By Ali Gokcek
After the wild but unfortunate Bills loss to the Chiefs in the divisional round game, there is much to contemplate about what happened in that game and what will happen going forward with the Bills organization. There were so many factors that were quite literally 50-50 calls that could’ve gone either way that resulted in the game ending in the way that it did. Moreover, what happened on the defense of the Bills is a whole nother story. However, what is undeniable is the fact that Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes were on absolute fire. In just the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, the two teams scored a combined 25 points! That is the second-most points scored in the last 2 minutes ever in the Super Bowl era. Moreover, many coaching decisions in the last couple minutes of the game and the coin toss rules of overtime gameplay have also caused some controversy on the Bills’ front.
Both quarterbacks played insane. Allen did everything he could to prevent another season-ending loss inside Arrowhead Stadium. He threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Gabriel Davis with 1:54 left in the regulation, then another to Davis, his playoff-record fourth TD catch of the game, with 13 seconds remaining. Allen ended up finishing the game 329 yards. However, Mahomes, Hill, and Kelce were simply able to outplay the Bills. Mahomes finished with 378 yards passing and three touchdowns, including a 64-yarder to Tyreek Hill during the thrilling final minutes of regulation and the clutch throw to Kelce that allowed the Chiefs to take the game to OT with a clutch 49 yard field-goal from Harrison Butker.
However, the coaching made a terrible mistake by squibbing the kick in the final 13 seconds of the game. The chance that Tyreek Hill would be able to take it a significant length down the field is very low, even though he played amazing that game and is one of the fastest guys on the planet. It would have run a significant amount of time off of the clock and would have decreased the chance that Mahomes would have been able to take the ball up the field the way he and Kelce were able to do so. In my opinion, the kicker should have sent it to Hill and they should have taken the risk of Hill driving the ball all the way down, which was very unlikely.
Finally the coin toss rule. Whoever wins the coin toss obviously gets to choose whether to receive or kick the ball to the other team, but every team always chooses to receive the ball as they get a chance to win the game without ever having to play defense. This is exactly what happened with Chiefs vs. Bills game. Josh Allen lost the coin toss, Mahomes chose to receive the ball, and they scored on the first drive. The Bills didn’t even get a chance for redemption or any chance to score. This is simply unfair. One team is able to win the whole game with one drive, but the other team doesn’t get the same opportunity – and this is all determined by a coin toss. It seems ridiculous.
The Bills lost the game not due to one reason, but a series of events that led to their demise. It was an unfortunate end to their incredible season, and we were looking forward to a Super Bowl trophy at the end of it. Hopefully the Bills and the Mafia will be able to bounce back better and stronger than ever before next season.
