Ten Things About The AFC Championship: KC 38 - BUF 24
 

Ten Things About Tonight’s AFC Championship Game: KC 38 - Buffalo 24

10. My mom passed in May 2018. She was gone right before Mahomes started his three straight AFC Championship game run. She used to tell me my worst personal trait was that I stubbornly held grudges. Then I would joke that I’d never forgive her for telling me that. I do hold sports grudges basically forever. Today was karmic payback for 1993. 27 years ago the Chiefs were one game away from the Super Bowl, after a 23 year wait. Of course, the Bills were at the tail end of their AFC dynasty. King Carl sent out a nasty letter to season ticket holders a couple days before the game. The letter basically said “Don’t bug us for Super Bowl tickets, because you ain’t gonna get em. Don’t call. Don’t write. Shut up. Your choice to be a fan.” Then Joe Montana got thrown on his head; Marty benched Derrick Thomas and the Chiefs limped home with their tail between their legs, losing 30-13. Then the Super Bowl drought lasted another 27 years beyond that, until Andy and Patrick broke through last year. My best buddy Gary went to that game in Buffalo and had to endure all the Buffalo fans, and shitty Buffalo Weather, and the humiliation. 27 years later that game has been AVENGED and we let those chicken wing grubbing, Genesee chugging Bills Mafia snow pigs suffer like we suffered. The best thing is, after blowing a nine point lead and getting beat by two TDs, they had to GET ON A PLANE AND FLY BACK TO BUFFALO IN JANUARY! BWAHAHAHA. Revenge is mine. Oh yes, sweet revenge is mine. By the way, BILLS stands for “Boy I Love Losing Superbowls.”

9. This whole season has been so weird. I wasn’t too worried about losing to anybody in the AFC, and only got nervous when Pat got knocked woozy last week against the Browns. I knew Mahomes would clear concussion protocol starting around Wednesday for two reasons: One, the dude isn’t a giant pussy (I’m looking at YOU Sammy Watkins) and second, you know the NFL wanted him playing in this game for the ratings. I just thought Patrick would be Patrick and if he could stand up and throw the football, we’d be fine. He didn’t disappoint. It’s finally sunk in that we have “the guy” now. It’s taken a couple years to get used to it, but we have one of the few “guys” who can make all the difference. He’s our Five Head. He’s our Favre. He’s our Tommy Boy. He’s one of “those guys” who can carry a team and simply will them to win. And getting three AFC Championship games in a row at Arrowhead is a monumental feat. Historic and awesome.

8. I think Josh Allen is pretty good, but he’s not “the guy” yet. He took four sacks, a couple of them were monster sacks. He threw a couple picks and seems easy to rattle with blitzes. He ran for 88 of Buffalo’s 114 rushing yards. When the Bills were up 9-0, I wasn’t too worried. We’ve had worse first quarters. We gifted them their first TD…then they blew the extra point. KC took the lead at the nine minute mark in the 2nd quarter and never trailed after that. And when the Bills kept settling for field goals, I knew it was over for them. Three’s don’t beat seven’s vs. Mahomes, and coaches never seem to learn that.

7. Hardman made a gigantic bonehead play, muffing a punt inside the ten yard line which gave the Bills their first TD immediately after. At least he did atone with a catch-up TD in the second quarter, and broke a 50 yard run which was good for almost half of the teams total rushing yards on that one play. I’d feel better with Pringle fielding punts. Don’t want to use Tyreek Hill because he’s too valuable as a wide out.

6. Tyreek has a game that will help him make it to Canton. He set the all time KC single playoff game record with 177 yards. 71 of that was on a simple slant play that he broken field ran almost for a TD. If he could have gotten one more downfield block he would have made it. His speed is just crazy. Romo said on the 71 yarder he got up to around 21 mph. Wow.

5. Kelce shredded the Buffalo secondary with 13 catches, 118 yards and 2 TDs. I believe he broke Gronk’s single season/post season record. Buffalo was worst against the tight end this season and it showed. Mitch said the Sausage tied Dustin Colquitt for playing in his 12th Chiefs playoff game. That’s pretty awesome for Sherman.

