AFC Championship: Bills want what the Chiefs have had two years running
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Bills and Chiefs have met seven times over roughly four years, building such an intense, competitive rivalry that Kansas City safety Justin Reid admitted that the Super Bowl champs just assume they’ll see Buffalo twice a year.
Once in the regular season and once in the playoffs.
So, the Chiefs begin working on them in the offseason, studying everything Buffalo does on offense and defense with their eyes on January. And it must be paying off, because while the Bills have won all four matchups in the regular season, and handed the Chiefs one of their two losses this season, Kansas City has won all three games played in the postseason.
The Chiefs will try to do it again Sunday night as they pursue an unprecedented third straight Lombardi Trophy, while the Bills will try to end what is fast becoming a postseason curse by finally beating Kansas City for the AFC championship.
“You always remember the feeling of not pulling through. That sticks with you for a while, and it really doesn’t leave,” Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen said. “But again, I think every year you go through in this league, you learn more things about yourself, about your team, about the game of football. We’re just grateful and humbled to have another opportunity at it.”
It’s hardly surprising that the Bills and Chiefs have met so often, or that they are meeting again, when you consider the collective star power. Allen could be headed to his first MVP award this season, while Kansas City counterpart Patrick Mahomes already has two.
The Bills have James Cook and Amari Cooper on offense, Gregory Rousseau and Von Miller on defense, while the Chiefs will have Travis Kelce, DeAndre Hopkins, Chris Jones and Trent McDuffie on the field Sunday night.
They’ll almost certainly have Taylor Swift in a luxury suite, too.
Talk about star power.
“I don’t think anyone is making this too big of a moment. Everybody knows how big it is,” said Mahomes, who is 4-2 in AFC title games with both of the losses coming in overtime, “but at the same time, we have to go about our process.”
After all, why mess with success?
As for the Bills, who have not made it back to the Super Bowl since losing to the Cowboys in their fourth straight appearance in the 1993 season, all of those playoff losses to Kansas City over the years have come in heartbreaking fashion.
They scored the first nine points of the 2020 AFC title game before getting outscored 38-15 the rest of the way. In the divisional round the next year, Buffalo took the lead on a touchdown with 13 seconds left, only to watch Mahomes lead the Chiefs to a tying field goal as time expired, then beat them with a TD in overtime.
And in the divisional round a year ago, Isiah Pacheco’s short touchdown run with 40 seconds left lifted the Chiefs to a 24-20 victory in Buffalo.
“It feels like a divisional game. We know them really well, they know us,” Reid said of playing the Bills. “In the offseason we’re preparing for each other because we know we’ll face each other twice, because it seems to happen every year. And it’s always a tough challenge, but it’s one we’re excited for, and another good one for all the fans.”
Road bumps
The Bills are 0-4 on the road in the playoffs under Sean McDermott, and they’ve dropped seven straight since a 29-10 victory at Miami in the AFC championship game in the 1992 season. Two of their losses have come in overtime, a 22-19 defeat at Houston in the 2019 wild-card round and that 42-36 loss at Kansas City in the 2021 divisional round. There’s also the “Music City Miracle,” a 22-16 loss at Tennessee in the 1999 wild-card round that was decided on a kickoff return in the final seconds.
Gambling man
McDermott will never be considered the NFL’s biggest gambler on fourth downs, but the Bills coach has been one of the most successful this season. Buffalo converted 16 of 22 opportunities in the regular season for a 72.7% success rate that was second in the league. It’s a big improvement from McDermott’s first season, when the Bills converted 2 of 15.
“You grow through the years. You learn things. You learn about a bunch about your team for that season,” he said. “So all are a little bit different. But you continue to try to put your team in position to win. And that’s what we do.”
Reinforcements
The Chiefs didn’t have injured pass rusher Charles Omenihu nor cornerback Jaylen Watson when the Bills beat them 30-21 in November. Omenihu didn’t return from his torn ACL for two more weeks, and Watson didn’t make it back from a broken ankle until their 24-13 divisional win over Houston. Both could play a big role in slowing down Allen and Co. on Sunday.
Turnover time
The Bills had a league-best plus-24 turnover differential in the regular season, and they’re plus-3 in two playoff games. The Chief were merely plus-6 in the regular season, but they’re plus-11 and have not lost a turnover since playing Buffalo in Week 11.
“Every team that’s won ball security, won the turnover battle, has won the game (in the playoffs) so far,” Mahomes said. “That is important to us. Buffalo does a great job it. I don’t think they’ve lost a turnover battle this season.”
Under pressure
The Chiefs had eight sacks against the Texans last weekend, the second most in a playoff game in franchise history. But getting Allen to the ground is a tough task — he was sacked 17 times in the regular season, and Kansas City failed to do it at all.
“Once you have ahold of him,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, “you’d better know he’s going to be difficult to bring down.”
AFC Championship: Buffalo at Kansas City
When: 3:30 p.m. PT Sunday
Where: GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.
TV: CBS (Ch. 2)