KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There were a lot of parallels to be drawn from the Kansas City Chiefs’ losses to Cincinnati.
During a Week 17 loss at the Bengals and again during Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs raced out to big leads, blew a chance to get points right before halftime, then watched the Bengals rally in the second half before winning on a walk-off field goal by Evan McPherson.
Much like a holding penalty, which erased a Byron Pringle kickoff return touchdown proved pivotal in the regular-season loss, Kansas City’s gaffe on the last play of the second quarter was a major turning point with a Super Bowl at stake.
Only 5 seconds remained after an incompletion by Patrick Mahomes at the Cincinnati 1-yard line.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid eschewed a chip-shot field goal, which would have boosted the halftime lead to 24-10.
“I was hoping we could get the ball in the end zone,” Reid said. “I probably gave them the wrong play, first of all. I could have given them something better than that, where the play was open in the end zone, then we wouldn’t have had to go through that. I’ll take responsibility for that.”
Mahomes’ first read was covered, so he flipped a pass into the flats for Tyreek Hill, who had motioned across the formation.
Hill was greeted by two Bengals and wrestled down by cornerback Eli Apple short of the goal line as time expired.
“We called a play that we were trying to get somebody over the middle quick and I was supposed to throw the ball away,” Mahomes said. “I got a little greedy there and tried to give it to Tyreek and get a touchdown. They had two people out there.”
The previous play had only taken 4 seconds, so it certainly was possible to try for the end zone and still give Harrison Butker a chance — but only if the Chiefs, who were out of timeouts, ran a quick play and didn’t get tackled short of the end zone.
“We had enough time for another play, but I’ve got to get one that’s open in the end zone,” Reid said.
It was a disappointing sequence, but it wouldn’t necessarily have been decisive if the offense had kept up the breakneck pace it set during the first half.
Wide receiver Mecole Hardman Jr. said of the offense’s halftime mood: “We get the ball back. Let’s go out and try to score, let’s put some pressure on them. Let’s go out there and try to execute. We were all in good moods. We knew the game wasn’t over.”
Instead, the Chiefs struggled after intermission — also a repeat of the loss four weeks early in Cincy — with four punts and two interceptions among seven drives in the second half and overtime.
The result puts the Bengals in the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989.
