For the second straight season, the Buffalo Bills' playoff dreams were dashed inside Arrowhead Stadium against the reigning AFC champions. And this time around, it was superstar quarterback Josh Allen who woefully discovered that not all game-winning drives are created equal... or even game-winners.
Allen's pair of go-ahead touchdown passes to receiver Gabriel Davis with less than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter somehow weren't enough to outlast the Kansas City Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes responded with miraculous scoring drives of his own, and ultimately played the role of hero in a dramatic 42-36 overtime win on Sunday night. All the hallmarks of an instant classic.
"What else could he have done? To lose a game with how Josh Allen played... I get the coin-flip argument. It's something that a lot of people don't like. But 13 seconds," Tyler Dunne of GoLongTD.com told the Reiter Than You show on Monday. "Squib a kick, make one stop, and it's over. This might've been more bizarre, more outlandish than Aaron Rodgers in 2016 -- that epic throw he had to Jared Cook to set up a field goal.
"It doesn't make any sense, especially when you have a head coach who's a defensive-minded head coach... You had timeouts when you had time to set up the right defense. That's about as bad as it gets, in terms of coaching and management late in the game. If you're Allen, I'm thinking, 'What the hell else can I do here?' He was unbelievable, start to finish. It's on Sean McDermott and the Bills' coaching staff. That just can't happen."
Allen did everything in his power to carry the Bills into the AFC championship. The fourth-year starter racked up 329 passing yards with four touchdowns -- all of which went to Davis -- and also recorded a team-high 68 rushing yards on 11 carries. But, the mammoth Allen-Davis connection with 13 seconds left didn't clinch a victory. With two passes from Mahomes, Kansas City's offense traveled 44 yards, and Harrison Butker drilled a game-tying 49-yard field goal.
If Allen committed a mistake, it came during the overtime coin toss, when he called for tails and lost. The extra period lasted just five minutes, as the Chiefs capped off their surgical 75-yard drive with a touchdown pass from Mahomes to Travis Kelce. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Bills had a 91-percent win probability with 13 seconds remaining, up 36-33, and the 25 points scored in the final two minutes of regulation were the most in NFL postseason history.
Following the game, Allen didn't complain about the league's overtime rules, and how he didn't get a chance with the ball. He told reporters that his team didn't make enough plays, and "If [the coin toss] was the other way around, we'd be celebrating." Of course, Allen did make enough plays -- his defense allowed a whopping 552 yards.
The entire NFL conversation between Dunne and Reiter can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the Reiter Than You show on Twitter @sportsreiter and @CBSSportsRadio, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.