Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said the NFL’s oft-loathed overtime rule, which helped propel the team Sunday evening to the AFC Championship game, “kind of stinks.”
In an exciting Divisional Round tilt that’s already being billed as one of the best playoff games of all time, the signal-caller threw three touchdowns to lead the Chiefs past the Bills 42-36.
It was a back-and-forth affair before the Bills took a three-point lead with just 13 seconds left. It looked like the team was about to erase decades of misery and head to its first championship game in nearly 30 years.
However, KC answered right back with a pair of pass plays that set up a Harrison Butker 49-yard field goal to it to overtime, during which the Chiefs won the coin toss and chose to receive the kickoff. A Travis Kelce touchdown catch ended the game and any hopes the Bills had of continuing their season.
The NFL’s overtime rules say that “each team must possess, or have the opportunity to possess, the ball” unless the team that wins the coin toss “first scores a touchdown on the opening possession.”
The Chiefs have been on the other end of the overtime rule, as in the 2019 AFC Championship game then-New England Patriots QB Tom Brady threw a game-winning TD on the opening OT drive to end it.
Mahomes was sympathetic of Buffalo’s plight.
“It worked out well for us this time, but sometimes whenever you got two teams going back and forth like you’re going, it kind of stinks that you don’t get to see the other guy go,” he said.
“I’ll take the win this time. Obviously it hurt me last time. All you can do is play the rules the way the rules are explained. That’s what we did today.”
Bills coach Sean McDermott said he was “devastated” by the way they lost, but QB Josh Allen didn’t complain.
“They made some good plays there at the end, and unfortunately the coin toss went the way it went,” said Allen, who threw four touchdowns. “The rules are what they are, and I can’t complain about that. Because if it was the other way around, we’d be celebrating, too. So, it is what it is at this point. And we just didn’t make enough plays tonight.
“We’ve just got to use this as fuel. Fuel for the fire.”
The Chiefs will play the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game on January 30. The winner will face the winner of the Rams-49ers game in Super Bowl LVI on February 13.
