Coming into their game on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills both badly needed a win. The Chiefs, having lost the week before, need wins to keep hopes of a playoff bye alive and stave off the division rival Denver Broncos, who have been on a winning streak and quickly closing the gap to their division leaders. For the Bills, they came into the game 6-6, and hopes of reaching the playoffs at all depended on a good stretch of games towards the end of the season.
The Bills opened the scoring with a touchdown pass to James Cook and a Josh Allen touchdown run. Allen has been a great scrambler during his career, and this year he has 372 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground to this point in the season. The Chiefs scored a touchdown towards the end of the half via a touchdown rush from Jerrick McKinnon. Going into the second half, Buffalo opened with a field goal before Kansas City scored a touchdown and a field goal. The final score of the game was a field goal from the Bills to set the score at 20-17 with 1:54 left on the clock.
The Chiefs once again struggled with drops in what is quickly becoming one of the most concerning parts of their game. The Bills found success on the ground, putting up 118 rushing yards. They controlled the clock, keeping possession for 35:21 of the game time and doing what they could to keep Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes off the field.
Perhaps the biggest moment of the game was an offsides penalty called on Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney, which wiped out a touchdown he scored after a lateral from tight end Travis Kelce. The touchdown would have given Kansas City the lead with less than one minute and 30 seconds.
It has led to questions about whether referees are obligated to inform players about their positioning relative to the line of scrimmage if they have not checked in.
Mahomes was visibly upset, arguing with refs and also not being gracious towards Allen. While the two have developed a healthy rivalry to this point, it has remained civil to this point. Mahomes has since apologized, stating, “I was still hot and emotional, but you can’t do that, man. It’s not a great example for kids watching the game.” Mahomes, in his seventh year in the league, has not had an outburst like this before and, with any luck, will not have another.
The Chiefs play the Patriots on Sunday in a game that they should comfortably win. Whereas the Bills host the Cowboys, who have been on a tear recently and look poised to be near the top of the playoff picture.
(Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)