By Steven RuizJan. 27, 8:24 am UTC • 13 min

Every week this NFL season, we will break down the highs and lows—and everything in between—from the weekend that was in the NFL. This week, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs once again outdueled Josh Allen and the Bills, thanks to assists from Steve Spagnuolo and Xavier Worthy, while the Eagles offense finally took off as the Commanders melted down. Welcome to Winners and Losers: conference championship edition.

Winner: The Mahomes-Allen Postseason Rivalry

We can be honest about it. This year’s postseason has been underwhelming, and going into Sunday’s Bills-Chiefs nightcap, there had been only three games decided by one possession. The other eight playoff games were largely uncompetitive and easily forgotten. The football gods owed us one. They came through with another memorable installment in the Patrick Mahomes–Josh Allen rivalry, a 32-29 Chiefs win that will send Kansas City to its third Super Bowl in as many seasons. 

Some will push back against calling this a rivalry, and they may have a point. Allen is 0-4 against Mahomes in the playoffs and could be two weeks away from going down 0-4 in the ring count. In comparing legacies or resumes, Allen doesn’t come close to Mahomes. On a football field, though, there doesn’t appear to be much separating them despite the lopsided head-to-head record. After a slow start for both , we saw the best of both quarterbacks on Sunday. Mahomes played the most efficient game of his career by success rate (70.6 percent) and had his best playoff performance by EPA per dropback (0.60), according to TruMedia. Mahomes was as sharp as ever as a passer, but was even more ruthless as a runner. His six scrambles averaged 1.17 EPA per play, and he finished with a perfect 100-percent success rate, per TruMedia. Fittingly, the Chiefs regained the lead in the fourth quarter on a Mahomes scramble. 

It was a stunning turnaround from the regular-season matchup between these two teams, when Buffalo held Mahomes without a scramble for the entire game. It had clearly been a point of emphasis for the Bills defense then, and that didn’t change in the rematch. It just didn’t matter, and Mahomes proved once again that he’s a quick learner. 

Once Allen settled down after his wild start, he found a rhythm as a passer and showed the MVP form he’s exhibited all season, finishing 22-of-34 for 237 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also averaged 0.27 EPA per dropback and contributed to a Bills run game that averaged 4.6 yards per carry. Buffalo ultimately lost this game due to Allen’s inability to convert a quarterback sneak—according to replay review, at least. Otherwise, there was little separating the two teams. The Bills averaged more points per drive (3.22) than the Chiefs (3.20), and they each had nine real possessions in the game. (The Chiefs also took a knee on a one-play drive at the end of the first half. 

It feels unfair to hold Allen’s crappy record against Mahomes against him based on how these postseason games have played out. The Chiefs quarterback hasn’t really beaten Allen. He’s beaten Buffalo’s defense. The Bills offense has done its part in those matchups, scoring an average of 28.3 points—and have never scored fewer than 24 points—in the four losses. Allen has led the way, averaging 0.18 EPA per dropback with a 50-percent success rate, per TruMedia. He’s thrown nine touchdowns to just one interception, good for a passer rating of 100.2, and he’s added another two scores on the ground. Allen has shown up for each of these games and has done more than enough throughout his career to carry the Bills to a Super Bowl by this point. 

It just hasn’t happened yet. The breakthrough against Mahomes will eventually come. Allen is too talented—and this matchup is too close—for the breaks to keep going Kansas City’s way for the next decade-plus. And even if he doesn’t, we can count on one thing: the games will be entertaining.

Winner: Steve Spagnuolo

If you were surprised by the Chiefs sending a blitz at Allen on fourth-and-5 with the game on the line, you must not be familiar with Steve Spagnuolo’s game. This is what the veteran defensive coordinator does. If there’s a game to be won or lost on the defensive side, Spags is going to do it with pressure. Spagnuolo drew up a beauty to beat the Bills. Kansas City put six rushers on the line of scrimmage, with three to the center’s right and three to his left. Two of those rushers dropped into coverage yet occupied enough Buffalo blockers to allow safety Justin Reid and cornerback Trent McDuffie to come screaming into Allen’s pocket unblocked. 

