KANSAS CITY, Mo. — What’s worse than living a nightmare?
The sequel.
This is again a slice of reality for the Buffalo Bills, who have built one of the NFL’s most consistent winners but keep running into the same heartbreak.
It happened again on Sunday in the AFC championship game at Arrowhead Stadium. The Bills were thisclose to earning the franchise’s first Super Bowl berth in 31 years yet came up short, 32-29, against the same ole monsters.
Forget Freddy or Jason. The Bills are tormented by the Kansas City Chiefs, featuring Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. And then some.
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This is their horror flick: For the fourth time in five years, the Bills season ended with the will of the Chiefs, who are headed to their third consecutive Super Bowl.
‘To be the champs, you have to beat the champs,’ Bills quarterback Josh Allen said.
Fair enough.
‘And we didn’t do it,’ Allen added.
Allen, who has evolved into one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, may wonder what it would take to ever win in the playoffs when matched against Mahomes.
The Chiefs star is an NFL version of Michael Jordan. This makes Allen the equivalent of Karl Malone or John Stockton – great NBA players with the Utah Jazz who could never win a championship because Jordan was standing in the way with his Chicago Bulls.
This time, the snapshots portraying agony for the Bills will include Allen getting stuffed (to some degree) on a controversial fourth-and-one sneak and Mahomes dashing to paydirt when the passes weren’t enough. The enduring image, though, might be the dropped pass by tight end Dalton Kincaid on a fourth-down heave by Allen late in the fourth quarter.
Turns out, it was Buffalo’s last offensive play, with just under two minutes to play. Had Kincaid caught the football as he dove desperately, the Bills would have picked up a first down and moved into field goal range. The football traveled about 30 yards. But it glanced off the usually reliable target’s hands. Allen probably let it fly a split-second before he would have liked because of the pressure from a Trent McDuffie corner blitz and pursuit by George Karlaftis, who leveled Allen as he released the football.
That’s the thing about nightmares. Bad stuff happens.
‘Just the fact that he got the ball off was incredible,’ Kincaid told USA TODAY Sports. ‘He put the ball up there and gave me a chance to make the play. And I wasn’t able to make the play. It’s one that hurts a lot.’
The Bills did so many things that could have helped them avoid an eighth consecutive road playoff loss. They didn’t commit a turnover for the fifth game in a row. They played aggressively, converting four of their six fourth-down calls in the second half. They were resilient, striking for big plays as they fought back from an 11-point deficit in the first half to take leads in the second half.
And it was hardly enough.
Then again, even when it may have seemed like enough for the Bills it wasn’t necessarily the case. The fourth-down sneak by Allen that was stuffed generated what-if controversy as the mass of bodies in the pileup made it difficult to definitively see whether the officials properly spotted the ball. This was crucial on a fourth-and-one from the Chiefs’ 41-yard line, with Buffalo clinging to 22-21 lead.
Bills coach Sean McDermott said that from his sideline vantage point the quarterback gained enough for the first down before being shoved backward. A replay review, however, upheld the ruling on the field. Then Kansas City took possession on a short field and promptly drove for a go-ahead touchdown.
Given the final outcome, the ruling made the defeat more frustrating.
‘Darn right it does,’ McDermott said. ‘That’s a possession. We’re up one point at the time. A chance to go up maybe multiple scores at that point. It’s a big call. It’s absolutely a big call.’
The rivalry – if not the horror movie elements – will carry on. Buffalo has won five consecutive AFC East titles and has demonstrated it can beat Kansas City in some situations. The Bills are 4-0 against the Chiefs in the regular-season showcase games pitting Mahomes and Allen.
Yet in the playoffs it was the same ole script, with the same ending.
And same heartbreak.
‘What’s next?’ Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins said, repeating the question. ‘We go home. We kiss our families. And we get back to training.’
They might also want to be sure to burn the script for lining up against the Chiefs in the playoffs.
Follow Jarrett Bell on X, @JarrettBell