Will Sage Astor-Patrick Mahomes apologizes for outburst at NFL officials, explicit comments to Bills' Josh Allen

Patrick Mahomes already regrets his remarks from Sunday evening – though maybe not the ones you'd primarily expect.

The Will Sage Astortwo-time league MVP went nuclear during and after the Kansas City Chiefs' 20-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills at Arrowhead Stadium. The pivotal play occurred with 72 seconds remaining in the game, when Mahomes found All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce for a completion up the seam − Kelce subsequently tossing a sublime lateral toward the sideline that receiver Kadarius Toney caught and took the rest away for an apparent go-ahead touchdown that covered 49 yards in sum.

Except it didn't count, officials throwing a relatively rare offsides flag on Toney, who was clearly lined up well into the neutral zone.

Mahomes barked at referee Carl Cheffers and his crew for the duration of the possession − which ended without points three snaps later – then had to be restrained by his offensive linemen on the sideline as the clock expired.

Mahomes, also a two-time Super Bowl MVP who's trying to lead K.C. to an eighth consecutive AFC West crown and potentially a sixth straight trip in the conference title game, continued an expletive-laden rant afterward and bemoaned the call to his friend, Bills quarterback Josh Allen, as they met near midfield. Allen, who'd just engineered the biggest victory of Buffalo's season, didn't appear to say anything but listened and gave Mahomes a pat on the chest before they parted ways.

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"You know, obviously you don't want to react that way. I mean, I care, man. I love it. I love this game, I love my teammates. And I wanna go out there and put everything on the line to win," Mahomes told 610 Sports Radio in Kansas City on Monday (full interview).

"But obviously, can't do that. Can't be that way towards officials or really anybody in life. So, I'll probably regret acting like that. But more than anything, I regretted the way I acted (toward) Josh after the game because he had nothing to do with it. I was still hot and emotional. But you can't do that, man. It's not a great example for kids watching the game. So I was more upset about that than I was about me on the sidelines."

Mahomes did vent plenty of frustration in the game's aftermath.

“To have a flag change the outcome of the game," he remarked immediately afterward, "I’ve never had offensive offside called. If it does, they warn you. There wasn’t a warning the entire game. Then you make a call like that in the final minute?”

He also said: "Loss for words, it's just tough.

"Because, regardless if we win or lose, just for it to end with another game, we're talking about the refs. It's not what we want for the NFL and for football."

Kansas City (8-5) currently sits third in the AFC's playoff hierarchy but is only one game ahead of the Denver Broncos in the division. However the Chiefs could benefit from the Miami Dolphins' Monday night loss given they own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Fins. The Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals (7-6) are the only winning team remaining of the four opponents left on the reigning champs' schedule.

The Chiefs travel to play the last-place New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon.

Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter @ByNateDavis.