KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Buffalo Bills were just 13 seconds away from hosting the AFC Championship Game.
Just 13 seconds.
And the road to the Super Bowl would have run through Orchard Park.
Josh Allen and Gabriel Davis connected for an NFL playoff record four touchdowns – including two inside the two-minute warning to twice give the Bills a late lead – but the league’s best defense couldn’t hang on, allowing Patrick Mahomes to guide the Kansas City Chiefs into field goal range.
Harrison Butker kicked a 49 yarder to tie the score at 36-36 as time expired, the Chiefs won the coin flip and took the ball first in overtime, and Mahomes led an eight-play, 75-yard drive, capping it with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce to send the Bills to an agonizing 42-36 defeat on Sunday night at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
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The Chiefs will host the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC championship game at 3:05 p.m. Sunday. The two-time reigning AFC champs will host the title game for a record fourth consecutive season.
The Bills will clean out their lockers and add “13 Seconds” near the top of the list of soul-crushing gut punches that include “Wide Right” and “Homerun Throwback.”
“It’s disappointing right now. It hurts right now,” Allen said. “You can say it’s going to be better, we’re going to learn from this and it’s very cliché and nobody wants to hear that. But I truly believe that this unit will learn from this. We’ve got a pretty young squad. A lot of guys coming back next year. We’ve just got to use this as fuel for the fire.”
The Bills’ offense was white hot down the stretch.
Davis’ third touchdown catch, a 27-yard strike from Allen on fourth and long, concluded a 17-play, 75-yard march and gave the Bills a 29-26 lead with 1:54 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Then Mahomes connected with Tyreek Hill for a 64-yard score to put the Chiefs back on top 33-29 with 1:02 remaining.
Then Allen hit Davis again, this time from 19 yards out, to give the Bills a 36-33 lead with 13 seconds to go. Buffalo never touched the ball again.
Mahomes quickly guided the Chiefs into field goal range, then ended it on the first possession of the extra session.
“The rules are what they are and I can’t complain about that,” Allen said about losing the coin flip in overtime and not getting another possession, “because if it was the other way around, we’d be celebrating, too. It is what it is at this point. We just didn’t make enough plays tonight.”
Allen completed 27 of 37 pass attempts for 329 yards and four touchdowns, becoming the first quarterback in NFL history with nine touchdown passes and zero interceptions over back-to-back playoff games.
Among the questions in the aftermath of the Buffalo Bills' 42-36 overtime loss to the Kansas…
Allen also led the Bills in rushing, with 68 yards on 11 carries.
“It was a tremendous effort by Josh,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said, declining to provide much insight about why his team kicked a deep ball for a touchback after their final touchdown, preserving time on the clock, or his team’s failure to hold a lead with 13 seconds to play. “They made a couple more plays than we did obviously down the stretch there. But a tremendous job by Josh. The guys played their guts out.”
Davis caught eight of 10 targets for 201 yards and four touchdowns, from 18, 75, 27 and 19 yards.
Devin Singletary had 26 rushing yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, finding the end zone for the ninth time in six games.
Stefon Diggs was limited to three catches for seven yards and grabbed the two-point conversion on Davis’ third touchdown.
Don't miss Katherine Fitzgerald's quarter-by-quarter analysis of the Buffalo Bills' 42-36 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on AFC divisional playoff weekend ...
“It’s a really tight-knit group, a lot of love,” Bills center Mitch Morse said about the offense, “and the unfortunate thing is, we’re not going to take the field as the same unit, and I think that’s what’s most heartbreaking.”
Mahomes completed 33 of 44 passes for 378 yards and three touchdowns. He also led his team with 69 rushing yards and a touchdown on seven carries.
“We’re all hurt, sick to our stomach,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “You move on and you try to get yourself to learn from it. But it stings. It stings. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It stings.”
This was the game the Bills and their legions of fans had been waiting for since last season’s disappointing and resounding 38-24 defeat a year ago Monday, when Diggs stood on this same field, hands on hips, and watched the Chiefs dance through confetti while celebrating a second consecutive trip to the Super Bowl.
The Bills enjoyed a degree of revenge earlier this season, stomping the Chiefs 38-20 in a nationally-televised primetime game here on Oct. 10, before Mahomes and the two-time AFC champions hit their stride. The Chiefs lost four of their first seven games to start the season. They’re 11-1 since.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ team speed was the biggest factor from start to finish – and especially at the finish – in the Buffalo Bills’ 42-36 overtime loss in the AFC divisional playoff game.
The Bills’ regular season victory in Kansas City proved they were capable of walking into hostile territory and dethroning the Chiefs, even though much has changed since that game, namely, on the Bills’ side, the loss of All-Pro cornerback Tre’Davious White to a season-ending torn ACL on Thanksgiving.
The Bills lost their next two games after White's injury, at home against the Patriots in a relentless windstorm and on the road at Tampa, where they rallied from a 21-point halftime deficit to force overtime before falling to Tom Brady and the reigning Super Bowl champions. That performance steeled their resolve.
Buffalo won its next four games, including a victory in New England, and closed the regular season by celebrating a second consecutive AFC East championship, capturing back-to-back division titles for the first time since the 1990 and ’91 seasons.
The Bills followed that feat by eviscerating the New England Patriots 47-17 last weekend in the first home playoff game with a full crowd in a generation.
Allen led the epic beatdown, guiding Buffalo to seven touchdowns in seven drives as the Bills became the first team in NFL history to not punt, attempt a field goal or commit a turnover in a single game.
Five hours before kickoff, dozens of fans brought a slice of Orchard Park to a parking lot in the shadow of Arrowhead Stadium.
Bills Mafia will savor that performance for years to come.
The balance of power in the AFC East has shifted. There is no doubt.
Allen and the Bills run the division owned by the Patriots for two decades and should continue to wield the scepter for the foreseeable future.
But there’s an undeniable empty feeling about the way this season ended.
The Bills losing in the playoffs at Kansas City is not an improvement over last season.
Tension peaked in a riveting fourth quarter that saw 25 total points scored in the game's final two minutes, leading to a roller coaster of emotions – stress, joy, anger and disappointment.
In many respects, it’s a step back.
The Bills produced a worse regular season record than last year.
Allen and Diggs had lesser stats, despite an additional regular season game.
And, of course, this year’s playoff exit comes a round earlier.
“There’s only going to be one champion crowned at the end of the season, so that makes 31 unhappy teams,” Allen said. “Hats off to the Chiefs and what they did today. Pat played amazing. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and the Chiefs as a whole. They made one more play than we did. That's what it came down to. … We’ve got to find a way to be better next year and accomplish what we want to accomplish.”
To be sure, there were positives.
Dawson Knox emerged as one of the game’s top tight ends.
Safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde were named first- and second-team All-Pro, respectively.
And the defense finished the season ranked No. 1 in the NFL in total yards, passing yards and points allowed during the regular season, though that shine is dulled by the meltdown in the final minutes in Kansas City.
The Bills’ 17-year postseason drought is ancient history. They have made the playoffs four times in five seasons. They have their franchise quarterback. They own the AFC East.
But, again, they couldn’t get past Mahomes and the Chiefs.
A return to the Super Bowl will have to wait.
