During a weekend filled with thrilling Divisional Playoff finishes, the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs matchup stood out. It came down to overtime and a coin flip. Bills quarterback Josh Allen called tails. It ended up being his biggest mistake of the night because he was nearly flawless until that point, passing for 329 yards and four touchdowns.
Calling heads gave the football to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Allen never returned to the field. In six plays, the Chiefs marched 75 yards down the field, ending the game with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to tight end Travis Kelce.
The game has sparked much debate from the media and fans, who feel that the outcome came down to the coin flip. With both teams so explosive to that point, you knew whoever received the football first in overtime was going to walk away with the win.
Allen was disappointed but not resentful about the rules, knowing that he wouldn't be complaining had he called heads.
"The rules are what they are," Allen said. "I can't complain about that because if it was the other way around, we'd be celebrating too. It is what it is at this point. We just didn't make enough plays tonight."
Naturally, the topic of overtime came up during Kyle Shanahan's Monday conference call with reporters. The San Francisco 49ers head coach has no problem with the current rules.
"I think the way we've got it is fine," Shanahan said. "It doesn't bother me. I think you should be able to stop someone on a touchdown if you want it back. That's fine to me, and I know that it's real tough not to get it, but I never felt like it wasn't fair. Those are the rules."
Shanahan is fine with the rules. He also didn't mind the old rules—a sudden-death matchup between two teams locked in a tie.
"I used to think the old one was fine," Shanahan said. "That was the one I grew up with watching when we had 15 minutes, and the first one scored. I didn't think much was a problem with that.
"I think I do like the ones better now, but give us the rules, and you know the rules, and that's what you go in trying to win the game on. So usually, my mind doesn't change based off of what happens."