Josh Allen had one of the greatest games for any quarterback in NFL playoff history -- and never had the opportunity to match Patrick Mahomes in overtime. The Buffalo Bills fell to the Kansas City Chiefs 42-36 in overtime thanks to Mahomes throwing a touchdown pass to Travis Kelce on the first possession of the extra period -- ending what was arguably the greatest game in NFL history.
The NFL overtime rules are sudden-death, but both teams do have an opportunity to have possession of the ball. The only exception? If the team that has the ball on the first possession scores a touchdown.
Allen never got the ball in overtime with the Chiefs scoring a touchdown on their first possession.
"The rules are what they are. I can't complain about that because if it was the other way around, we'd be celebrating too," Allen said. "It is what it is at this point. We just didn't make enough plays tonight."
Allen's final play of the night was a 19-yard pass to Gabriel Davis with 13 seconds left to give the Bills a 36-33 lead. Patrick Mahomes still was able to drive the Chiefs 44 yards down the field from his own 25-yard line to set up the tying 49-yard field goal to force overtime.
Allen lost the coin toss and that ended up being the ball game. He finished 27 of 37 for 329 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions (136.0 rating). He also had 11 carries for 68 yards. Allen is the only player in NFL history to throw for 300 yards, throw for four touchdowns, and rush for 60 yards in a playoff game -- and he accomplished the feat on consecutive weekends.
The Bills didn't deserve to lose that game with the way Allen played. Even with a three-point lead with 13 seconds left, Allen knew the game wasn't over.
"It's Pat Mahomes on the other side. They made some good plays there at the end. Unfortunately, the coin toss went the way that it did," Allen said. "I'm super proud of our guys throughout this season and the ups and downs. I know it's disappointing right now, it hurts right now. You can say it's going to be better, we're going to learn from this, it's very cliché and nobody wants to hear it. I truly believe that this unit will learn from this. We've got a great young squad and a lot of guys coming back next year. We've just got to use this as fuel for the fire."
