The Kansas City Chiefs had gone seven straight games without scoring 30 points, since Week 12 on Nov. 24.
On Sunday, with a trip to New Orleans on the line, they scored a season-high, hanging 32 on the Bills in the latest instance of Buffalo playoff heartbreak. And that’s why, although Josh Allen fell to 0-4 in his playoff meetings with Patrick Mahomes over the last five seasons, only a fool would blame this 32-29 loss on the quarterback.
“Um … it’s not fun, but to be the champs you’ve got to beat the champs, and we didn’t do it tonight,” Allen said in a glum postgame press conference.
Once again, the Buffalo defense had very few answers for Mahomes and Kansas City. It was KC’s defense, instead, that made what might’ve been the game-deciding play on fourth-and-five just after the two-minute warning at midfield. KC defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo took a big risk, sending a blitz at Allen and forcing him into a desperate deep shot, unable to see Khalil Shakir open on the opposite side.
That Allen almost completed the pass — Dalton Kincaid dropped a diving attempt at the ball — just makes the loss all the more heartbreaking. For fans. For Allen. For coach Sean McDermoot. For the entire team.
It was a very tough play to be sure, but Kincaid could’ve made the catch. He’d tell you he should have.
“He gave it everything he had and I love Dalton Kincaid,” McDermott told reporters Sunday. “Sometimes those work out. He makes more of those than he doesn’t and he’ll make the next one.”
But the game wasn’t over just yet after that failed fourth down: Buffalo still had two timeouts and 1:54 on the clock. All it needed was one stop to leave Andy Reid with an awkward decision, kicking an ultra-long field goal (and risking the great field position of a miss) or punting it back with a minute or so remaining.
Reid didn’t need to make that decision, though, because Buffalo didn’t get a stop. Isiah Pacheco converted a second-and-nine but the Bills caught at break as he ran out of bounds. But again, on third-and-nine, another running back got the game-sealing first. Mahomes hit Samaje Perine at the line of scrimmage (his first and only time seeing the ball this night) and the former Bengal beat linebacker Terrel Bernard, one of Buffalo’s leaders, to the sideline and an easy first down.
The Bills’ offense played well enough to win on a lot of days, maybe even this one if a bounce or a replay review went another way. They were up by one when Allen got stood-up on fourth-and-short, with the ball right at the line to gain. Some fans will certainly cry conspiracy, but it was legitimately close. It makes you wonder why the NFL couldn’t implement the kind of ball-tracking technology used for soccer at the goal line or in/out calls in tennis.
The Bills were up one, 22-21, just two minutes into the fourth quarter. That fourth down would’ve helped, putting them just outside of field goal range with the lead. It’s impossible to say how the game would’ve ended, but Buffalo almost certainly would’ve needed another defensive stop, lest they ask Allen to be perfect.
Throwing two dropped potential interceptions on the game’s first three plays, Allen was fortunate to end up turnover-free: he also fumbled three times and the Bills picked them up all three times. So no, he wasn’t perfect. But he sure gave the Chiefs a scare, again. His 34-yard touchdown pass before halftime to Mack Hollins was a dart, and gave the Bills a chance, down 21-16 despite a mostly sloppy half. James Cook played an excellent second half (94 total yards after 40 in the first half) and deserved more touches down the stretch, unless he was injured.
KC only faced nine third downs all night, going 5-for-9, and picked up its only fourth down try. The Bills actually put KC punter Matt Araiza to work twice in the second half and forced a field goal late to give Allen a chance to take the lead.
“In particular in the first half and then one or two drives in the second there, we just didn’t do a good enough job getting pressure on Mahomes,” McDermott said. “And it looked like they were spitting the ball out at times on the perimeter as well. So that combination I thought was hurting us more than anything.”
Of course, stopping Mahomes isn’t easy. There’s a reason the guy has a chance to win his fourth ring before turning 30. KC clearly targeted former first-round pick Kaiir Elam, pressed into the lineup after a concussion knocked starter Christian Benford (active after being in protocol all week) out in the first quarter.
But this wasn’t exactly the KC offensive juggernaut the Bills went toe-to-toe with in the ‘13 seconds’ game. KC got a lot of production from skill position players any team could’ve had, like Juju Smith-Schuster and Kareem Hunt or Xavier Worthy, who Buffalo notably traded out of the pick to draft. Travis Kelce only managed two catches for 19 yards.
If McDermott and coordinator Bobby Babich’s defense can’t at least slow down this version of the Chiefs, maybe their only hope is that Allen and the offense can play a perfect game the next time these Canton-bound QBs face off.
“They’ve ended a lot of teams’ seasons, too,” Allen said. “It’s a good squad, they had a good plan tonight and then they made one more play that we did.”
