The Kansas City Chiefs played host to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium with the winner advancing to this year’s Super Bowl.
The Championship game is being played at Tampa’s James Ray Stadium with the NFC Champion Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers becoming the first NFL team home team to host the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl.
The opening quarter saw the Bills open the scoring Buffalo on a 51-yard field goal by Tyler Bass in the opening drive giving them a 3-0 lead over KC.
On only their second possession the Bills stalled and had to punt to the Chiefs only to their kick returner fumble the ball inside the five-yard line.
Hardman recovered the ball in the end Zone by Taiwan Jones to give the Bills a 9-0 lead only to have Tyler Bass hit the upright, bouncing wide and out of play.
The second quarter saw the Chiefs get on the scoreboard with their first TD as Hardman made up for his earlier mistake on the return fumble with a three-yard reception from Patrick Mahomes to cut Buffalo’s lead to 9-7.
It was Harrison Butker’s point after that made it 9-7 in favor of the Bills.
The Chiefs Darnell Williams put them ahead of the Bills managing to run the ball into the end zone from 6 yards out putting them ahead 14-7 followed by Harrison Butker convert.
KC managed to score two TD’s in a span of 4:04 increasing their lead to 12-points on a Clyde Edwards one yard run making the 21-9 with a convert from Harrison Butker late in the second quarter.
The Bills made it interesting with under two minutes left with a time-consuming drive into KC’s territory inside the 10-yard line.
With a third and goal at the three-yard line of the Chiefs they attempted to get points on the board with a Tyler Bass FG from 20 yards out cutting thee Chiefs lead to 21-12 at the half.
The third started with Kansas City going deep in Buffalo territory looking to add to their lead on what was a stalled third attempt only to have Harrison Butker add a 46-yard FG adding to their 24-12 lead.
The Bills had the ball at the Kansas City 9-yard line on a current 66-yard drive in which Allen attempted a long pass to Diggs which was incomplete that set up a Tyler Bass short field goal cutting the Chiefs lead to 24-15.
Mahomes hits Tyreek Hill on a 61-yard reception sending him to the Bills 7-yard line that saw the Bills take a penalty which capped off by a TD pass to Travis Kelce underhand forward TD pass to Butler as well as a convert opening up a 31-15 lead.
The Bills had the ball ending the third quarter with a fourth and one on downs entering the final quarter in Kansas City territory.
The ball was at the Chiefs 20-yard line only to see KC’s defense grab an interception of the Bills Josh Allen snuffing out the drive.
Patrick Mahomes then added to the lead hitting Travis Kelce from 5 yards out extended their lead to 38-15 with the extra point converted off the foot of Butler.
The Bills finally got a TD late in the game as Isaiha McKenzie took a 6 yard pass from Josh Allen that saw them attempt a two point convert that failed to connect with Josh Diggs cutting the lead to 38-21.
Adding insult to injury saw Tyler Bass add a 51 yard FG and his second of the game making it a 38-24 trip to Tampa for the Superbowl that has KC defending their AFC title for the time since 2003-04 when the New England Patriots set that mark.
KC will now face the Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55 (LV) February 7th in what will be a match up of Chiefs Patrick Mahomes and Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady going to his 10th Super Bowl of his career including 9 with the New England, winning 6 Championships and looking for ring number 7.
The game will be played at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium that will have 22,000 in attendance which includes 7,500 vaccinated front line health care workers.
The remaining 14,500 tickets are available to the public to attend the championship game.
Enjoy Superbowl 55 and remember to STAY SAFE remembering that SOCIAL DISTANCING IS STILL A MUST!!!
Photo credit for photo below to USA Today
