Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill celebrates tight end Travis KelceÕs game-winning touchdown in overtime of the AFC Divisional Playoff game between the Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Dec. 23, 2022. The Chiefs beat the Bills 42-36.
Jill Toyoshiba
The Kansas City Star
The Chiefs gave their fans an abundance of great memories in that 7-5-3 run* during quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ first seven seasons as a starter.
*Seven AFC Championship Game appearances, five Super Bowl appearances and three Super Bowl championships
The “Dee Ford Game” doesn’t rank high among Chiefs fans, but the fourth quarter of that AFC Championship Game in 2019 was bonkers. After trailing 17-7 through three quarters, the Chiefs scored 24 points in the final period.
The Chiefs lost 37-31 in overtime to the Patriots. But the Chiefs forced overtime after getting the ball on their own 31-yard line with 32 seconds to play. Mahomes drove the Chiefs to the Patriots’ 21 in just 16 seconds and Harrison Butker kicked a game-tying field goal.
New England won the overtime coin toss and scored a touchdown that decided the game. The dual overtime possession rule wasn’t yet in place, which was probabaly good for the Patriots.
Fast forward three years, and the NFL adopted that OT rule after the Bills lost to the Chiefs 42-36 in an AFC Divisional Game.
That’s the “13 seconds game” that haunts Bills fans to this day. And current and former Bills players are still asked about that game.
Former center Mitch Morse, who played his first four NFL seasons with the Chiefs before signing with Buffalo, was on the Caps Off podcast and talked about that loss.
The memory of the Chiefs’ AFC Championship Game loss to the Patriots was on Morse’s mind after Buffalo took the lead with 13 seconds left in regulation.
“What I remember is sitting there still having a pretty uneasy feeling because the clock had not hit zero,” said Morse, the former Mizzou star. “And three years before, I had been in the AFC Championship Game on the other sideline against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, those sons of bitches, and the Chiefs had to go down with 18 seconds left or something to kick a field goal to send it to overtime. I’m like, it’s not zero, fellas. And of course, the guys are really fired up on the sideline, because any other team with any other coach, quarterback duo, who doesn’t have Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, this is probably in the bag.”
Mahomes threw passes to Hill and Kelce and got the Chiefs in position for Harrison Butker to kick a game-tying field goal on the final play of regulation. The Chiefs won the toss and drove for a game-winning touchdown.
Morse recalled watching Kelce, who caught the TD pass in overtime.
“And they go down there and they do it, man,” Morse said. “I’m just seeing my friend across the way, Travis do his thing. I’m like, ’Oh no.’ You know, no one was screaming or anything, but you could just feel the life just kind of (sucked out). And then those boys go down and they score (a touchdown) first possession.”
As bad as that loss stung, Morse said it hurt more to come back home. That’s because he was still living in Kansas City during the offseason.
Morse said what made that defeat even harder to take was seeing the Chiefs lose to the Bengals a week later in the AFC Championship Game.
“The thing is, I lived in Kansas City, and so that’s where we called home base in the offseason,” Morse said. “Of course, we had to fly back do exit interviews, and I’m coming straight back to Kansas City, in my neighborhood with my neighbors, who are all huge Chiefs fans. But it still sucked the first week you came back, and it was still the Chiefs were still in it.
“The thing that makes it the worst, in my opinion, is that they ended up losing to the Cincinnati Bengals. I mean, objectively, you take a step back, it’s one of the greatest games. But man did it not suck the soul out of you.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 9:04 AM.
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