Sunday’s AFC championship game was an all too familiar sight for Buffalo Bills fans: Their favorite team walking off the field dejected in defeat, while the Kansas City Chiefs celebrate and move on in the playoffs.
Four times in the last five years, the Bills’ postseason has ended at the hands of the Chiefs. Kansas City beat Buffalo for the AFC championship in the 2020 and 2024 seasons, and in the divisional round of the 2021 and 2023 seasons.
“To be the champs, you’ve got to beat the champs,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said after his team’s latest defeat Sunday. “And we didn’t do that tonight.”
Allen, despite throwing for 237 yards and two touchdowns, rushing for 39 yards and having no turnovers Sunday, is now the owner of an ignominious record: The most losses to a single quarterback in NFL playoff history, as he’s 0-4 against Patrick Mahomes in the postseason.
This is especially troubling for Buffalo fans of a certain age who are old enough to remember when the Bills lost four — four! — Super Bowls in a row from 1990 to 1993. Is Buffalo simply destined to lose over and over when it’s on the precipice of ultimate success?
Bills fans probably don’t want to hear this right now, but this team is extremely close — extremely — to beating the Kansas City. And that’s why Buffalo shouldn’t lose hope.
More Sports from NBC News
Let’s start with the fact that, well, the Bills have actually beat Mahomes on several occasions.
In the regular season, Allen has a 4-1 record against Mahomes and the Chiefs. Buffalo has even won its last four regular season matchups against Kansas City, including three times on the road.
So it’s not as simple as the Chiefs’ having the Bills’ number. Buffalo has proven it has a formula to beat Mahomes, it just can’t get it done in the playoffs.
And those last three postseason losses? All have been games that swung on a couple plays, and some of those plays were swung by inches.
There’s was the infamous 13-second game in the 2021 playoffs, when the teams scored 25 combined points in the final two minutes. What if the Bills had won the overtime coin toss and drove down the field instead of Kansas City?
In the 2023 divisional round, Buffalo missed a game-tying kick with under two minutes to go.
And on Sunday, the Bills may have won if not for two wild fourth-down plays. The first was a sneak by Allen that arguably should have been ruled a first down. The second was a desperate throw by Allen that bounced off the hands of a diving Dalton Kincaid.
To further drive home how thin the margin is between these two teams, they’ve played nine times since 2020, and all games were started by Allen and Mahomes. In those nine contests, the combined score is 245-240, Kansas City. The Chiefs are 5-4 in those contests — their average margin of victory is literally one point.
Yes, it’s more heartbreak for Buffalo. But this is not like the Super Bowl streak of the early ‘90s. The Bills lost their first Super Bowl appearance largely because of a missed field goal, but they lost by multiple scores in each of the next three games, and the last two were especially not close.
This time, Buffalo isn’t fading. Even as the mystique of the Chiefs and Mahomes grows, the Bills are still right there with them nearly every step of the way — save for the bounce of the ball, or an obstructed angle on a replay review.
Buffalo, of course, isn’t guaranteed to be back here next season. But if the Bills play Kansas City again, as close as the teams have been, it’s not a foregone conclusion the Chiefs will win.
“We’ve got to keep working to get over that hump,” Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott said Sunday.
He added: “This is obviously a challenge for us. We’ll figure it out.”
The post After another loss to the Chiefs, the Bills are still closer than they seem appeared first on NBC News.
