By Jackson Heiden
This past Sunday evening during the National Football League (NFL) divisional round playoffs the Kansas City Chiefs were able to wash the bad taste out of their mouth from the 2019 AFC championship game as they took down the Bills in overtime.
Both teams have themselves, two star-studded quarterbacks, with bright futures. One is Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs and the other is Josh Allen of the Bills. Both were highly touted coming out of their respective drafts.
As the two minute warning hit, the Bills found themselves down 26-21 in a 4th and 13 situation and needed at least a first down to keep the drive alive or a touchdown to give themselves a lead.
It took Allen six seconds to find a wide-open Gabriel Davis standing in the end zone to give the Bills a 27-26 lead with a minute and 54 seconds left. The Bills would decline the extra point kick and go ahead and convert the two-point conversion instead to give themselves a three-point lead.
The Bills lead only lasted two plays as on the next possession Mahomes would find his tight end on a curl route for a first down and then the very next play his top wide receiver Tyreek Hill on a slant route which he took to the house on a 70-yard pass this gave the Chiefs a 32-29 lead after the extra point was kicked through. The Bills would have a minute and two seconds to either tie the game with a field goal or score a touchdown to take the lead.
It would take Josh Allen four plays to drive down the field and score a touchdown to give the Bills a late 36-33 lead with 13 seconds left in the game.
It would once again take Mahomes two plays to get within field goal range. This would set up the Chiefs for a shot at a 49-yard field goal attempt which they would ultimately make as time expired to force the game into overtime.
In the NFL, the way overtime works is the game starts over with a brand new quarter. Both teams will do a coin toss to determine who will start with the ball at the beginning of overtime. If the first team with possession scores only a field goal then the opposing team gets a shot to either tie the game or score a touchdown and win, however, if the team receiving the ball scores a touchdown on their first possession of overtime then the game is over and that team wins.
The Chiefs would win the coin toss and elect to receive the ball. It would take the Chiefs four minutes and 15 seconds to score the game-winning touchdown, ending the game in a final score of 42-36. The winner of this game moves on to the AFC title game where the winner will advance to the Super Bowl.
In what was a wild final five minutes of the game both teams combined to score 28 points. Allen had an amazing showing as he threw for 329 yards on 27 of 37 passing attempts with four touchdowns. Mahomes had 378 yards on 33 of 44 passing attempts along with three touchdowns.
Following the final five minutes, plus overtime, many football fans outside of the Chiefs organization felt it was a shame to not be able to see what Allen could do, due to the overtime rules. Once again this reignited the overtime rule talks and how it should be changed.