The Chiefs nearly blew it after Allen somehow salvaged the play and gave tight end Dalton Kincaid a chance to play the hero. It would have been a bad beat for Spagnuolo, who called a good game despite the gaudy offensive numbers Buffalo put up in the box score. 

The Chiefs won in the situations that decided the game. They stuffed multiple quarterback sneaks by overplaying Allen’s tendency to go left, as Tony Romo noted during the broadcast. They held the Bills to a 36-percent success rate on third down, per TruMedia. And they kept Allen contained in the pocket, letting him escape on a scramble only once. Spagnuolo threw a mix of fronts and coverages at the Bills quarterback, which contributed to Allen’s sloppy start. If the Chiefs defensive backs had better hands, we might have been celebrating this as another masterful game plan from start to finish to add to Spagnuolo’s postseason history. 

Spagnuolo didn’t blitz Allen often on Sunday night, showing the MVP finalist his due respect after Allen averaged 0.30 EPA per dropback against blitzes during the regular season. He called only six blitzes all game, but four of them came in the fourth quarter. Even when employing a more conservative game plan against one of the league’s best blitz-beaters, Spagnuolo couldn’t stray too far from his identity. 

That final blitz was actually a tame call—by Spagnuolo’s standards. In last year’s Super Bowl, with the 49ers only 9 yards away from the game-winning score in overtime, the Chiefs defensive coordinator sent an all-out pressure at Brock Purdy on third-and-4, forcing an incomplete pass. San Francisco settled for a field goal, and Mahomes and the Chiefs won the game with a touchdown drive. 

Perhaps out of respect for Allen, Spagnuolo opted for a five-man rush with a six-man zone coverage behind it. It’s a safer call but still one that most defensive coordinators would avoid in a big spot against a top quarterback. Spagnuolo couldn’t resist.  “We’re gonna pressure,” Justin Reid said after last year’s Super Bowl. “From left, right, center, in whirlybird fashion. From all over the place, we’re gonna pressure.” 
That wasn’t always the case on Sunday night, but it was when it mattered the most.

Winner: Kellen Moore

First-year Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has been deservedly criticized in Philadelphia for uninspired play calling throughout the season, but the football-crazed city may be ready to build him a statue after he served up the first 50 burger on championship Sunday in more than 30 years in the Eagles’ 55-23 win over Washington, which will send the NFC East champs to their second Super Bowl in three years.  

Moore called this masterpiece of a game somewhat shorthanded. Philadelphia’s typically overpowering offensive line was weakened by injury on Sunday. Landon Dickerson, the regular starting left guard, started the game at center for Cam Jurgens, who was active for the game but out of the starting lineup because of a back injury. Tyler Steen took Dickerson’s typical guard spot. But Dickerson left the game at halftime with a knee injury, forcing Jurgens back into the lineup. So the Eagles played with their backup left guard and essentially two hobbled centers. Simple downhill runs behind the left side of the have been a cheap source of offense for the Eagles all season, so Moore had to find other levers to pull to keep Philly’s offense ahead of the chains. And he found plenty of them, including the toss play that Saquon Barkley took to the house on the first offensive snap of the game for Philadelphia. 

Moore dialed up jet sweeps for receiver DeVonta Smith and end-arounds for tight end Dallas Goedert. He used jumbo personnel groupings with an extra lineman and got into two-back formations. He called more runs to the right side, including on both of Barkley’s red zone touchdowns, to avoid potential mismatches for the left guard and center. And Moore set Jalen Hurts up for success with pass calls that freed up the quarterback’s primary read. It was a game plan that highlighted Philadelphia’s (many) matchup advantages and mitigated its (few) disadvantages against Washington’s overmatched defense. The Eagles set season-best marks in points scored, EPA average, and success rate. And they averaged 7.0 yards per play, their second-best mark of the season. 

