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Chiefs win another tight playoff game against Bills, advance to 6th straight AFC Championship Game

jason fitz
Analyst
2

Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz reacts to the Kansas City Chiefs getting Patrick Mahomes his first road playoff win in his career in another close game against the Buffalo Bills.

Video Transcript

JASON FITZ: Yet again, the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to the AFC Championship game. All week, we talked about the fact that Patrick Mahomes has never played a true playoff road game in his entire career. Until now, going into Buffalo. One of the toughest environments in the NFL, where he takes on Josh Allen and a Bills team that's been hot. But the real question was, would that be too much for Mahomes? The answer squarely was no. Mahomes can now tell everybody, he's undefeated in true playoff road games because the Kansas City Chiefs get an incredible win over Buffalo. And I mean incredible not just for Mahomes, who was very good, 17 of 23, 215 yards, two touchdowns, no picks.

But really, the story of the offense here was the Chiefs ability to run the football. They averaged, as a team, over 6 yards a carry. Buffalo's defense, obviously, dealing with some injury issues. And that played a part in their inability to stop the run. But realistically, this was all about the Chiefs and their greatness. They were also great on the defensive side of the ball. Yes, Josh Allen got his. Yes, Josh Allen ran the ball well. Yes, Josh Allen did everything he possibly could. But we're used to seeing that when these two teams face each other. Josh Allen seems like he's always great. And it's never enough.

This was more of the same. The Bills had the chance all the way down to the very end in what we thought could be a go-ahead touchdown that didn't come together inside two minutes, but, at least, would be a tying field goal. Unfortunately, in windy conditions, at what seemed like an automatic field goal, was anything but that. So one miss for Buffalo turns into a continual story, where the Bills seem to continually be the younger brother that simply can't get past the Chiefs.

And in the meantime, the Chiefs are a team that all year, we've told you weren't good enough. As they go into Baltimore for the AFC Championship game, it'll be easy to consider the Baltimore Ravens a huge favor. But remember this. All year, we've talked about how broken the offense looks, how the Chiefs are simply out of sync, how something isn't right. And for all of those conversations, when you have Andy Reid and you have Patrick Mahomes, you are always going to be competitive. That's why the Chiefs are where they are. And that's why the Chiefs are impossible to count out even against a great Ravens team, even in Baltimore for the AFC Championship game.