4. Spags defense did a great job. The last seven points for the Bills was garbage time. The two TDs the defense gave up were after the muffed punt and after the onside kick recovery. In all the other Buffalo scoring drives, they gave up field goals only. Two of them were from 50 yards. The first Bills game in Buffalo was chippy. This one was too. The defense seemed to come out with a real bad attitude and slapped the Bills around a lot. They laid some lumber, and made Allen run for his life on several occasions. Sneed played great, so did Fenton. Jones was a force inside, but not much again from Frank Clark. Kudos to Breeland for holding Diggs to six catches, 77 yards and zero TDs. They knocked the crap out of Mrs Beasley and put him out of the game. Dirty Dan did a decent job on Knox the tight end, and only missed one tackle that I can remember.

3. Buttkicker was perfect on all kicks, and the Chiefs only had to punt one time. So the Bills special teams were limited. The two bad special plays were muffing the punt, and giving up an onside kick. That kick was well executed, but Watts should have come down with the ball. It just ended up giving Buffalo a garbage time TD, making the winning margin 14 instead of 21.

2. The guys who got concussions should be OK by the Super Bowl. Fisher is most likely done for the year if he has a torn achilles. This means from last years Super Bowl line, we’ll be missing both tackles (Fisher and Schwartz) and one guard (LDT). So after seeing Tampa’s pass rush, this will be concerning. One difference is Patrick is more mobile than Rodgers, so he may be able to run away from trouble easier. And his foot should be much better in two weeks. Tampa’s two starting safeties are hurt, and I don’t know if they’ll be back or not. Both teams have guys wounded. We’ll have to watch the injury reports as they develop.

1. We’re headed back to our fourth Super Bowl. So far we’re 2-1. This is the first time one of the participants gets to play in their home stadium, but with the Covid thing, it will still be a sterile, basically neutral site. I don’t know what the price on Super Bowl tickets will be, but it’ll probably be crazy stupid. Scalper tickets downstairs for today’s game were $1700 each. It was great to see another Lamar Hunt trophy find a home in Arrowhead. It took so long to get one, and now that trophy has a twin brother! Very happy for Clark Hunt, and proud of the job the organization did to keep Covid from screwing things up this season. So we’ll see you all again on February 7th, and see if we can get revenge for the 2018 AFC Championship game. Know what would be great? If the game goes into OT, Chiefs win the toss, Patrick marches the team down and scores a TD, and all Tommy Boy can do is stand and watch. That would be karmic payback, and would be the sweetest revenge of all. It's going to be hard to listen to all the Brady Fellatio by the National Press the next two weeks, but it is what it is. Congratulations to all the Chiefs Kingdom and our family here on the Chiefs Planet. Let’s celebrate for a day, then start watching Bucs film.

First IN!

2 things - Bills: overrated. Allen: overrated.

Thanks for the write up, GB.

And Patrick Mahomes is all 10 things!

Nice job!

Thornhill was huge in this game. Great to see.

is there any chance jones could get suspended for throwing a punch? that is my only worry currently :thumb:

Great read, George, as always.

Thanks for doing this!

yup!

Gotta disagree with the Clark take. Did he not have a couple sacks, couple tackles for loss and a couple qb hits?

I get that its kinda standard fare to bag on the guy at this point, but The Shark showed up today.

Entire defense played amazing. This was a team scoring in the 30s on a hot streak. Long ass fied goals were all they could muster outside of Hardman's gift wrapped possession at the ****ing half yard line, and the prevent d TD after the onside down seventeen.

always awesome, thanks!

D was solid all day, sad for Fish, and agree with revenge for the Ford offsides because we would be going for our 3rd straight...

i feel like we never left the super bowl

a bunch of teams just kept coming in trying to beat us

none of them did

the raider game never happened, that was an alternate dimension

I just looked at the box score. He was credited with three total tackles, two of those being sacks. I'll have to go back and watch the game to see which plays that was on.

