A Tremendous Bowl look hung within the stability because the Buffalo Payments approached the road of scrimmage for a 4th-and-5 play on their remaining drive towards the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs within the 2025 AFC Championship Recreation. Buffalo trailed by three factors with two minutes left in regulation and had the ball on their very own 47-yard line, nicely outdoors of discipline aim vary. The Payments needed to go for it, they usually needed to convert to lastly get previous the Chiefs boogeyman.
Josh Allen’s move in the end fell incomplete. The Chiefs picked up yet one more first down after they gained possession, and gained the sport to advance to Tremendous Bowl LIX. Kansas Metropolis is now one win away from being the NFL’s first ever three-peat champion within the Tremendous Bowl period.
A lot of the credit score for the Chiefs’ cease goes to defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who dialed up a blitz that busted Buffalo’s play with fast stress on Allen. Spagnuolo’s blitz name instantly goes down in Chiefs lore, however Allen deserves credit score for nonetheless giving his staff an opportunity to make a play.
Allen sprinted proper and instantly backpedaled because the Kansas Metropolis protection got here down on him. He lofted up a prayer down the sector and someway discovered tight finish Dalton Kincaid. Sadly for Buffalo, the move slipped proper via his arms.
Extra angles of Kincaid’s close to catch have surfaced a day after Buffalo’s devastating defeat, and it gained’t make the loss any simpler to abdomen. Kincaid was so shut to creating this seize, he simply couldn’t haul it in.
Right here’s a closeup of Kincaid’s drop. It went proper via his arms.
It’s unattainable to not consider a drop by a decent finish every week earlier that helped put the Payments within the AFC Championship Recreation. Baltimore Ravens tight finish Mark Andrews dropped a possible two-point conversion move from Lamar Jackson within the AFC Divisional spherical that allowed the Payments to advance to face the Chiefs. Andrews’ drop was extra apparent within the second, however the replays of Kincaid’s drop exhibits it’s virtually as unhealthy.
This isn’t to throw Kincaid below the bus. Making the seize there would have been an incredible play. It isn’t simple to find a scrambling QB, monitor the ball, and make a diving catch. The margins within the NFL Playoffs are simply that slim, and typically you find yourself on the improper aspect. The Chiefs all the time appear to finish up on the successful aspect a technique or one other.
The blame recreation all the time falls on the quarterback. After Andrews’ drop, the dialog was instantly centered on why Jackson can’t ever win a giant playoff recreation. Now that Allen fell quick once more towards the Payments, followers are questioning if Patrick Mahomes will depart his rivals ring-less the way in which Michael Jordan as soon as did to his ‘90s NBA friends.
The Chiefs could really feel inevitable, however they had been so shut from being the hazard zone on Sunday. The Payments didn’t lose the sport due to one play, however it positive would have helped if Kincaid may have made that catch.
