In the aftermath of the Kansas City Chiefs' win over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game, a ton of attention was paid to Josh Allen being ruled short of a first down on fourth and inches early in the fourth quarter. Buffalo seemed to have taken control of the game at that point, leading by a point and driving for more. It sure seemed like Allen crossed the line to gain on QB sneak that would've kept the Bills' drive going, but as they always seem to do, the call went Kansas City's way — much to every non-Chiefs fan's dismay.
But if you were hoping to not get angry about this whole fiasco all over again, well, we apologize. Because while the spot on fourth down was bad enough, it turns out that things shouldn't have even come to that.
Buffalo Bills have another bad spot to be angry about from loss vs. Chiefs
As spotted by several video sleuths on social media, it sure seems like the officiating crew also botched the spot on third down, in which Dalton Kincaid took a screen pass and seemed to just about reach the line to gain.
Bills got robbed during loss to Chiefs pic.twitter.com/CawbbpSPZL
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) January 28, 2025
Granted, the refs have to do all this in real time, and often from less-than-ideal angles of the field. But if this is going to be how the NFL insists on handling spotting decisions, then fans reserve the right to be critical. And it sure seems like Kincaid either got the first down outright or came closer than the officials gave him credit for. Which means that either Buffalo should have been granted a first down or that Allen would likely have gotten enough to pick it up on fourth, continuing the Bills drive and resulting in either a field goal to go up by four or even a touchdown to go up by eight.
At the end of the day, there's nothing the Bills can do about it now, whatever frustration they may be feeling. For fans, though, it's an awfully hard pill to swallow knowing that Allen and Co. did enough to win had things broken just slightly differently.