Great write up as always, George.

One little fact: if (when) KC wins this SB, we will have3 SB victories and be tied with Denver and Raiders for SB victOries in the division.

B2B! Great read GB. Going to be a long 2 weeks.

Thanks Gman!
 

DT is smiling down on this defense.

Underrated, IMO.

Let's enjoy this bizarre universe where we're the 'it' team. Never expected or could've dreamed of this level of success.

Sending good SB vibes your way, George.

I love that we can go down 9-0 or 10-0 and it simply doesn't matter. Literally nobody should have been worried at that point, aside from the Bills/Bills Fan.

They ball when needed and have huge confidence in the red zone.:thumb:

even 24-0.:D

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> 2021 playoff drive results with Mahomes in the game:<br>TD<br>TD<br>FG<br>FG<br>Missed FG<br>FG<br>Punt<br>TD<br>TD<br>TD<br>End of Half (Kneel)<br>FG<br>TD<br>TD<br>End of Game (Kneel)</p>&mdash; Brandon Kiley (@BKSportsTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/BKSportsTalk/status/1353540244432416769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Good read George.

I was pretty zen all week, but got pretty amped before the game. It's amazing that I can go into an AFCCG without melting the hell down all week. Mahomes obliterated all our curses and took several points off my blood pressure.

Mahomes is the best that has ever done it. Period. Guys have been able to pile up stats, but not on this stage, and not with this patchwork of OL and laughable running game. Dude is absolutely the best that has ever done it. He may not get 6 rings, but he's better than any brother****ing Cheatriot has ever been.

Sucks for Fish. Dude was dejected as hell. He deserves better. And Reid is going to have to do some wizardry to keep Mahomes upright against that passrush.

Here's the deal. It's hard to win. It's harder to win consistently. It's harder yet to win consistently in the playoffs. And the Chiefs are doing it. I couldn't be happier.

In

Run it back

What's great about this team is they're a high flying offense and there's a ton of speed, but this is not totally a finesse team. Like you'd think of some of Manning's Colts teams or the Kurt Warner Rams teams that could fold if you punched them in the mouth. The last two years we've been able to run the ball in the 4th quarter, and our defense is young and physical and doesn't get bullied.

Even with the best QB in the league, getting to back to back Super Bowls is a big time accomplishment. Not too many guys have been able to do that.

LMAO


Totally agree with not being worried about anyone in the AFC... I figured if the Bills actually prove their legit, then a tip of the cap. But, no one had really proven they were ready to knock off this team.

I think Allen is the best of the young QBs (not named Mahomes, obviously), but that's not necessarily saying a ton and he still has a decent amount to work on.... staring down receivers, the tunnel vision (get rid of the ****ing ball!), putting some finesse on passes and focusing on accuracy versus brute force. The hype surrounding the guy was incredible and given his progress this season, this playoff run should be a huge learning experience.

I do think Clark and the defensive line played pretty well... several "in the grasp" types of plays, and a lot of pressure on Allen overall. Great defensive plan against a young and inexperienced QB.

Totally different story against Brady in a couple weeks, of course.

Boy I Love Losing Superbowls.

Golden.

Awesome read as always G-Blow. thanks :thumb:

Yeah, I glanced over here when the game was in hand, but internally chuckled at what I'm sure was a meltdown at 9-0 in the GDT.

At that point, they had already forced a 4th down and a couple other 3rd downs... Tyreek had the drop, but otherwise the offense hadn't seen the field.

Similar to the Texans game (except not 24-0, of course), it was a matter of fluke/self-inflicted plays and not so much the other team being amazing... there was a dropped pass and a muffed punt. Otherwise, they were making the Bills work for first downs and there's obviously no reason to doubt the offense at that point.

Yeah, it's crazy to think there's seriously, 100% no need to worry in that situation... ever.

