What the Kansas City Royals did in beating the Oakland Athletics in the MLB Wild Card game was simply amazing. The never-say-never Royals refused to lose -- on multiple occasions -- and came back to win in 12 innings.
The @Royals are first team ever to have a game-tying hit and a game-ending hit in extra-innings of a winner-take-all game.
— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) October 1, 2014
Read the complete recap at Royals Review. And please go read the comments in their game thread starting at about 11:53 p.m. (Kauffman Time).
Considering the stakes were so high, I'm not sure if we have a great comparison with this for the Chiefs, but I'll give it a shot. Here are my best comparisons for the insanity we saw last night at Kauffman Stadium.
Montana Magic
You know the story by now. Denver took the lead with 1:29 left in the game. But an injured Joe Montana drove the underdog Chiefs all the way down the field and Montana hit Willie Davis in the side of the end zone with 5 seconds left on Monday Night Football to beat the Broncos, 31-28 and snap an 11-game losing streak at Mile High.
Grbac to Rison on MNF
The Chiefs were down five on Monday Night Football in Oakland in 1997. They got the ball back with on their own 20-yard line with a minute left. Elvis Grbac drove the Chiefs down the field and hit a 33-yard TD pass to Andre Rison, who dragged his feet in the end zone to make it count. The Chiefs won the game 28-27. This is one of my favorite plays of all time.
The Phumble
Part of me almost feels bad for Phillip Rivers on this play ... Just kidding.
The Chiefs 2006 playoff berth
This is the best comparison in terms of going from completely hopeless to HOLY SHIT WE'RE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!! The Chiefs had an insane scenario of things that needed to happen for them to get into the playoffs. And it all came in Week 17.
The Chiefs playoff scenario was this: Win + Bengals loss or tie + Broncos loss + Titans loss or tie.
Those three teams the Chiefs needed to lose? They were all favored to win.
The Chiefs were only 2.5-point favorites at home but beat the Jaguars 35-30. The Titans were 3-point favorites against the Patriots but somehow lost as the Chiefs needed them to. The Bengals were 6-point favorites over the Steelers but won the game. That one went to overtime, too.
Then there was the Broncos, who were 10-point favorites to beat the 49ers. This was the afternoon game so all Chiefs fans were watching this game when kicker Joe Nedney kicked the game winner -- in overtime.
Just the sheer unbelievability of that day is the closest comparison to what happened at Kauffman on Tuesday night.