Kyle Van Noy lay in the end zone after failing to tackle Miami’s Kenyan Drake as time expired. Michael Reaves/Getty Images
It was just past 4 p.m. Eastern on a chaotic N.F.L. Sunday and the entire A.F.C. playoff landscape looked as if it was about to be startlingly upended. Worse, for those who wouldn’t mind a little unpredictability, the future suddenly looked all too familiar.
The Kansas City Chiefs, the kings of the conference for months in this changing-of-the guard season, were losing at home.
More to the point, the New England Patriots, whose A.F.C. dominance seems to date to the leather helmet era, had a reasonably comfy lead in their game in Miami.