There’s no place like home.
Just ask Patrick Mahomes.
The Kansas City quarterback with five AFC titles and two Super Bowl rings finally will hit the road for a postseason game when the Chiefs play at Buffalo on Sunday afternoon.
His previous 15 playoff games were all at Arrowhead Stadium, not counting the two Super Bowls played at neutral sites.
“Now we get to go on the road to a hostile environment, and one I have not played in with fans in the stands,” said Mahomes, whose lone game at Highmark Stadium was in 2020, during the spectator-less COVID-19 season. “But it’s what you want to do when you grow up watching these games.”
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Chiefs-Bills will follow Tampa Bay’s game at Detroit and will cap a divisional weekend that will determine the NFL’s version of the Final Four.
The Chiefs have won five consecutive AFC championships and advanced to this round with a victory over Miami in a bitter-cold wild-card game.
Meanwhile, the Bills beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in a wild-card game that was delayed until Monday in the wake of a Buffalo blizzard.
Reaching the divisional round is nothing new for the Bills, who have done so each of the last four seasons, winning a home playoff game in each of those.
This marks the first year since the 1993 AFC championship game that the Bills have hosted the Chiefs in the postseason.
Read more: Move over, Bills mafia: Josh Allen’s biggest fans hail from small California town
The matchup between Mahomes and Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen has major marquee appeal and has even led to a change in the NFL rulebook. Two years ago, their teams met in the divisional round in Kansas City, with Mahomes guiding the Chiefs to a 42-36 overtime victory.
In that game, Kansas City won the coin toss to start the extra period and Mahomes threw a touchdown pass to Travis Kelce on the opening drive. It was such an abrupt ending that it helped prompt a rules change….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/patrick-mahomes-chiefs-face-challenge-185245340.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-01-19 18:52:45
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