Stop me if you've heard this one before.
Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes played an instant classic playoff game that came down to the wire and the Bills were knocked out of the playoffs by the Chiefs — yet again.
This was finally Buffalo's big chance to beat Mahomes.
Kansas City was lackluster all season. The offense ranks a measly eighth in DVOA, worst in the Mahomes era, technically the worst unit on the team. The Chiefs have one reliable wide receiver, a rookie. They scored only 21.8 PPG this season and won just 11 games in the regular season, fewest ever with Mahomes.
Buffalo's defense had rebounded from a midseason swoon. The Bills had won six straight since the bye to steal the AFC East and the 2-seed, earning the all important home-field advantage against Mahomes for the first time ever in the postseason.
It was all lining up. This finally — surely — would be the time for Buffalo.
The game was a classic from the first play, and the Bills started catching breaks immediately.
Stefon Diggs fumbled the opening play, but rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid made a savvy play, swatting the bouncing ball out of bounds. It was a penalty, but saved the Bills from disaster. Buffalo marched 60 yards in 14 plays, chewing up seven minutes before a field goal.
The Chiefs responded quickly, with a 25-yard pass to rookie Rashee Rice before the drive stalled, with Harrison Butker kicking a tough 47-yarder into the wintery Buffalo wind to tie it 3-3. It was immediately clear that anything under a field goal would be a win for either defense.
And that's how this heavyweight fight went all game.
The Bills chewed up the clock, running all night, playing big boy football, methodically grinding Kansas City down. The Chiefs responded every time, moving the ball quickly with explosive plays.
Long, steady 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive for the Bills, then 65 yards for the Chiefs with a 29-yard pass to Travis Kelce, 14-10 Buffalo. Chiefs then went 75 yards in five plays for another Kelce TD, then another 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to end the half for the Bills, 17-14.
At halftime, through three quarters really, this was Godzilla vs. Kong.
Just absolute magic from Allen and Mahomes at every turn.
Allen drops to pass, tucks to run, then flips to Latavius Murray for 18 yards as three Chiefs converge on him. Two plays later, a physical 18-yard run from Allen into the red zone, then his second rushing touchdown of the half.
Mahomes 30-yard bomb to open the second half, then scrambles and fakes a last-second flip on a run a la Allen, keeps instead for 24 to set up a touchdown.
Long, big-boy Bills drive — 15 plays, 75 yards, eight-plus minutes off the clock — of power football all the way, then 3rd-and-goal magic as Allen escapes, extends the play and throws an absolute dime to Khalil Shakir for the touchdown.
Mahomes steps up in the pocket under pressure and launches a 32-yard missile on the run off one foot to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. A few plays later, another touchdown as we hit the fourth quarter.
27-24, Chiefs. Whew.
At that point, we'd seen five straight drives end in touchdowns (not counting a halftime kneel), all five of them resulting in a lead change. The Chiefs were averaging 0.77 points per play. The Bills had run almost twice as many plays and held the ball for nearly twice as long.
The game was straight crack cocaine, on steroids.
You know when you watch a boxing movie and you see the fighters exchanging blows, back and forth, back and forth? Anyone who's ever watched a boxing match knows that's not how real fights go — those guys would be dead by the end of the third round.
For three quarters, that was this actual game. Back and forth, back and forth. Body blow, body blow, body blow from the Bills. Wicked upper cut response from the Chiefs.
Back and forth, back and forth. A classic in the making.
And then the game got absolutely drunk.
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The Chiefs finally got a stop and the Bills lined up to punt before inexplicably running a fake punt from their own 30, giving the ball to none other than Damar Hamlin — seriously, this had to be a movie script — who could barely even comeback to the line of scrimmage.
One Isiah Pacheco beastmode run later, the Chiefs had rumbled 29 yards to the three and looked ready to rip the game open.
And then the Bills caught an unbelievable break, another one, again.
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy called his 2,937th unsuccessful wide receiver end around of the season as Mecole Hardman raced toward the pylon, stretched the ball out, and — oh, no! — fumbled out the side of the end zone.
The dreaded end-zone fumble touchback rule.
The last Allen-Mahomes battle ended overtime rules as we know them. This meeting might end the fumble touchback rule, too.
It was an absolute lock for the Bills at this point. The script was already written.
Kansas City's season had begun with a wide receiver gaffe costing the Chiefs the win when Kadarius Toney's nightmare game gifted the Lions a one-point win in the league's opening game. Then Toney doubled down by lining up offside to negate the go-ahead touchdown late in the regular-season loss to the Bills.
It was only appropriate that a gadget receiver screw-up would cost the Chiefs yet again, this time to end the season. The perfect bookends on a frustrating Kansas City season. It was over.
Only the Bills went three-and-out again after an incredible Allen bomb was dropped by Trent Sherfield.
How many chances do you NEED, Buffalo?!
