KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- There will come a point when we'll look back on this Kansas City Chiefs dynasty and realize it was about more than a generational quarterback and a Hall of Fame coach. It was about what we saw in this year's AFC Championship Game, when a team that already has claimed three Super Bowl wins in the past five years positioned itself to make history. This league has its share of great signal-callers and savvy coaches. What the Chiefs proved once again is that their best trait is delivering winning plays exactly when they're needed the most.
There are many ways to look at what happened in Kansas City's 32-29 victory over Buffalo on Sunday night. The simplest view is to understand the only thing that separated these two teams was a handful of plays. These squads were so evenly matched that Buffalo produced six more total yards (374 to 368), one fewer turnover (the Chiefs had the lone giveaway on a fumble by quarterback Patrick Mahomes) and 34 more seconds of possession time. The problem for Buffalo was Kansas City produced a few more plays that spun the game in a critical fashion.
Kansas City is heading into a matchup with Philadelphia in Super Bowl LIX because it was the team that came up with three crucial stops of Bills quarterback Josh Allen on short-yardage runs. It was Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid who couldn't come down with a fourth-down throw by Allen with just under two minutes left in the game, after the Chiefs pressured Allen with a well-timed blitz. You can talk about other factors in the game if you want -- and the Bills did take a huge hit when their top cornerback Christian Benford was lost to a concussion in the first quarter -- but Buffalo still had its chances to win this game. It just came down to the Chiefs meeting the moment more consistently than the Bills could.
That is the lesson Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals learned in this game two years ago. It's the same lesson Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens learned last season, when the Chiefs won the conference championship on the road. The Bills now get to spend an entire offseason pondering how they could be so close to realizing a dream, only to watch the Kansas City players partying and prancing around as the Chiefs hoisted the Lamar Hunt Trophy for the fifth time in seven years. You have to capitalize on the opportunities that come against the Chiefs because God knows that's exactly what they're going to do.
Think about the Kansas City defense. It gave up 147 rushing yards but rarely wilted in those short-yardage situations. Its most vital stop came at the Kansas City 41-yard line with 13:01 left in the game. Allen took the snap and squirmed behind his offensive line on a play that often leads to success. This time he ran into linebacker Nick Bolton and a mass of Chiefs defenders who refused to give him the yard he desperately needed in that situation.
"This game came down to an inch," Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said in the postgame. "That's what that stop was."
The Bills were ahead, 22-21, in that moment. A first down could've led to a touchdown drive that would have put Buffalo in the driver's seat. Instead, the momentum swung back toward Kansas City, and Buffalo was in trouble from then on. Mahomes led the Chiefs to a touchdown on the ensuing possession, Allen did the same for Bills on the next series, and then the Chiefs gained the game-deciding points on a Harrison Butker field goal with 3:33 left. Anybody who has followed the Chiefs could've seen that outcome coming as soon as that fourth-down stop happened.
The Chiefs now have won 12 games this season by one score. That doesn't happen because a team keeps stumbling into good fortune, as skeptics often claimed about Kansas City as it finished 15-2 and earned the top seed in the AFC. This team is savvy enough to know it's long past the days when it can overwhelm opponents on sheer ability. This squad needs to rely more on patience and efficiency, a feel for understanding how to maximize every last bit of talent and potential on the roster.
"It takes every single person," Mahomes said. "That's what you saw tonight."
Running back Kareem Hunt led the Chiefs' ground attack with 64 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, and it felt as if most of his rugged runs meant plenty to the Chiefs' offensive strategy. Kansas City's two most accomplished receivers -- tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins -- combined for three receptions and 30 yards, but the Chiefs cobbled together crucial production from Xavier Worthy (six receptions, 85 yards, one touchdown) and JuJu Smith-Schuster (two catches for 60 yards) at key junctures in the contest. Of course, Mahomes did what he always does in these games. He threw for 245 yards and a touchdown, but it was his running (43 yards and two scores) that tormented the Bills defense the most.
That doesn't mean Buffalo has anything to be ashamed of after this loss. The Bills defense adjusted after losing Benford -- and after watching Mahomes attack backup cornerback Kaiir Elam relentlessly -- finding a way to shut out the Chiefs in the third quarter. Allen made several big plays, including a 4-yard touchdown pass to Curtis Samuel on a fourth-and-goal situation that tied the game at 29. The Bills did more than enough to have a chance at winning. The problem is the Chiefs did enough to win it.
That's been Kansas City's calling card for most of the last six years. That isn't going to change any time in the next two weeks.
"They've had this personality since training camp," Reid said. "They know when to have fun, but they know when to bear down."
The Eagles obviously know this, as well. They lost to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII in a game that was decided by three points, 38-35. However, the question isn't about whether opponents can understand how Kansas City has built this dynasty. It's whether anybody in the NFL is capable of doing anything about it.
