The Kansas City Chiefs secured their third straight Super Bowl appearance on Sunday night with a victory over the Buffalo Bills, but a controversial call in the fourth quarter played a significant role in the outcome.
In the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s game, the Chiefs stopped the Buffalo on a critical fourth-down attempt when Bills star quarterback Josh Allen came up just shy on a fourth-down run. However, the spot was quite controversial.
The two officials on the field marked the ball differently – one spot would have granted the Bills a first down, while the other placed them just short and gave the Chiefs the ball back. The referees ultimately went with the spot just short of the line to gain, which was upheld by a replay review.
However, after the game, Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott called out the referees for what he felt was a bad spot. McDermott believes that Allen got the first down.
“I thought he had it,” McDermott said according to Pro Football Talk. “Just short of the line was actually the first down, what it looked like to me when it was sitting next to me with the marker. Just inside that white stripe was the first down. And it looked like he got to it. That’s all I can say.”
McDermott was not the only one who thought Allen got the first down. CBS Sports rules analyst Gene Steretore felt like the Bills should have been given the first down.
“I felt like he gained it by about a third of a football,” Steretore said during the broadcast. “That was just my take on the play. Tough, tough play.”
Instead, the Chiefs got the ball at midfield and quickly went downfield to score and get the two-point conversion to take a 29-22 lead late in the game.
Had the call gone the other way, the game could have turned out differently.
With the win, the Chiefs advanced to the Super Bowl for the third consecutive time as they go for an unprecedented three-peat.