This was the offense the Eagles thought they were getting when they hired Moore in the offseason. The former Cowboys and Chargers offensive coordinator was expected to add some schematic variety to what had been a simplistic approach in recent seasons, with more under-center formations, pre-snap motion, and creative personnel groupings. Thanks to the continued dominance by the offensive line (even after the retirement of Jason Kelce) and the spark Barkley’s arrival provided, Moore largely ended up running the same old stuff his predecessors did. On Sunday, with that dominant offensive line shorthanded, with two players playing out of position, the Eagles couldn’t rely on their typical plan. Fortunately, Moore had another one good enough to get Philadelphia back to the Super Bowl. 

Losers: Palpably Unfair Acts

The Eagles’ offensive line wasn’t at full strength, but that didn’t stop Philadelphia from spamming the tush push against Washington. Philadelphia used the short-yardage cheat code seven times in the game. (One was negated by a penalty.) And the Commanders defense actually did a decent job defending it, stuffing it twice. Dan Quinn’s team took a more aggressive approach to timing up the snap when the Eagles got into tush-pushing formation, which led to a bizarre sequence of three straight encroachment penalties on Washington in the third quarter. Linebacker Frankie Luvu literally jumped over the line and into Jalen Hurts before the snap twice, and then defensive tackle Jonathan Allen jumped early. In announcing Allen’s penalty, head referee Shawn Hochuli warned the defense that he’d award Philadelphia with a touchdown if it didn’t cut the shit. 

Hochuli shut it down, but this was a sharp bit of strategy from Quinn, who realized that an encroachment penalty would cost his team, at most, only half a yard near the goal line (and no automatic first downs), so jumping the snap carried less risk. Unfortunately for Quinn, other teams have tried to exploit that loophole before, leading the league to give referees the authority to apply the seldom-used “palpably unfair act” rule on strategic penalties. In a 2016 game, 49ers defensive backs repeatedly held Saints receivers in the red zone with under 10 seconds on the clock. New Orleans was awarded 5 yards, but with only a few ticks remaining, it had to settle for a field goal instead of getting another shot at the end zone. 

The league acted quickly after the 49ers’ shenanigans, sending a notice to officials a couple of weeks later, which eventually empowered Hochuli to make his threat to Washington on Sunday. 

Still, the tush push defense was way down the list of reasons Washington lost this game. Philadelphia’s massive talent advantage was probably at the top of that list, but it didn’t help that the underdog Commanders lost the turnover battle. Since 2000, 29 teams have had a turnover margin of at least minus-four in the playoffs. All but one of them lost—including Washington on Sunday. Receiver Dyami Brown lost a fumble after the catch on Washington’s second possession. Jeremy McNichols fumbled a kickoff return before the half. Running back Austin Ekeler fumbled at midfield to end a promising drive. And quarterback Jayden Daniels was picked by Quinyon Mitchell in garbage time. After dominating the turnover battle in their first two playoff games, the inexperienced Commanders were smacked by the cold hand of statistical regression in Philadelphia. 

It took until the third game of an impressive postseason run, but Washington finally looked like a team that wasn’t ready for the big stage. Until Sunday, the Commanders had done a near-perfect job of playing smart football and allowing their opponents to make game-changing mistakes. They needed a similar script on the road against the favored Eagles. Instead, they flipped it on themselves. And it wasn’t just the turnovers or the palpably unfair acts. The team committed nine penalties, Daniels took some big sacks, and there were simple execution mistakes on the defensive side that led to big gains on the ground and through the air. 

Still, the future remains bright thanks to Daniels. Despite the loss, the rookie acquitted himself well in the game. He wasn’t unnerved by a relentless Jalen Carter–led rush, he made smart decisions with the football outside of the garbage-time pick, and he made a number of strong throws to the middle of the field against Philly’s tight man coverage. It wasn’t a performance that will make the highlight reel of Daniels’s historic rookie campaign, but it wasn’t a playoff loss that took any of the shine off it, either. 

Winner: Xavier Worthy

Xavier Worthy unexpectedly became a main character in the Bills-Chiefs blockbuster. After an impressive debut against the Ravens in Week 1, the rookie receiver hasn’t consistently contributed to the Chiefs passing game. His most memorable moments during the regular season haven’t been highlight-worthy plays, as Kansas City hoped when it traded up to draft the speedster in the first round; they’ve been comical failures as he’s tried to complete catches on the sideline. But that changed Sunday, with Worthy checking in with the first big playoff game of his pro career, catching six passes for 85 yards and a touchdown against the Bills. 

