Bills-Bengals Winner Will Face Chiefs, Injured Patrick Mahomes in AFC Championship
It wasn't exactly a case of "No full-strength Patrick Mahomes, no problem" for the Kansas City Chiefs, but they're nonetheless on their way back to the AFC Championship Game for the fifth consecutive season.
Enduring the scare of a Patrick Mahomes ankle injury in the first half, the Chiefs nonetheless mustered a 27-20 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday late afternoon, clinching their fifth consecutive AFC title game berth (three short of the record of eight owned by the New England Patriots). Kansas City now awaits the winner of Sunday's tilt between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals in Orchard Park (3 p.m. ET, CBS) before competing in the semifinal round on the evening of Jan. 29.
Travis Kelce had two touchdown receptions, part of a 14-catch, 98-yard day, in the win and one of those scores came from the arm of backup thrower Chad Henne, who came in while Mahomes was in the locker room undergoing treatment and evaluation.
With the win, the Chiefs (15-3) are guaranteed a rematch from last year's postseason in the conference title game: they topped the Bills in the Divisional round last season through a 42-36 overtime thriller before falling to the eventual AFC champion Bengals the week after. If Buffalo prevails, the championship game will be moved to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, part of an NFL ruling for a neutral site contest made necessary by the canceled contest between the Bills and Bengals that was shut down due to Damar Hamlin's in-game collapse.
Buffalo and Kansas City have met in each of the past two postseasons, with the Chiefs prevailing in the last two (including the 2020-21 AFC title game). The Bills are 2-3 against the Chiefs in the postseason all-time though they did earn a 24-20 win in Kansas City back in October.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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