What a year this was in New England sports! As we move into 2020, join NESN.com in looking back at the top five moments of 2019.
The New England Patriots have had their fair share of thrillers over their multidecade run of dominance, but the 2018 AFC Championship Game on Jan. 20, 2019, is up there with the best.
After knocking off the Los Angeles Chargers with ease in the divisional round, the Patriots traveled to Arrowhead Stadium for a cold-weather battle with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. And after a relatively quiet first half, this game turned into one of the better postseason shootouts in recent memory.
New England led 14-0 at halftime, doing its best to quiet the raucous Arrowhead crowd. But the second half was quite the opposite. The Chiefs posted 24 fourth-quarter points, forcing Tom Brady and the Patriots to step up when it mattered most.
Two consecutive Damien Williams touchdowns gave Kansas City a 21-17 lead with seven minutes left in regulation. Sony Michel answered roughly four minutes later to give the Patriots the upper hand, but Williams grabbed his third score of the quarter just 90 seconds after that.
New England would respond, as it did all half, with a Rex Burkhead touchdown with 39 seconds remaining. Then, Mahomes and Co. used their high-flying offense to quickly get into field goal range, knotting the game at 31-31 with eight seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Ultimately, it was Burkhead, Brady and the Patriots who emerged victorious in overtime, drawing the ire of Patriots haters who took issue with the overtime format that denied Mahomes a chance to touch the ball in the extra session. That all was just background noise to the Patriots, however, who punched their ticket to a third straight Super Bowl. The impressive road victory stamped yet another accolade on Brady’s résumé, furthering his case as the league’s best quarterback of all time.
For all of these reasons and more, the 2018 AFC Championship Game lands at No. 2 on our list of the top five Boston sports moments of 2019.
Relive the game below with highlights courtesy of the NFL.
