Bucs set up Super Bowl showdown with Chiefs
Kansas City keeps title defense hopes alive
KANSAS CITY, Mo, Jan 25, (AP): It took the Kansas City Chiefs five frustrating decades to make their third Super Bowl appearance.
Now, the defending champs are headed there for the second straight year.
Showing no lingering effects from his concussion, Patrick Mahomes sliced up Buffalo’s secondary with ruthless efficiency Sunday night, helping the Chiefs roll to a 38-24 victory over Josh Allen and the Bills in the AFC championship game.
The reigning Super Bowl MVP finished with 325 yards passing and three touchdowns, most of it to favorite targets Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, who complemented their star quarterback with a record-setting night of their own.
The Chiefs will face a familiar foe – Tom Brady – and the NFC champ Buccaneers in two weeks in Tampa, Florida.
Kelce finished with 13 catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns, and Hill added nine catches for 172 yards, becoming the first duo in NFL history with consecutive games of at least 100 yards receiving each in a single postseason.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Darrel Williams added short TD runs for the Chiefs, who will try to become the eighth franchise and first team since the Brady-led New England Patriots in 2003 and ‘04 to defend the Lombardi Trophy.
Allen, who had his worst game of the season in a Week 6 loss to the Chiefs, again struggled against the blitzing Kansas City defense. He finished with 287 yards passing with two touchdowns and an interception, but a big chunk of his numbers came as the Bills tried to rally from a 38-15 deficit in the final minutes.
Their frustration boiled over with 3:19 to go, when Allen was getting sacked by Tanoh Kpassagnon. Alex Okafor finished off the tackle, and Allen pitched the ball in his face in resentment. Offensive linemen Jon Feliciano and Dion Dawkins rushed in and leveled Okafor, resulting in a flood of offsetting personal foul penalties.
It capped a bitter night for the Bills, who had reached their first AFC title
game since beating Kansas City at home on Jan 1, 1994. They had won 11 of 12 since their loss to the Chiefs earlier this season – in fact, they hadn’t trailed in the second half since Week 8 – and were riding a wave of confidence that this might finally be their championship year.
Instead, after finally conquering the Patriots in the AFC East, the Bills have a new roadblock to the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs actually spotted the Bills a 9-0 lead, thanks in large part to Mecole Hardman’s muffed punt inside their 5 that gifted Buffalo a touchdown. But the reigning champs were hardly rattled; the Chiefs, after all, rallied from double-digits in each of
their postseason wins last season, including their Super Bowl triumph over San Francisco.
Mahomes and Kelce soon found their groove. And the rest of the Chiefs offense followed suit.
They surgically took apart Buffalo’s defense on a 14-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a short TD throw to Hardman – no hard feelings over that fumble. Then, the Chiefs cruised 82 yards in just five plays, the big one Hardman’s 50-yard end-around that set up Williams’ touchdown tumble. Finally, they made it three TDs in three possessions when EdwardsHelaire – in his first game back from an ankle injury – capped a 77-yard drive with a short plunge.
The only answer from Buffalo was Tyler Bass’s chip-shot field goal that made it 21-12 at the break.
Any hopes the Bills had of a comeback were dashed when Rashad Fenton picked off a tipped pass deep in Kansas City territory. The Chiefs breezily marched the other direction, and Mahomes and Kelce kicked off the celebration of another trip to the Super Bowl when they connected for their second score of the game.
Tom Brady has a new team, in a new town. The destination is the same: another Super Bowl.
At home, too.
The man with six NFL titles will become the first quarterback to play a Super Bowl on his team’s home field. He owes the Tampa Bay defense that sacked Aaron Rodgers five times, and a curious late call on fourth-and-goal by the Packers as Brady and the Bucs beat top-seeded Green Bay 31-26 for the NFC title Sunday.
Brady is back in his first year at Tampa Bay after reaching this stage nine times with the New England Patriots. He went 20 of 36 for 286 yards and three touchdowns, but also threw three interceptions as Tampa Bay squandered most of an 18-point lead. Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul combined for five sacks to help the Bucs hang on for their franchise-record eighth consecutive road victory.
It’s quite a step up for a team that had one winning record in the last nine seasons.
The Bucs snapped Green Bay’s seven-game winning streak. They were aided by a strange decision from Packers coach Matt LaFleur with just over two minutes remaining in a 31-23 game.
After three straight incompletions had the Packers facing fourth-and-goal from the 8, the Packers elected to kick a field goal to get within five.
Tampa Bay then ran out the clock on the Packers (14-4).
The Packers lost in the NFC championship game for the fourth time in the last seven seasons. Green Bay hasn’t reached the Super Bowl since its 2010 championship season.
Rodgers went 33 of 48 for 346 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, but fell to 1-4 in conference championship games as a starting quarterback.
The Packers had the NFL’s best redzone offense this season, but they twice settled for field goals after having a first-and-goal Sunday.
Tampa Bay took command in the middle portion of the game.