Despite another gutsy effort from Josh Allen and his bunch, who took the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs down to the wire in the playoffs yet again, they were forced to watch in the closing seconds as Patrick Mahomes and the rest of their biggest rivals ran off the final seconds on a 32-29 victory in the AFC championship game Sunday night.
For the fourth time in the last five seasons, the Chiefs had ended their postseason run.
“To be the champs,” Allen said after emerging from the locker room, “you have to beat the champs.”
The Chiefs will head to New Orleans and try to become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls, while the Bills headed back to Buffalo, where they will rue another missed chance at their first trip to the big game since January 1994.
“They played as a team,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “They gave everything they had.”
It just wasn't enough. Again.
Allen did about everything he could, moving the Bills downfield in the second half, trying to answer every Kansas City score with one of his own. He finished with 237 yards passing and two touchdowns without an interception, and his TD throw to Curtis Samuel with 3:59 left in the game knotted it 29-all and gave Buffalo a fighting chance.
But the Bills' defense, which was missing Taylor Rapp and Christian Benford on the back end due to injuries, was unable to make a play when it mattered, and Mahomes marched Kansas City within range of Harrison Butker's go-ahead field goal.
Even then, the Bills had an opportunity to win. They took over with 3:33 left, and Allen soon picked up a first down with a 13-yard scramble. But his next two passes were batted down at the line of scrimmage, and a short throw to Amari Cooper on third down could have been so much more if not for a shoestring tackle that brought up fourth down.
As the Chiefs often do under defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, they brought a heavy blitz, and Allen had to backpedal away from defenders. He threw up a wobbly prayer deep downfield, and it was nearly answered by tight end Dalton Kincaid, who just missed hauling in the heave and keeping the Bills' comeback hopes alive.
The Chiefs took over, ran out the clock and were ready to take their party to the Big Easy to face the Philadelphia Eagles.
“We had a chance with the ball in our hands, in Josh’s hands, to win it and we came up a little bit short right there,” McDermott said. “I thought we had a chance to catch the ball, but at the end of the day, I’m extremely proud this football team.”
In the Bills' last eight games against Kansas City, they have won every one in the regular season, including in Week 11 this season. But in all four matchups in the postseason, it's been the Chiefs left standing at the end.
The Bills squandered other chances Sunday, too.
When they scored late in the first half, they chose to go for the 2-point conversion and failed, leaving Kansas City with a 21-16 lead. And when the Bills scored on their opening possession of the second half and tried to get that miss back with another 2-point try, the incompletion left them clinging to a 22-21 lead.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Bills were driving with a chance to extend that advantage. But after picking up one fourth-and-1 with a sneak, they tried again at the Kansas City 41. Allen was bottled up by the Chiefs' Nick Bolton at the line of scrimmage, and the Chiefs took possession — and promptly drove 59 yards for a go-ahead touchdown.
It was that kind of game. Every little bit of real estate — every play — mattered in the end.
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