CBS makes colossal flag blunder at important Chiefs-Bills moment
For a few seconds Sunday night, Jim Nantz — and the CBS scorebug — gave the Bills some hope during the fourth quarter of their AFC championship clash against the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
Josh Allen’s final heave that went through the hands of a diving Dalton Kincaid had fallen incomplete.
The Bills’ chance to tie the game — and what ended up being their final offensive snap Sunday — had evaporated in an eventual 32-29 loss.
But in the aftermath of the play, Nantz, the play-by-play broadcaster, said that there’d been a flag thrown, and the network added its yellow graphic to the scorebug.
“I didn’t see a flag thrown there,” analyst Tony Romo said.
“I’m told there’s a flag,” Nantz replied, before later adding “no flag” after Romo started dissecting the blitz package Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo sent toward Allen on that fourth down.
Moments later, as Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense lined up to start the possession that ultimately ended the game, Nantz reiterated that there hadn’t been a flag picked up or even thrown in the first place.
“We had a report from the sideline that there had been a flag,” Nantz said, “but there was no flag. There was no penalty at all.”
So instead, the temporary flag graphic served as a cruel tease for viewers watching the game, providing a bit of false hope that a potential defensive penalty could extend the Bills’ drive — allowing them to creep closer toward field goal range while trailing by three points in the final two minutes.
Instead, Kincaid was left to rue his drop postgame, Allen was left to rue a fourth consecutive loss to Mahomes in the postseason and the Bills were left to navigate the latest playoff heartbreak handed to them by Kansas City.
Allen finished with 237 passing yards and two touchdowns while James Cook added a pair of rushing touchdowns, but the Chiefs’ defense stopped the Bills in key spots — including the fourth down on the final drive, a controversial fourth-and-1 sneak earlier in the fourth quarter and a pair of two-point conversions — to keep their bid for a three-peat alive.
Kansas City will face the Eagles, who defeated the Commanders in the NFC Championship game Sunday, in Super Bowl 2025 on Feb. 9.
