Patrick Mahomes’s Chiefs outlast Bills to earn a spot in AFC championship game

Once their duel ended, though, the chasm between Mahomes and Allen had only expanded. Mahomes is an all-time great. Allen is a force of nature who remains in search of the NFL’s pinnacle. Allen did nothing wrong Sunday night other than take the same field as Mahomes. Even with a near-flawless performance, even with Mahomes playing a novel role as a playoff visitor, Allen could not shrink the gap that mattered.

The Kansas City Chiefs will play for the AFC championship next week in Baltimore. The Buffalo Bills will retreat into a bitter offseason. In the first road playoff game of his incomparable career, Mahomes led the Chiefs to a 27-24 victory that vaulted them to their sixth consecutive AFC championship game. In his third postseason meeting with Mahomes and the first at Highmark Stadium, Allen lost for the third time.

“It sucks,” Allen said. “Losing sucks. Losing to them, to anybody, at home — it sucks.”

“Disbelief,” Bills wide receiver Trent Sherfield said. “It still doesn’t feel real.”

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Mahomes shredded the Bills’ injury-depleted defense for 215 yards and two touchdowns, both to rejuvenated tight end Travis Kelce, on just 23 attempts. Allen threw for 186 yards and rushed for another 72 and two touchdowns but could not score in the fourth quarter. The difference was Tyler Bass’s 44-yard field goal attempt sailing wide right with 1:43 left after a near-epic Buffalo drive stalled with two Allen incompletions. The difference in the end was everything.

“Snap was good. Hold was great,” Bass said. “It hurts, man.”

Not counting Kansas City’s kneeldown to close the first half, the Chiefs and Bills at one point traded five consecutive touchdowns that swung the lead, a string of brilliance snapped by a harebrained sequence early in the fourth quarter.

On fourth and five from their 30, the Bills lined up to punt and snapped the ball to up man Damar Hamlin, the safety who had to be resuscitated on the field last year after a hit stopped his heart. The Chiefs stopped Hamlin after two yards, raising the question of why Coach Sean McDermott had placed the game in Hamlin’s hands on a gimmick rather than Allen’s.

Kansas City had the ball on the Buffalo 32 and a golden opportunity to take the game’s first two-score lead. Isiah Pacheco rumbled 29 yards on the first play, seemingly ensuring a score. Mahomes flipped to Mecole Hardman streaking across the field. As Hardman lunged for the pylon, Jordan Poyer knocked the ball loose, and it rolled through the end zone and out of bounds. Officials ruled Hardman down at the 1, but replay showed the ball had come loose a nanosecond before his backside hit, which gave Buffalo the ball at its 20 — and reprieve from McDermott’s failed gamble.

The Chiefs had taken their first lead in the second quarter, when Kelce somehow sneaked through the Bills’ secondary and cruised toward the end zone, lonely as a tumbleweed. Mahomes tossed one of the easiest 22-yard touchdown passes of his career.

Kelce turned and chucked the football 20 rows deep into the stands. Bills fans returned fire with fistfuls of snow. Kelce turned toward his family’s suite and formed a heart with hands, the symbol synonymous with Swift. In that same luxury box, Travis’s brother, Jason, the Philadelphia Eagles center, flexed shirtless with a Labatt Blue Light in his right hand. Judging by appearances, that can had plenty of company.

On their final possession, the Bills held the ball for 6:40. Allen nearly lost a fumble on a scramble, which set up fourth and three from midfield. Allen swung a pass to wide-open Khalil Shakir for 10 yards. Another first down moved Buffalo inside the Kansas City 30. But Allen could not make another play, and Bass could not make a kick.

Pacheco powered for a first down with two runs, which enabled Mahomes to kneel the game out. Allen trudged to midfield once the clock hit zero and embraced Mahomes, forced once more to confront the one man he cannot conquer.

— Adam Kilgore

Find highlights and analysis from Sunday’s playoff action below.