Good stuff. Always a good take. Thanks GB.

I look forward to the Superbowl 10 things again this year.

I always thought it was Buffalo Idiots Love Losing Superbowls... and after this week around here... :shrug:

I think the moment was pretty big for him. The times I watched him this year he wasn't staring down dudes like he was tonight. I think he had the Yips.

When they went down 9-0, my Butterfly's went away.

Yeah, can't say I've been laser focused on the guy whenever I've watched him, but at the same time it really, really stuck out after the Chiefs started scoring and the pressure mounted.

And it's one thing for fans to buy the hype, but the media doing the same is just so.... fake. Throw 800 yards against the Broncos in week 14.

Do it against Patrick ****ing Mahomes in your franchises' first AFCCG in 20 years, then I'll be impressed.

He probably learned how much different those two things are....

Y'all need to turn off sports media. I have like 3 podcasts I listen to, and optimally I turn on the game right at kickoff and do something during halftime so I don't have to see the national ****leheads, and that's it. IT. I passively listened to some shit pre-Mahomes, but it didn't really matter because they never talked Chiefs. Then Mahomes rapes faces and they're talking about the Chiefs. It was then I realized precisely how full of shit most of them are.

I'd venture a guess that most of the "personalities" watch very very little football. They just sit up there and puke out cliche's aimed at the lowest common denominator and base their opinion on what will get clicks or views, or in some cases, just to have a different talking point than the mother****er in the other chair. It's just a giant ass waste of time.

And it hammered the point home that, especially jackass shows like First Take or whatever the God **** Bayless is on these days, douchebags like Colin Cowherd say shit like, "I'm more interested in being entertaining than I am being right," that every time I click a video or tune into a program, they get ratings, ratings get them paid. So every time I waste time listening to and get pissed off by these ****leheads, I'm getting them money.

Then I felt really dirty and tuned them all out. In fact, I'll go out of my way not to consume them.

"7. Hardman made a gigantic bonehead play, muffing a punt inside the ten yard line which gave the Bills their first TD immediately after."

Why are they even trying to field a punt inside the 10? I know most punters have mastered some english on their punts and they hit and bounce backwards or sideways out of bounds. Most punts still hit the ground and roll into the EZ. What ever happened to the golden rule of backing up to the 10 and if it's over your head you let it go. Period. Now it seems like everyone is trying to fair catch inside the 10 or fielding it and then trying to return it. I don't get it. :hmmm::shrug: :shake: :banghead:

Idk if this is the best place for it, but this YouTube channel I found this year is an amazing replacement compared to any of the talking heads you usually see on TV.

https://www.youtube.com/c/StrongOpinionSports/videos

Yeah, I stopped watching ESPN stuff years and years ago, back when it was Kornheiser and Wilbon. I watched Cowherd all of twice because videos get posted here, and that was enough. I subscribe to Kollman and catch other random youtube analysis, but that's about it.

The only sports media I watch these days is either random pregames on the mornings of game day, just to have something on... or like right now, when I'm up past my bed time after a game and want to hear people drool over the Chiefs. :D

So when Bills fans are pumping up Allen and talking about red zone stats, etc... I can safely assume they're watching Skip Bayless and similar idiots to get their information. And then I catch a few minutes of say the Fox picks right before a game starts and it's "ermergerd Josh Allen is at a different level!!!".

Those 2 minutes is enough.

Oh and nice write up as always George and Thank You. Hope the better half has been feeling better. I'm getting closer to having my back finally worked on. The OR's in the hospitals are starting to get back to normal because of all the covid related problems so I'm happy I guess about that. One more game to go. I can't believe we're going to SB's back to back!! That usually happens to teams called the Patriots or Steelers or Cowboys not the Chiefs. I hope no one is taking this for granted because it may never happen again. You can't assume any of this will roll on past Feb 7th. As good as Reid and Mahomes are there's no guarantee they will be back anytime soon so run with it. GO CHIEFS!!! :thumb:

I know it looked like a punch, but after watching it back a couple of times, I think he was trying to knock the Bucs player's hand off his jersey. He swung at the hand and as he turned it looked like he was trying to hit him with a punch.

