Needing a miracle to save their season, the Buffalo Bills almost pulled it off, as quarterback Josh Allen lofted a desperation heave on fourth-and-5 with just under two minutes left in the game.
Waiting on the other end of the pass was second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid, who had the ball go into and out of his hands as he fell to the turf. It could have been a catch for the ages, but instead Kincaid’s drop became the lasting image of yet another painful Bills playoff loss – and the fourth one in the past five seasons to the hated Kansas City Chiefs.
‘Josh got the ball off. He was pressured, and it was hanging up there and I just wasn’t able to catch it,’ a tearful Kincaid told Syracuse.com.
‘Right now it obviously hurts a lot, and it’s going to linger for a while, but eventually you’ve got to move on. And hopefully you grow from this, and I believe that will be the case, but for the time being, it’s going to hurt a lot.’
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Kincaid admitted he should have made the catch. However, he did have to adjust his pass route and come back for the ball in between several Chiefs defenders.
‘He gave it everything he had,’ Bills coach Sean McDermott said. ‘I love Dalton Kincaid. Sometimes those work out. He makes more of those than he doesn’t, and he’ll make the next one.’
Even after Kansas City took over on downs, the Bills still had a chance to get the ball back. But Patrick Mahomes completed a pair of passes for critical first downs and the Chiefs were able to run out the clock to advance to Super Bowl 59 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
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