All he needed was a little shove.
Harrison Butker made a 45-yard field goal with 3 seconds left — after Cincinnati's Joseph Ossai was flagged for a 15-yard penalty for shoving Mahomes after he was out of bounds — and the Chiefs beat the Bengals 23-20 in the AFC championship game to make it back to the Super Bowl.
Kansas City will face the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Arizona.
The Chiefs have been making deep postseason runs regularly ever since Mahomes came to town as the franchise quarterback.
This was their fifth straight trip to the AFC title game and will be their third Super Bowl appearance in that span. They beat the 49ers for the NFL title in the 2019 season but lost to the Bucs the following season.
The Eagles clobbered the Niners 31-7 in the NFC title game earlier Sunday. They've looked dominant in the playoffs so far, also beating the New York Giants 38-7 in the divisional round.
Philadelphia is back in the Super Bowl five years after beating the New England Patriots 41-33 on Feb. 4, 2018.
A mostly new generation of Eagles — led by coach Nick Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts — will come to Arizona to try and win another title.
The Chiefs-Bengals game looked like it was going to overtime before Ossai's ill-advised play. Mahomes — playing on a badly sprained ankle — was running to get a first down in the final seconds as Ossai desperately tried to track him down.
Mahomes was out of bounds when Ossai gave him a shove, sending both players tumbling to the turf. The ensuing 15-yard penalty was enough to push Butker into field-goal range and the kick split the uprights.
A distraught Ossai sat on the bench with his head in his hands, well after the game ended.
The Bengals and Chiefs were playing for the fourth time in less than 400 days and Cincinnati had won the previous three meetings — all by three points. This one was decided by a field goal, too, and all Burrow could do was watch.
The Bengals lost to the Rams in last year's Super Bowl and they just missed another chance at returning to the title game.
Oddsmakers thought fans were in for some close conference championship games.
They'll have to settle for a 50% success rate.
The NFC title game was a blowout. Niners rookie quarterback Brock Purdy was injured in the first quarter when Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick drilled his right arm on a play that was ruled a fumble. The Eagles recovered that fumble and the injury proved to be a game-changer.
With Purdy hurt, San Francisco turned to 36-year-old journeyman Josh Johnson, who couldn't do much before eventually leaving with a concussion. Purdy came back into the game, but could barely throw, and the Eagles cruised to the win.
The 49ers dealt with quarterback injuries all season, losing Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo before turning to Purdy, a seventh-round draft pick out of Iowa State. Purdy stepped into a starter's role in December and won his first seven games before Sunday's injury.
First Published: January 30, 2023, 4:13 a.m.
Updated: January 30, 2023, 11:13 a.m.