He may get fined, but that should be it. If he were to be suspended (very unlikely) he would probably have to sit out game 1 next season.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

Great write-up, G.

Hope your girlfriend feels better very soon.

WE'RE GOING TO THE MOTHA EFFING SUPERBOWL, BUDDY!!!!!!!!!

GB, I said it to you last year at this same time and I'll say it again. I appreciate TF out of you, sir. I can't wait until the next time you sit in your seats at Arrowhead as a reigning, defending Super Bowl champion x2 this time. #AndStill

This. Seems like quite a few times guys back there have got too cute and risked fielding and returning with no need to. Unless your name is Tyreek Hill or Dante Hall then cut that shit out

The two plays that came right next to each other where Pat evaded the sack were godly. One on third and long I think? We barely even notice that stuff now it’s just Mahomes magic. Crazy time to be a chiefs fan

King Carl - what a douche. Why would you send a letter like that to fans?

Great job as always, George.

I never felt threatened by Buffalo, even down 9-0 as it was a lead that was essentially given to them because the Chiefs beat themselves.

Can't believe the Chiefs are headed back to the Super Bowl again. Never would have guessed we'd be here after the playoff heartbreak of the past 25+ years.

Great read george. Also this is the good universe where the chiefs are the dominant team.

Great write up GB.

I'm really impressed on how Sneed is developing as well.

This team is the place to be at the moment. They elevate one another to new levels and the synergy is palpable. For example when Hardman fumbled they didn't bench him, discourage him, or give him the cold shoulder.

They gathered around him, didn't let him pout and went out of their way to make sure he shook it off then made it an immediate point to get him the ball and get him is confidence back.

This is good stuff we're seeing right now and God dammit, we deserve it.

Thanks GB! We're off to the Super Bowl, again. Back to back no less. Hard to believe after all these years.

:rockon:

Nice. I checked TicketMaster last night... no regular Joe is getting into that game! $10k minimum per ticket when I looked.

Run it back.

That's just the ticket.

Every restaurant, hotel, motel, parking lot, meter maid, and hot dog vendor are going to be fleecing you that weekend.

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Nice read as always!

Thanks Mr. Blowfish... Patrick Mahomes is the best QB in the world...

For some odd reason, I never doubted that the Chiefs would win this, and that even if they fell behind to start, they'd catch up and win. Why? Mahomes.

I do like how the NFL is giving 7.500 front line health care workers free tickets to the game. Hopefully, a good many will be rooting for the Chiefs!

Great read George,

I felt the same redemption as I flew to Buffalo for what was the worst game ever in the worst stadium.

I watched the rerun of that game only by having NFL Network on in background. It was hard to watch. The picture of Carl Peterson should have been cut.

Your write up and being able to watch this game over and over will only be topped by the Chiefs beating Brady into retirement by winning the Super Bowl in 2 weeks.

On the flipside, they have to listen to all the Mahomes fellatio for two weeks.

George excellent write up as always. I could not agree more with statement 10 (I thought we would never get rid of King Carl)and statement 1 REVENGE. So very proud of this team and the back to back Super Bowl appearances! I thought these days would never come - they are here! :thumb:

One more, GB. ONE MORE.

Great job George. It’s been a long time waiting to get back at these guys.

You are a treasure on this site, George. Your 10 Things are a must read after every game and the game never really seems fully wrapped until I have the chance to get your insight.

What an awesome game! I thought we might have a fight on our hands with the rising Bills but at no point was I worried about the outcome. Oh, how far Andy, Patrick, and the rest of the gang have brought us!

Thanks again.

Thank you gbf, and I look forward to one more ten more things.
I was actually concerned when they missed the XP, because the Chiefs seem to need a double digit deficit to overcome.

