Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are heading to the AFC Championship game for a sixth straight season after breaking the Buffalo Bills' hearts with a 27-24 win on the road.

The Chiefs are now a win away from making the Super Bowl for the fourth time in six years, after a game that saw touchdowns aplenty, a few familiar faces in the crowd, key fumbles and history repeating in a way the Bills hated.

In the other game of the day, the Detroit Lions advanced to the NFC Championship game with a win at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Whenever the Chiefs meet the Bills, you can be sure there is going to be drama. The AFC Divisional playoff brought all the expected angst for fans and more.

The teams met in freezing conditions in Buffalo but at least without the white-out snow that forced the postponement of the Bills' previous playoff game against Pittsburgh.

For the first time in Mahomes's glittering career, he was playing a (non-Super Bowl) playoff game outside of Kansas City, and the Buffalo crowd was keen to let him know about it.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen ran for two touchdowns and passed for one more as the home side engaged in a shootout with its rival.

Mahomes finished 17 of 23 for 215 yards and his two TD passes to Travis Kelce were the 15th and 16th times they combined for scores in the playoffs, one more than Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski for the NFL record for the most quarterback-receiver combinations.

Kelce celebrated his first touchdown catch — a 22-yarder — by making a heart gesture with his hands and directed it at girlfriend and pop music superstar Taylor Swift, who was sitting in a suite at the opposite end of the field.

Also there was Kelce's brother Jason, who has just retired after a career with the Philadelphia Eagles. He celebrated the touchdown shirtless while holding a can of beer.

The Chiefs took the lead 35 seconds in to the final quarter, when running back Isiah Pacheco scored on a four-yard run.

They then had a chance to blow the game open minutes later when they forced Buffalo to punt. However, the Bills changed the call and ran a fake punt to try and get a first down, only for Kansas City to stop them short.

They got the ball back on Buffalo's 32-yard line, and then Pacheco barrelled down the sideline to get the ball three yards away from the end zone before being stopped.

The Chiefs tried a trick play with a reverse to Mecole Hardman but after being stopped short of the line, he was ruled on review to have fumbled the ball into the end zone for a touchback and Buffalo had another chance.

The two sides swapped possessions without further score before Buffalo had what proved its last big attack. Allen drove the Bills downfield, taking nearly seven minutes off the clock — with a near-disaster after a fumble from Allen that was recovered by Buffalo to keep things going.

With two minutes left, the Bills were 26 yards away from a touchdown but Allen could not find a passing target, leaving kicker Tyler Bass to try a 44-yard field goal to tie the game and potentially send things to overtime.

However his kick from the right hashmark swung hard to the right, missing and devastating the home crowd.

"Wide right, the two most dreaded words in Buffalo have surfaced again," the CBS commentator said, referencing one of the Bills' worst moments in franchise history when Scott Norwood missed a last-second field goal — to the right — to win Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants. The Bills lost 20-19 in what proved to be an unprecedented four straight Super Bowl losses.

This time round, the Chiefs had 1 minute, 43 seconds to run off the clock, and Mahomes and co did just that to end Buffalo's hopes. The Chiefs will now travel to Baltimore to face the Ravens for a place in Super Bowl LVIII.

Joy in Detroit as Lions down the Buccaneers

Being a Detroit Lions fan is a tough gig. The city is known as Motor City, as the home of Motown, and sports-wise for basketball's three-time NBA-winning Pistons and the 11-time Stanley Cup-winning Red Wings in ice hockey.

The Lions, however, are one of only four NFL teams never to make it to a Super Bowl, and the last time they won a title it was the NFL Championship back in 1957 (a decade before the Super Bowl era began).

Coming into the play-offs, they had only made it to the NFC Championship game once, back in 1991. That was before today, however, where a wild crowd at Ford Field witnessed a breakthrough 31-23 victory over Tampa Bay, to get the perennial also-rans one win away from the Super Bowl.

Jared Goff threw two touchdown passes to help the Detroit Lions beat the Buccaneers in their divisional-round play-off game to lift the franchise into the NFC championship against the San Francisco 49ers.

Jahmyr Gibbs ran through a huge hole for a tie-breaking, 31-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter, and Goff made it a two-touchdown lead when he connected with Amon-Ra St. Brown for a 9-yard score with 6 minutes and 22 seconds left.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield threw three touchdown passes for Tampa Bay (10-9), including a 16-yard toss to Mike Evans that got the Bucs within one score with 4:37 left.

Detroit couldn't run out the clock on offence, giving Tampa Bay one last chance, but Mayfield's pass over the middle was intercepted by linebacker Derrick Barnes, the QB's second pick of the day.

The Lions kneeled to run out the clock as their fans stood, screamed and twirled white towels.

Goff finished 30 of 43 for 287 yards and directed an efficient second-half offence for the Lions, who had long touchdown drives on three consecutive possessions. St. Brown had eight catches for 77 yards, and his touchdown catch capped a masterful 10-play, 89-yard drive.

Gibbs, an electric rookie Tampa Bay didn't have to face when it lost to Detroit in the regular season, had 74 yards rushing on nine carries and four receptions for 40 yards.

Mayfield was 26 of 41 for 349 yards. His early pick went off Mike Evans's hands, and his late one was an ill-advised throw. Evans had eight receptions for 147 yards and a touchdown.

Rachaad White had 55 yards rushing on nine carries, a total coach Todd Bowles may lament wasn't higher, and four catches for 36 yards.

The Lions, and their desperate-for-a-winner fans, hope their second appearance in the NFC title game works out better than the first when Washington routed them 41-10 on January 12, 1992.

Detroit and Tampa Bay traded field goals and touchdowns to enter the fourth quarter in a 17-all tie.

The Lions went ahead for a third time with 3:48 left in the third quarter, when coach Dan Campbell went for it on fourth-and-goal from the 1 and Craig Reynolds ran up the middle for a score that ended a 10-play, 64-yard drive.

Mayfield and the Bucs bounced back again with the crafty quarterback, who resurrected his career this season, avoiding sacks before connecting with White on a 12-yard pass to make it 17-all late in the third.

Gibbs started left and cut back to the right on his tie-breaking touchdown run.

The Lions were fortunate to score first.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson picked off Mayfield's pass that went through Evans's hands to end Tampa Bay's first drive. Goff almost gave it back, under throwing a pass into the end zone that defensive back Jamel Dean dropped, and two snaps later, Michael Badgley made a 23-yard field goal.

Mayfield answered, converting a third down with an 18-yard pass to Evans and throwing a 23-yard pass to Trey Palmer on consecutive plays to set up Chase McLaughlin's 43-yard kick.

Goff converted a third down with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Josh Reynolds early in the second quarter.

Mayfield used his feet and arm to pull the Bucs into a tie just before half-time. He ran for 14 yards — the longest run by a Tampa Bay quarterback in a play-off game — on a third down and then connected with Evans for 27 and 29-yard passes to set up a 2-yard TD pass to Cade Cotton.

ABC/AP