For years, a tier of quarterback rivalry that left Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen now reserved for Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
Those Patriots vs. Colts and Patriots vs. Broncos.
Starting off with their head-on for a six-game winning streak by Brady, a comeback in January 2007 changed everything and all of the unpredictable duels that followed.
Allen and Mahomes slowly crept toward that point over three postseason meetings and five regular season clashes.
Superstar quarterbacks in the NFL are not unique, but each matchup had a certain weight, a certain aura, a certain expectation for unexpected disruption that others did not match.
The pair collided in the AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead Stadium, with Kansas City needing a win to keep its three-peat bid alive and returning to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1993 season. Search for the first title.
But really, this is just Part IV of Allen Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. This is part of Allen Mahomes since 2020. This is the latest chapter in what has become Brady Manning 2.0.
In Allen's eyes, the buildup to the showdown with the Chiefs turned instances like Sunday into a glorified “division game.”
Allen and Mahomes, in their fourth playoff meeting, sit just one spot away from matching the record held by Brady and Manning.
At 29 and 28 years old, respectively, they would only need eight more matchups over the rest of their careers to achieve the frequency of the Brady-Manning rivalry.
“I feel like we played them as much as we played guys in our division, and along with that,” Allen told reporters, “all over the place throughout the game. There are new wrinkles. But they know who we are. We know who they are.”
Even though Allen (2,063 yards, 17 touchdowns, 4 interceptions) and Mahomes (2,220 yards, 18 touchdowns, 7 interceptions) have nearly identical stats to each other, there are differences between the rivals. There are some differences.
It took six tries before he finally beat Brady and the Patriots in any environment.
It took until the AFC Championship Game (five years after the first game) during the 2006 season for Manning to earn his first postseason victory against New England.
Allen never beat Mahomes in the playoffs, but went 4-1 during the regular season. That includes a win in Week 11 of the season punctuated by an acrobatic 26-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
But Mahomes won on the biggest stage, as he orchestrated a spectacular outing with 325 yards and three touchdowns in 2021 as they defeated the Bills 38-24 in the conference title game. I was giving away a lot of broken hearts.
A year later in the divisional round, Allen and Mahomes produced one of the greatest games in playoff history.
They combined for 707 passing yards, seven touchdowns, and zero interceptions.
24 points were scored after the two-minute warning, the last three following a three-play, 44-yard drive that forced overtime and led to the “13 seconds” label.
And when Mahomes connected with Travis Kelce for the game-winning touchdown in the extra frame and the bill was lost without even touching the ball, it led directly to the league revisiting the overtime rule.
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After that, a season passed without Allen and Mahomes overlapping in the playoffs.
The Bills defeated the Chiefs during the 2022 regular season, but lost against the Bengals before a rematch in the AFC Championship Game.
Instead, the latest postseason chapter of the rivalry had to wait until January 2024, but Allen only threw for 186 yards.
“You have to know you have to play your best football,” Mahomes told reporters this week. “I mean, I played against Josh enough times to know that he was going to come in there and play great football, especially in the big moments. … And when you go up against a great quarterback, that's your best as well. I will do my best.”
Mahomes has inherited Brady's role in chasing Super Bowl history.
Allen is still waiting for his version of Manning's comeback game to break through in the playoffs.
The first playoff matchup saw a budding rivalry. Work in progress.
Then, after the Chiefs' 13-second comeback, there was no question. There are definitely plenty of future matchups at these stages as well.
Sunday only marks the latest, nine years after Manning ran away against Brady in what turned out to be their final meeting.