It feels like we’ve been here before.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Well, with a different ending.
You know, the important part.
The Chiefs beat the Bengals 23-20 in the AFC Championship Game, advancing to their third Super Bowl in the past five years. They will play the Eagles.
The initial 59 minutes played out the way the previous three meetings with the Bengals had — the Chiefs taking a lead into the fourth quarter, only to allow self-inflicted mistakes to remove it.
This time, they delivered — not received — the heartbreak.
It’s a pretty good redemption story, with a whole host of individual redemption stories baked into it for a team that had to overcome a slew of injuries to advance.
Here are five observations from immediately after the game:
1. The Mahomes redemption
Patrick Mahomes spent a summer motivated by the opportunity to erase the finality of a year earlier.
And for a moment, it slipped out his hands.
Literally.
If there was one point in which the game the Chiefs had some semblance of control, it came late in the third quarter, the Chiefs holding a seven-point lead, when the football slipped out of Mahomes’ hands on an attempted pass. The Bengals scored a touchdown six plays later to tie it.
And then Mahomes grabbed it back.
With his legs.
On a bum ankle.
On a third-down play, Mahomes rushed five yards — and got a personal foul tacked on — while battling through a high-ankle sprain to put the Chiefs in field goal range.
Which set up another redemption story:
2. More of those
Harrison Butker came through in the end.
Skyy Moore, too.
And Chris Jones.
And Bryan Cook.
The Chiefs pieced together the final two minutes of the fourth quarter with a handful of players who needed these moments.
It’s been a tough year for Butker. He drilled a 45-yard field goal to win it.
Moore lost his job as a punt returner after three fumbles. His return of 29 yards gave the Chiefs a short field on their final drive.
Jones got his first two career postseason sacks, his second ending the Bengals’ hopes of their own game-winning drive.
After a rough day, Cook deflected a fourth-quarter pass that Joshua Williams would intercept.
3. MVS
The Chiefs spent the offseason — and one in-season move — trying to diversify their wide receiver room.
At one point Sunday, that group was absent JuJu Smith-Schuster, Justin Watson, Kadarius Toney and Mecole Hardman.
But they still had the highest-paid guy.
The guy who, frankly, hasn’t lived up to his offseason contract.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling picked a good time to change that.
Valdes-Scantling had his best game in a Chiefs uniform — six catches for 116 yards and a touchdown.
After the Bengals tied the game in the third quarter, Valdes-Scantling put the Chiefs back in front with a 19-yard touchdown catch.
Wasn’t his only play of the drive.
He caught a 25-yard pass, doing most of that work after the catch. And he converted a 3rd-and-7 play, reaching his hand across the first-down marker for the conversion.
4. The pressure on Burrow
For two years, just about every other team in football has taken advantage of the Bengals’ primary weakness — their offensive line.
The Chiefs finally joined that party.
On their fourth try.
It had been the most confounding storyline of the previous three matchups — how in the world had the Chiefs not been able to put pressure on a quarterback who is sacked so frequently?
This time, they did. Jones got him twice. Frank Clark had 1 1/2 sacks, combining on one with Willie Gay. George Karlaftis got another.
Frank Clark moved into third in NFL playoff history in sacks — though it brings up a valid question for why he can’t provide the same production in the regular season.
Jones was the best player on the field.
5. The do-over
The objective is often to find something — to point out something — you haven’t seen before.
But not like this.
The referees handed the Chiefs a do-over on a critical third down. And while it didn’t ultimately factor into the final, it’s a humiliating moment for the league.
The optics of it are pretty terrible — not only rare but so clearly benefiting one team, in this case the Chiefs.
Can’t happen.
Ever.
The telecast would show a replay of one referee blowing a whistle and attempting to stop the play, but not with enough intent to prevent the Chiefs and Bengals from cycling through the play.
