the regular season, but the postseason remains a fog of misfortune. Some of that isn’t his fault. He should field zero blame in coming up short last night. You lost to the best by three points in a rapid fire game.

THE CHIEFS REMAIN THE MOST FUN TEAM TO WATCH

Mahomes is a big part of that and the largest reason I tune into the AFC title game and Super Bowl. Without Kansas City making highlights and winning big games, the NFL would be next to worthless, with no offense to the Allens and other talents in the league. St. Louis sports fans can be butthurt all they want about the Chiefs scoring higher in our town than the Cardinals and Blues, but that’s a result of one sport ruling over the rest and KC making things extra fun. They’re more fun to watch right now than the Cardinals, and the Blues could use a little late game Mahomes lightning.

Like Lebron and Jordan and Brady, one would tune into a Chiefs game merely to see if they (or he) can pull off the impossible. With all the attention of the refs factoring into a win, few point out the immense pressure that Mahomes and company are under coming into these games. With the world watching, can they persevere and win it all again?

To me, that’s fresh kettle corn. To some, it makes them nauseous. Jealousy is still the biggest vibe in sports fandom. Why not appreciate the fierce athleticism on display instead of complain about your team coming up short? Ah, it must be too hard.

Go Chiefs in Super Bowl 59.