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Six reasons why KC Chiefs vs. Bills was the best football game ever

By Lyle Graversen

Jan 23, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) celebrates the win against the Buffalo Bills in overtime in the AFC Divisional playoff football game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 23, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) celebrates the win against the Buffalo Bills in overtime in the AFC Divisional playoff football game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jan 23, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs fans celebrate following the win against the Buffalo Bills in overtime in the AFC Divisional playoff football game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 23, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs fans celebrate following the win against the Buffalo Bills in overtime in the AFC Divisional playoff football game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports /

The Stakes

While a game can be fantastic and exciting to watch without anything big on the line, having huge stakes adds intensity and energy that just can’t be matched by some random regular-season game. So right off the bat, I would argue that 99% of regular-season games are out of the running for being a better game than this one was because of stakes alone. Even if you can find games with equally impressive performances on both sides, the stakes of this one would elevate it. The one exception for a regular-season game would be if it was the regular-season finale and a playoff spot was on the line for both teams, but I can’t think of a game like that that had such epic performances in it right now.

So what was at stake in this game? Well obviously since it’s the playoffs it is win-or-go-home, but this was even bigger than that. When the Tennessee Titans squandered away home-field advantage by losing to the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday that meant that the winner of this game suddenly would be hosting the AFC Championship Game and thus would be the clear favorite to make the Super Bowl. Plus, with both the Green Bay Packers and the defending champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers losing this weekend, the path to a Super Bowl win is now easier as well. Bottom line: the winner of this game was going to be seen as the favorite to win it all.

In addition to that, there was a power struggle for being seen as “the team” in the AFC. These teams met in the AFC Championship Game last season (which obviously the Chiefs won). Then earlier this season the Bills beat the Chiefs comfortably. So if the Bills were able to go into Arrowhead and beat the Chiefs again they would have moved ahead of the Chiefs in the minds of most NFL fans as the top team in the AFC moving forward. Short of an actual Super Bowl match-up, I just don’t know if you can have any bigger stakes than this game did.

Next up: the execution by both teams.

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