Worthy was mostly on the receiving end of quick passes from Mahomes that allowed him to show off his record-breaking speed, but his most notable play of the day came on a downfield target that would have instantly gone down as one of the best throws of Mahomes’s postseason career if not for the controversial ruling at the catch point. After the review process, officials determined that this was a catch by Worthy: 

The ball appeared to hit the ground as Worthy and Bills safety Cole Bishop wrestled for possession, but it was difficult to determine if it moved after the two secured simultaneous possession. I know we’re all ready for another round of “Do the refs favor the Chiefs?” debates, but this wasn’t an egregiously bad decision from the officials. Simultaneous possession always goes to the offense, and there wasn’t indisputable video evidence showing that possession was lost by Kansas City. It’s also worth pointing out that Buffalo was flagged for defensive holding on the third-down play, so Kansas City would have been awarded a first down anyway. If this were any other team, we would have already forgotten about it. Instead, we’ll be screaming at each other about it for the next few days. I’m not looking forward to it. 

Of course, Worthy’s big day added another layer of pain to the loss for Buffalo. The Bills traded the pick that Kansas City used to draft the former Texas Longhorn last April. Buffalo ended up with Keon Coleman after the trade down, and Coleman has been the more efficient receiver this season. But even if the move works out for the Bills in the long run, allowing the Chiefs to get Worthy may have cost them a trip to the Super Bowl this year.  

Winner: A.J. Brown

Forget about Allen, Barkley, or Daniels—author Jim Murphy has been the biggest winner of the NFL playoffs thanks to A.J. Brown, who was seen reading Murphy’s book, Inner Excellence, during the wild-card round win over the Packers. Before Sunday, that may have been the most notable moment of Brown’s postseason run, but the star receiver finally played like one in the win over Washington, catching six passes for 96 yards and a touchdown in a performance that will ensure Murphy gets at least two more weeks of free advertising, which should likely include at least one mention on the broadcast of the country’s most-watched sporting event. At this point, Brown should ask for a cut of the all new sales, which saw a massive bump in the past two weeks. 

Brown didn’t put up monster numbers against the Commanders, but he acted as a deterrent against Washington loading up the box to contain Barkley. Doing so left Brown one-on-one on the outside, a matchup he easily won. Brown’s biggest play came on a fourth-and-5 with the Eagles near midfield. Thinking this was no time for a deep shot, the Commanders crowded the line of scrimmage and left cornerback Marshon Lattimore on an island with Philly’s WR1. Brown dusted Lattimore with his release off the line, maintained the advantage throughout the route, then shielded the defender from making a play on the ball at the catch point. First down, Birds. 

On the Eagles’ next possession, Brown finished the drive by smoking rookie cornerback Mike Sainristil off the line and hauling in a short touchdown pass from Hurts. In between those big plays, Brown also managed to frustrate Lattimore enough to draw an unnecessary roughness penalty for some extracurricular jostling after the whistle. Brown somehow avoided a penalty despite pushing Lattimore’s helmet off during the skirmish—perhaps with tactics he learned from Inner Excellence. 

It’s been a mostly frustrating season for Brown. His production has taken a massive hit due to the run-first nature of the Eagles offense. He missed games due to injury. A teammate put him and Hurts in an awkward situation. But he’s also been a rock for this passing game all season, even through his least productive outings. 

Brown has been painted as a moody receiver who will speak up when he’s not getting enough touches, and maybe that was a fair assessment in the past. But we’ve seen a more mature Brown throughout this postseason run, even though he had one- and two-catch games in the first two rounds, respectively. Maybe we should all be reading that damn book.

Steven Ruiz

Steven Ruiz has been an NFL analyst and QB ranker at The Ringer since 2021. He’s a D.C. native who roots for all the local teams except for the Commanders. As a child, he knew enough ball to not pick the team owned by Dan Snyder—but not enough to avoid choosing the Panthers.