The Chiefs get more Mahomes magic and advance to 3rd straight Super Bowl, beating the Bills 32-29

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes threw for 245 yards and a touchdown, ran done the Buffalo defence for 2 much scores, and relied connected his defence astatine cardinal moments to assistance the Kansas City Chiefs bushed the Bills 32-29 connected Sunday nighttime and scope the Super Bowl for the 3rd consecutive season.

Now, the AFC champions volition effort to bash thing nary different NFL squad has done: Win each three.

The Chiefs volition get a acquainted foe successful the Eagles, whom they bushed 2 years agone for the archetypal rubric successful this run. Philadelphia romped to a 55-23 triumph implicit the Washington Commanders earlier Sunday to gain a changeable astatine the champs connected Feb. 9 successful New Orleans.

It’s the 4th clip since January 2021 that the Chiefs person ended the Bills’ play successful the playoffs. And similar each the rest, it came aft a heavyweight combat betwixt 2 of the apical teams successful the AFC, 1 that was tied 29-all aft Buffalo backmost Josh Allen found Curtis Samuel in the backmost of the extremity portion to acceptable up a small much play astatine Arrowhead Stadium.

Mahomes was simply unflappable, though. He completed 4 consecutive passes connected the ensuing possession, mounting up Harrison Butker’s go-ahead tract goal with 3:33 near and putting the Bills successful different do-or-die concern successful Kansas City.

Allen got their thrust going by moving for a archetypal down, but his adjacent 2 throws were batted astatine the enactment of scrimmage and fell incomplete. He deed Amari Cooper for a abbreviated summation connected 3rd down, and the Bills chose to spell for it — they were 4 of 5 connected 4th down astatine that constituent — and the Kansas City blitz forced Allen to loft up a supplication that Dalton Kincaid could not catch.

The Chiefs took over, picked up a mates of archetypal downs and began to observe erstwhile again.

Kareem Hunt had a touchdown tally and Xavier Worthy had six catches for 85 yards and a people for Kansas City, which became the 4th franchise to scope 3 consecutive Super Bowls with its ninth consecutive playoff victory.

Allen threw for 237 yards and 2 scores for Buffalo. James Cook ran for 85 yards and 2 touchdowns of his own.

The Bills inactive person not been to the Super Bowl since a tally of 4 consecutive during the 1990-93 seasons.

The Bills and Chiefs person go good acquainted implicit the years, gathering 7 times since Kansas City bushed Buffalo nether the nonstop aforesaid circumstances — the AFC rubric crippled astatine Arrowhead Stadium — to scope the Super Bowl successful January 2021.

Buffalo had won each 4 games successful the regular season. Kansas City had won the 3 that mattered successful the postseason.

And that familiarity, on with the information that Bills manager Sean McDermott erstwhile worked for Chiefs counterpart Andy Reid, was evident arsenic the crippled transpired. The Bills simply refused to fto Chiefs choky extremity Travis Kelce bushed them, similar helium did against the Texans successful the divisional round, portion Kansas City was prepared for Allen’s propensity to instrumentality disconnected and run.

It was the Chiefs who took a 21-16 pb into the locker country aft a topsy-turvy archetypal half.

Mahomes and Hunt ran for scores and Worthy had a touchdown reception arsenic the teams traded the lead. Cook reached the extremity portion for Buffalo, and a spectacular touchdown drawback by Mack Hollins conscionable earlier halftime kept the Bills successful the game.

It remained a crippled of inches successful the 2nd half: Cook hardly reached crossed the extremity enactment for a touchdown, the Chiefs stopped Allen inches shy of the marker connected 4th down, Mahomes bulldozed into the extremity portion for a score, and the Bills answered with a 70-yard thrust successful which their MVP-candidate backmost deed Samuel connected fourth-and-goal to necktie the crippled astatine 29-all.

Fifty-three minutes and 45 seconds had been rendered moot. Everything came down to the past 6:45 of the game.

Injuries

Bills cornerback Christian Benford was carted disconnected successful the archetypal 4th and declared retired with a concussion. He had spent the week successful the concussion protocol earlier getting cleared to play Sunday.

Up next

The Chiefs are headed to the Big Easy to look the Eagles successful the Super Bowl for the 2nd clip successful 3 years. In the archetypal game, they rallied from a 24-14 halftime shortage with Butker hitting a 27-yard tract extremity for the 38-35 win.

By Dave Skretta