Kansas City, Patrick Mahomes dominate Bills and will defend Super Bowl title against Tom Brady and the Bucs

It will be the dominant young quarterback of today’s NFL vs. the greatest quarterback in pro football history, a dream matchup if there ever was one.

Welcome to Super Bowl LV, in which Kansas City’s 25-year-old star passer, Patrick Mahomes, will face off against 43-year-old warhorse Tom Brady, who will be looking to extend his record of most Vince Lombardi Trophy wins and add a seventh ring.

Just hours after Brady and the Bucs ousted the favored Packers in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game in Green Bay, Mahomes earned a trip to his second straight Super Bowl with a chance to achieve something that hasn’t been done since Brady’s 2003-04 Patriots: Winning back-to-back titles.

Mahomes said he looks forward to the Brady matchup and "being able to go up against one of the greatest if not the greatest quarterback of all time in his 150th Super Bowl."

He added, "Our goal is to win the Super Bowl, not just get to it."

Mahomes earned his appointment with destiny with a superb performance in a 38-24 win over the Bills in the AFC Championship Game in Kansas City. He was 29-for-38 for 325 yards and three touchdowns.

"The job’s not finished," Mahomes said. "We’re going to Tampa and we’re going to try to run it back."

The key to Sunday’s dominant performance, according to Mahomes?

"It was just trusting each other," he said. "We believe in each other."

Mahomes said the key to preparing against Brady is simple and straightforward.

"We’ve just got to be ourselves," he said. "I trust my guys over anybody. We’re going to trust ourselves and be who we are."

It will be coach Andy Reid’s third Super Bowl appearance and a chance to win his second in a row. He can thank Mahomes for giving him that opportunity.

"This guy seems to amaze me a little more every game," Reid said. "I’m proud of the way he handles it. It’s about the team and he’s all-in and he works his tail off. He does it the right way, which is important. It’s important for the longevity of his career, for his success for [the team] and now for the Super Bowl."

It will be Mahomes’ first playoff matchup against Brady since the two met in the 2018 AFC title game, a 37-31 overtime thriller won by Brady and New England in Kansas City. Brady won the Super Bowl two weeks later, beating the Rams.

Mahomes, the reigning Super Bowl MVP and 2018 regular-season MVP, was cleared on Friday after suffering a concussion a week earlier in a 22-17 divisional-round win over the Browns. He played with the kind of flair and creativity he has shown since emerging as a star in his second season.

A first-round draft pick in 2017, Mahomes has been the game’s most prolific passer since 2018, and he played like it against a Bills team that had won its first AFC East title since the days of Jim Kelly in 1995.

Time ran out on Buffalo and Josh Allen, who has shown steady improvement since his rookie season and got the Bills to within a win of their first Super Bowl since Kelly’s Bills reached their fourth straight title game after the 1993 season. Allen played well in conquering the Colts and Ravens at home but ran into a super Kansas City team.

The Bills got the early jump, taking a 9-0 lead on a first-quarter field goal and a touchdown following a muffed punt by Kansas City returner Mecole Hardman at the 3-yard line. Allen hit tight end Dawson Knox for a TD pass on the first play to put the Bills up by two scores.

But Kansas City roared back, just as it had in last year’s divisional playoffs against the Texans (24-0 first-half deficit) and then in the Super Bowl (20-10 deficit before scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter). This time Kansas City scored three straight touchdowns to make it 21-9 with just over four minutes to go in the half.

The teams traded third-quarter field goals to make it 24-15 and Kansas City poured it on on its next drive, keyed by a 71-yard pass play to Tyreek Hill on a short slant route to the left. Mahomes finished off the drive with an underhand shovel pass to Travis Kelce for a 2-yard score to make it 31-15 with 3:29 left in the third.

Mahomes then put the game away with a 5-yard TD pass to a wide-open Kelce for a 38-15 lead with 7:36 left.

Buffalo made it 38-24 on a touchdown and a field goal, and the game got chippy in the final minutes. But Mahomes was able to run out the clock and set off the on-field celebration.

"We’ve got the Lamar Hunt [AFC Championship] Trophy back in Kansas City," Reid said. "Now we’ve got to go get the big one."

On to Tampa.

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”