Tag: born

Every week in the NFL season brings a host of new questions … and answers some old ones, too. Let’s run down what we learned in the conference championships … and what we’ll be wondering about in the Super Bowl.

ANSWERED: Patrick Mahomes is inevitable

You knew how this was always going to end, didn’t you? It didn’t matter if the Bills took a three-point lead in the second quarter, or a one-point lead in the third, or tied the game up in the fourth, you always knew the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes were going to have the ball in their hands, late in the game. And you knew as surely as the sun rises that Mahomes would work the field and the clock, finding open men like the Chiefs had 14 players on the field, running down the clock like he could actually make time spin faster. This is the black magic and the inevitability of these Chiefs, that they’ll always be in the hunt, and they’ll always be the last team standing.

There’s a building backlash to the backlash against the Chiefs, that we shouldn’t be sick of this team because we’re witnessing one of the great NFL dynasties at the height of its power. But that’s the thing about dynasties — they’re enjoyable for fans of the team, and for historians, but for fans of the other 31 teams, they’re a frustrating roadblock. And for the dynasties’ chief rivals, they’re a years-long hell.

Which brings us around to Josh Allen, the most sympathetic figure in all of the ongoing Chiefs domination. Allen is a transcendent quarterback, capable of making plays that stagger the imagination and redefine the boundaries of what’s possible for the position. And yet, again and again, he keeps running up against this unstoppable juggernaut. Every loss takes another bite out of his career, and every loss brings a whole new wave of “Can he do it?” questions and critiques.

Allen was more than good enough to beat pretty much any other team in the NFL Sunday night — 237 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions — but “good enough” isn’t good enough to beat Kansas City. And now Allen has to be wondering if he’s the Charles Barkley of his era, a surpassing talent with the bad luck to be born into a time when the generation’s greatest talent is in charge.

The consoling line in times like this is always, “He’ll get another chance.” And it’s true, Allen will get another half-dozen chances, at least. But so will Mahomes. And that’s the entire problem for Buffalo … and Baltimore … and Pittsburgh … and everyone else with the misfortune to be playing in the Mahomes Era.

ASKED: Can Dalton Kincaid, Mark Andrews ever recover from this postseason?

For a team game, NFL football sure does come down to a lot of individual moments of agony. A kicker missing a field goal is sort of the standard for this scenario, but we’ve now had two great what-ifs with tight ends missing what should have been routine catches. Baltimore’s Mark Andrews had the more egregious drop, a would-be two-point conversion that would have likely forced overtime. This week, it was Dalton Kincaid’s turn; a pass that would have kept the Bills’ final drive alive skipped off his forearms:

Granted, that was a difficult catch to make under any circumstances, and Buffalo still needed to score at least a field goal to even tie the game. (And Bills fans know all too well what would have happened had Mahomes gotten the ball back with any time left on the clock.)

But still … it was a catchable ball, and that means it will play in the minds of Bills fans (and Kincaid himself) from now until September. “Right now, it obviously hurts a lot, and it’s going to linger for a while, but eventually, you’ve got to move on,” Kincaid said after the game. “And hopefully, you grow from this, and I believe that will be the case, but for the time being, it’s going to hurt a lot.”

Buffalo fans might not be happy with that answer, but that’s all they’ve got to get them through until next season.

ANSWERED: The Philadelphia Eagles are fully operational

Were it not for the Chiefs doing what the Chiefs do, all the conversation after conference championship weekend would focus on the Eagles’ exceptional run this season. Winners of 15 of their past 16 games, the Eagles flew (sorry) under the league’s radar for much of the season as the Lions and Vikings drew the spotlight. But those two teams are gone now, and what remains is Philadelphia’s band of voracious malcontents, a defense capable of swallowing planets and an offense capable of gashing 50-plus-yard runs at any moment.

Plus, Philly knows how to play the mind game. One key statistic from Sunday’s decimation of the Commanders: Washington committed four turnovers, and Philadelphia turned every one of those into a touchdown, a psychologically backbreaking strategy. That’s a team that understands the value of every down, every gesture, every point in an overall game plan. They’ll have their challenges against Kansas City, the most psychologically tough team in the NFL, but Philadelphia will be a better match for the Chiefs than any other two NFC teams would have been.

ASKED: What’s next for the Commanders?

A whole lot of dreams ended prematurely this NFL playoffs. The Lions, Vikings and Ravens, in particular — plus the Bills, of course — were already checking into the price of hotel rooms in New Orleans before cold, hard reality shut them down and ushered them into the offseason. One team that enters the offseason with more optimism than frustration, though, is Washington. That’s what happens when you overshoot your anticipated season by a good six wins, and when your season ends in the conference championship rather than in a pre-Thanksgiving mathematical elimination.

Washington did not look good on Sunday. Those four turnovers that became touchdowns … that’s the worst possible outcome from an interception or a fumble, devastating to the psyche of a young team. Jayden Daniels can do anything, but he can’t do everything, and against a defense as fearsome as Philly, he couldn’t do much of anything at all.

Still, Washington was the very embodiment of “house money” this season. The perfect encapsulation of that: a magnificently-timed ESPN investigative report Saturday that torched former owner Dan Snyder. Commanders fans got that brief look back at the misery they endured for a quarter-century … and then could refocus on their wonderful new team. Washington learned plenty of lessons this season, but the first and most important is that greatness is within their grasp after all.

ANSWERED: The refs will always push you over the edge

The final conspiracy of the Bills’ 2024 season came on that Dalton Kincaid miss, when Jim Nantz declared that there was a flag, and CBS showed the yellow flag graphic … only for there to be no flag after all. Bills fans on X managed to convince themselves that there was a flag, only it was picked up once Kincaid missed the pass.

Look, you can’t really blame Bills fans — or anyone else, really — for being suspicious of the referees when the Chiefs are involved. We got another, much more tangible questionable decision when referees ruled Buffalo had not gained the necessary inch for a first down in the fourth quarter, a ruling that led directly to Kansas City retaking momentum and, finally, the game and the conference championship.

Combine all that with the strange moment in the NFC championship, when officials specifically said they could award the Eagles with a touchdown, and you’ve got an NFL fanbase pretty much seething at any and all officiating calls.

Not that it matters to the Chiefs:

Good luck to the refs at this year’s Super Bowl. You’re going to be watched more closely than the commercials.

ASKED: So who’s going to win the Super Bowl?

In normal circumstances, we’d say the Eagles by double digits. But these aren’t normal circumstances, and somehow the Chiefs always seem to find a way. We’ll save our formal prediction for later, but for now … maybe don’t go betting the mortgage on the Birds, Eagles fans, no matter how good you feel right this moment.