9-0 don't matter
10-0 don't matter
17-0 don't matter
24-0 don't matter

Is that stat right? Only one punt for Chiefs thus far in 2 playoff games? Amazing.

Wait, is that the one we won last night? Theres something wrong with it.

It's not, If I can find good one from 2019-2020 I edit... :D

Good read, George!! I was glad to see we got the "techincal issues" in the PAT/FG portion ironed out. Like you said, the D was outstanding today. One gimme TD on the muffed punt and one at garbage time was a far cry from what we've seen too many times over the years.

Nice write up! Run it back!!

I actually missed the last 4 minutes I guess...my phone was blowing up, and I'd had a few whiskies...which I actually usually don't do during the game so I don't forget anything, but it's the AFCCG...I honestly don't remember the onside kick...yeesh.

THanks for the write up. We are in a crazy good dream baby...

great write-up - and I agree 100% on #1.

That loss in 93/94 at buffalo hurt really, really bad. Nice to know we're the ones handing out the pain now!

Yes, but Brady is a statue. Not worried at all about him scrambling. And really, he hasn't played that well in the playoffs. His defense has carried him.

Yeah, I, too, have been wondering that.
I heard Tyreek had been working on punt returns this week. I wonder if they were ready to put him in the game if Hardman didn't pull his head out of his butt. I guess they decided to give him another chance.

RUN IT BACK GEORGE!
Great season of 10 Things.
We appreciate it.

Good column, george.

Did Carl actually say that? Man, what turd. I used to think he was good for the organization way back in the day. But he wore out his welcome, especially when he hired his buddy, Herm. :#

Yeah, I thought he was impressive in the first half on several of his throws, even if the Packers weren't providing a ton of resistance.... and then kind of fell apart in the 2nd once there was some pressure applied.

The 'different story' is more about Brady getting the ball out quickly and being far better at improvising, even though he's not going to nearly as slippery in the pocket. Allen was hard to get down, but he seemed panicked most of the night and was terrible at improvising a Plan B whenever the receiver he was staring daggers into wasn't open (at one point it was like a coach told him not to forget about his outlets, so that's all he started to do... after all the hype, it was mind boggling to watch).

Loved the defensive effort last night, making the kid who's "now on Mahomes' level" look so lost out there. :)

I still have the letter at home somewhere. It was written in PR speak, but essentially said if you are a season ticket holder, don't bother calling the Chiefs or contacting them because you're not getting a Super Bowl ticket. This is after waiting 23 years to get a shot at going. Then after that loss it was another 27 years AFTER that before Andy won one last year.

So yeah, King Carl was kind of a douche. During his rein we used to say "There's a Chiefs Fan Born Every Minute."

My family has had season tickets for 53 straight years. Some have had them longer, but not too many.

It was almost a perfect trifecta of all 3 phases but once again special teams is holding us back. Let's just hope that Andy chews Toub out about his guys even attempting to field punts inside the 10.

Last night I was channeling some sort of ESP. I stood up and pointed out when Clark and Joes lined up next to each other and said here comes a sack. Then I pointed at the safeties and said here comes a pick. Everything was clicking.

I never felt nervous all week either. I knew the Bills were a better matchup than the Browns for us.

If that same effort shows up in Tampa, it'll be a 2 score win for the Chiefs again.

Love you George!

BACK2BACK!

Good stuff !

If KC brings the same D effort vs Brady and the Bucs, KC will CRUSH them !

I don’t know if this is just a British phase but Allen looked like a rabbit in the headlights out there.

Another great writeup George. Once Buffalo started settling for FGs, and after a few scotches, I began yelling out, " Threes don't beat sevens!", to the utter bewilderment of my family.

For this game I didn't even have to bust out my lucky Jerry shirt it was never close.

Around here, we call that deer in the headlights. ;)

And now we have the regional/country neutral "Allen in the headlights".

Buffalo fish wrap post game. They seem pretty positive about the progress they made this year. They could win the AFC East for the next couple years, although Miami and New England will probably rebound and make it tougher next season. https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/