Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen Deliver Greatness

In the immediate aftermath of the Chiefs and Bills Divisional matchup, I said to my wife, “That might be the best football game you’ll ever watch.”

She was a little skeptical until she saw more respected NFL pundits than her husband saying the same thing.

The only argument against it being the greatest game ever played is that there was little defensive influence on the outcome.

Does that really matter?

Would an INT have made it better? Would a lost fumble have made it better? No.

How Patrick Mahomes and the Offense Changed a Game in 13 Seconds

See if you can wrap your head around this:

At the 2:00 warning in the 4th quarter, the Chiefs had an 82.7% chance of winning.

With 1:39 left the Bills had a 93% chance of winning.

With 1:02 left, the Chiefs had a 91.5% chance of winning.

With :13 left, the Bills had a 90.5% chance of winning.

You could run a million computer simulations and never come up with these last two minutes. It simply defies all odds and imagination.

In the days after the game, the media has been littered with foul cries about Allen not getting a chance in OT.

I get it. Chiefs fans still remember the Patriot loss/Dee Ford play that would have sent the Chiefs to the Super Bowl in 2019.

Did we gripe about the rules then? Yes, a little. But we griped a whole lot more about Dee Ford. He never played another down in a KC uniform after that. We griped about Brady getting all the calls. We started running Bob Sutton out of town.

It stunk, believe me. But no one felt cheated. The rules were set well ahead of the outcome.

Last night’s game shouldn’t be sullied by a rule that cuts both ways. Both teams were on the field with :13 seconds left. Recall, at that moment, Buffalo had a 90% chance of winning.

Kansas City didn’t win a coin toss and get a free throw. The probability was 50% when Buffalo kicked off in overtime.

I get that people wanted to see the game continue. They wanted to see if Allen could match Mahomes.

Let me assure you, he can and he did. Allen had an almost perfect game. He doesn’t need to prove anything. He met the moment. He was clutch. He did what had to be done to win.

He just happened to run into one of the two greatest QBs in NFL history.

Tom Brady, by any measure, is the best QB in NFL history. To use a golf analogy, he is the Jack Nicklaus of quarterbacks.

But Mahomes is Tiger Woods without the personal and physical issues that derailed Woods in the prime of his career.

The Incredible Stats Patrick Mahomes Has Accumulated

Here are just some of the records Mahomes has set in his first four years as a starter:

• Consecutive double digit deficits overcome including playoffs: 6
• Fastest to 10,000 career passing yards: 34 games
• Fastest to 100 career touchdowns: 40 games
• Fastest to 15,000 career passing yards: 49 games
• Highest career quarterback rating (minimum 1,500 attempts): 105.8
• Career passing yards per game (minimum 1,500 attempts): 303.4
• Most passing yards in a player’s first 50 games: 15,348
• Most passing touchdowns in a player’s first 50 games: 125

If Mahomes stays on this pace, he will probably do what Tiger has done – smash every record except the all-time Major wins mark.

Brady has won seven Super Bowls. Just like Jack’s 18 Major wins, I don’t think that record will ever be broken by another QB. I certainly expect Mahomes to get more than one, but seven is other-worldly.

However, when Mahomes retires, I suspect he’ll have virtually every major passing record that exists. If that happens – just like Jack and Tiger – reasonable people can debate the greatest ever.

If it’s any consolation for Bills fans, Allen is still one of the best QBs in the league right now. That’s not going to change in the next 10 years. The Bills will be back. They will win their share, perhaps even over Mahomes and the Chiefs.

And the biggest winners in all of it are the fans.