What is crazy is on merit, even entering the two minute warning where the Bills would score on the subsequent play, you could make the argument it already was the best played game of the weekend. Starting with the very first two drives featuring two long, well executed, exacting TD drives by each team, the game was played at a superior level.
Heading into that two-minute warning, it was a tight 26-21. We had yet to see a turnover or even a pass that was close to a turnover, but it wasn't like the defenses were terrible. They were great. Both dlines got constant pressure on Mahomes and Allen, getting multiple sacks each and making both QBs pull off a series of incredible Houdini-escapes to avoid a half-dozen sacks each. Both defenses also excelled in tackling quick and well, limiting YAC, forcing two offenses that would rather go medium to deep every play be patient and perfect - and for long stretches both were.
Going into that two-minute warning, that was about as well played a playoff game you will ever see, in a great building with a great atmosphere, with storylines all over the place. It was the rare great game where each unit - as in both teams offenses and defenses - played well and had their moments, from Mahomes general brilliance, to Allen finally breaking the shackles of the Chiefs defense with the bomb to Davis for a TD right after the Chiefs took a 9-point lead. That by itself truly was an enjoyable, memorable, supremely well played, tight, taught football game. One that was on the way to leaving me very happy.
And then those last two minutes happened.
Those last two minutes plus the Chiefs drive in OT turned a great game into an epic masterpiece, one with as many 'holy God' moments as any game since the sneakily similar (OT aside) 2011 Divisional between the 49ers and Saints. What also makes it all the better was the plays were mostly insane execution by the respective offenses, and incredible showcases of individual talent, rather than breakdowns and errors.
It was a ridiculously clean run route that gave us Davis's 3rd TD to go up 27-26, adn Allen scrambling, staying poised, and hitting Diggs who beautifully toe tapped his way to a big two point conversion. It was of course the all time skill that is Tyreek Hill's speed to run away from the Bills fast defense on the weaving 61-yard TD to give the Chiefs the lead right back. It wasn't a bomb, it wasn't busted coverage, it was a singular talent showing it.
It was a great, poised drive by Allen with calm throws to Davis, Sanders and Davis again beautifully splitting the Chiefs cover-2 to seemingly win it. And if that was the last moment of the Bills offense, they did in that moment. They went to the home of the most dynamic QB and dynamic offense in the NFL and played them toe-to-toe. They somehow left too much time.
For a quick personal aside, most playoffs my family suddenly gets more involved than normal in football. My parents, sister and her fiance all watched the Rams, Bucs game while I was out trying to forget it was all going on. Mentally drained after that ridiculous ending, my sister and fiance stepped away. My Dad and I watched, and were heavily enjoying the well played first half, when we finally convinced my sister to sit and watch the second half.
Great execution bored her, but from the second Allen bombed that 75-yard TD, she was into it. And even more than myself and my Dad, she watched those last four regular time drives with unending glee, from Allen's scrambles, to teh two Davis TDs to Tyreek's brilliance. All of it just lapped up. She then asked me if I thought 13 seconds was enough time. I said, no, it probably wasn't even with the timeouts. I was wrong. I will never doubt Mahomes again.
Not only was 13 seconds enough time, looking back it felt easy. Yes, the Bills arguably messed up by not squibbing, and messed up more by their weird coverage on the last play, but as NFL Films so perfectly captured, it was an on-the-fly route adjustment by Kelce that allowed him to get that open - and Mahomes was with him the whole way. Another example of just the amazing level of play.
To me, this was the best Divisional Round game I have ever seen. It combined both an incredible level of play by both teams, with them running that level of play for the entire game, with the many 'Holy Crap' moments that befit many of the other great Divisional Games (see your 2006 Patriots @ Chargers, or the aforementioned 2011 Saints @ 49ers, and of course even I would admit the 2012 Ravens @ Broncos game). It was unending, it was incredible, and it was the rare game that had hype, that we all wanted to be special and was every bit as special if not way better than anyone could have ever hoped.
In the end, thank you Bills and Chiefs, thank you Sean McDermott and Andy Reid, for coaching your teams so well to put on a display of how to play a well executed game for 58 minutes. Thank you to the brilliance of so many players for that insane ending. Thank you to the Arrowhead crowd for bringing life and joy to the game - another beautiful moment to showcase how nice it has been to have fans again. But most of all, thank you to Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes for playing so peerlessly, an adjective that is ironically inaccurate in this case since they were each others peer. Both scrambling out of sacks, both rushing for 60+ yards on both called and uncalled runs, both showcasing their generational arms, and of course doing it while the other was pushing the stakes higher and higher.
NFL Films caught another great moment where after the game Patrick Mahomes almost immediately started running away from his team celebrating in the end zone to seek Josh Allen out. Many he saw Allen as a kindred spirit, having to lose a playoff game in OT without touching the ball - much like Mahomes himself had to live with in the 2018 AFC Championship Game. Well, when he reached Allen, he gave him a long embrance and they exchanged the usual words, but smack in the middle of their interaction was Mahomes saying 'we're going to do this a lot'. I and every NFL fan hopes so.
