KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Buffalo Bills fans re-lived a 9-month-old nightmare while Kansas City Chiefs celebrated the return of Harrison Butker with a franchise-record field at the halftime gun for the second straight week Sunday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Halftime arrived in the much-hyped rematch between the Bill and Chiefs, who battled into overtime in an epic AFC Divisional game in January 2022, with the score tied 10-10.
But it got there in a highly unusual way, which echoed the closing seconds of regulation in the playoff game from earlier in the year.
Just as it had in the postseason meeting, the Bills took a three-point lead on a Josh Allen touchdown pass to Gabe Davis.
Buffalo opted to squib the kickoff rather than bang it deep, but the result was the same — Patrick Mahomes had an impossibly short amount of time to get the game-tying points, yet somehow did enough.
Kansas City’s offense took the field with 12 seconds — rather than the comparatively generous 13 seconds it had in the AFC Divisional tilt.
The drive started with a 19-yard pass to Jerick McKinnon, who played the first-down role that went to Tyreek Hill in the original sequence.
The second play again went to Travis Kelce, whose 9-yard reception moved the ball to the Buffalo 44-yard line.
Six days after Matthew Wright connected on a franchise-record 59-yard field goal as the first half expired against Las Vegas on Monday Night Football, Harrison Butker trotted onto the field and cooly drilled a 62-yard field goal bomb.
“He’s an amazing kicker," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "It was good to have him back out there. We appreciate what those other guys did for us, but Harrison’s one of the best in the National Football League.”
The boot by Butker — who returned from a four-week absence and went Steph Curry mode, turning his back as the ball went through — broke Wright’s record by three yards.
Before Wright’s heroics against the Raiders, Butker co-owned the Chiefs’ record at 58 yards.