Then, it was the Bills' defense's turn to step up. Buffalo stopped Kansas City in three plays before a dubious pass interference gave Mahomes a second chance, then stopped them in three plays again.
These defenses couldn't stop a nosebleed for two hours, then made four stops in four minutes.
And so the stage was set.
Ball on the 20, eight minutes left, Bills ball down three, Superman at quarterback. Run the ball, chew up the clock, score with as little time left as possible, finally beat the boogeyman, at last.
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The drive began like every other successful Bills drive: a slow, methodical rumble. Couple yards here, a few yards there, slowly moving the chains and eating up the clock.
Then the Bills caught another break.
Allen tucked and ran on third down near midfield and fumbled the ball. As the ball bounced in open green, it looked for all the world like the Chiefs would pick up the ball and run for a score to end it.
Instead, Kincaid had the hand of God again, poking the ball out as lineman Spencer Brown raced to miraculously cover. The Bills converted the fourth down on an Allen pass to Shakir and continued marching, reaching the Chiefs' 26-yard line as the clock hit the two-minute warning.
And that's when Buffalo finally gave the game away for good.
All the Bills had done all night was run the football, throw short passes and control the clock. Do it again for another first down, run the clock to the final seconds and worst-case scenario is a chip-shot field goal and another crack in overtime.
Instead, Allen dropped back in empty shotgun, looked off an open crosser underneath and sailed a throw past a receiver in the end zone, stopping the clock and leaving the Bills with 3rd-and-9. The next play, Allen rolled right under pressure, scrambled to create time, but couldn't find anyone open and threw it away as Tyler Bass trotted on to tie the game up.
History will show the Bills went wide right again, but let's be honest — the game was already over.
Even a made field goal at that point is 27-27 with 1:43 left, two timeouts for Mahomes and a kicker who actually makes them when it matters.
The Chiefs only needed 13 seconds for the field goal the last time these teams played in the postseason. They really weren't going to score with 1:43 left now?
No, the game was already over before Pacheco ran twice for a first down and Kansas City knelt it out.
Outside of four kneels, the Chiefs compiled 367 yards on just 43 plays, a whopping 8.5 yards and almost two-thirds of a point per play.
The Chiefs had EIGHT plays of at least 20 yards. The Bills had zero, and when the grind-it-out power rushing attack disappeared in the fourth quarter, so did Buffalo's scoring.
The Bills finished with 31 more plays and 14 minutes on the ball. Didn't matter.
Kansas City converted one third down the entire game — and won. The Chiefs offense moved through Sean McDermott's defense so easily it never even needed Mahomes magic on late downs. Kansas City put up 0.31 EPA per play on 41 early downs, a 96th-percentile output.
After last season's failure, McDermott made his defensive coordinator the scapegoat and fired him, taking over the defense himself. That defense just got obliterated by an offense that had scored 27 points only four times all season.
Earlier this season with the Bills failing again, McDermott made his offensive coordinator the scapegoat and fired him, too. That offense had zero passing game to speak of Sunday night or down the stretch and went hyper-aggressive at the worst time possible, failing to rein in Allen's Superman tendencies yet again.
McDermott has no one left to blame, and at this point, he's gotta go.
Josh Allen can't exactly go, but he was outplayed by Mahomes yet again.
Allen was outstanding as a runner and never made the backbreaking turnover but was pretty pedestrian as a passer outside of a couple plays.
Superman was superhuman at times but didn't do enough on a team that was reduced to "Josh, please save us" mode yet again when it mattered most.
Diggs was invisible after fumbling on the opening play. James Cook was ineffective as a runner. Gabriel Davis was out hurt. Shakir made a couple plays, but Allen probably gets credit for those. Kincaid punched a couple fumbles. The defense and special teams sure didn't make any plays.
Compare that to the Chiefs, the team that looked like a one-man show all year.
Kelce caught two long balls and scored twice, once as Taylor Swift cheered wildly while a bare-chested Jason Kelce roared at her side in the boxes. Rice caught a long one and was effective as usual. Valdes-Scantling got two long balls and actually caught them. Pacheco ran like a bat out of hell all night. Even Clyde Edwards-Helaire had a big run.
Butker made his kicks. Chris Jones got after Allen all night. The defense made big plays and stops. Basically everyone but Hardman showed up — with Mahomes the maestro leading all the way.
The Chiefs won as a team, making their sixth AFC Championship Game in as many seasons with Mahomes.
The Bills lost as Superman came up short, just like he always does.
This was the one Buffalo was finally going to get, until it didn't, yet again.
The Bills got the home game. They got the calls. They got all the fumble luck. They got the end-zone touchback. They had the crowd. They had their chances. They had every opportunity.
And Allen and McDermott blew it, again, like they always do.
If not this time, when?
Increasingly for this version of the Buffalo Bills, the answer appears to be never.
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