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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Leading up to the AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills players and coaches all knew it would likely come down to a few plays late in the game.
The last two playoff games between these two teams had come down to one score. This game would be won on the margins. On Sunday, those margins came on a few critical play calls in pivotal moments.
Advertisement Start with the 4th-and-5 at the end of the Bills’ final offensive drive. The fact that the ball hit Dalton Kincaid in the hands makes him an easy target for blame. But the only reason Josh Allen was in that position, heaving up a prayer off his back foot, is because of the blitz Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo called.
The Bills had seen it on film, but the tendency was different. “We called protection to slide left,” Bills right guard O’Cyrus Torrence said Monday as Bills players cleaned out their lockers. “From film, they would blitz from where they weren’t showing it from.
They showed it from the right, so we were thinking they were doing it from the left. But they actually brought it from the right this time. You could say it was an error, but they just called the better play than we had on offense.
” Every player handles the aftermath of a season-ending loss differently. Some want to re-watch every play immediately like Von Miller did after the game. Others wait a while to look at the film.
And some don’t want to see it at all. But you can bet Sean McDermott and his coaches are going to be agonizing over every detail of this game as they watch it back in the coming days. The Chiefs won 32-29 , and a handful of plays could have flipped it the other way.
One of the main differences in the game was the way Patrick Mahomes was able to stress Buffalo’s defense with his legs. The Athletic’s Mike Sando detailed earlier this year how Mahomes scrambles a lot more often in the fourth quarter of one-score games. He’s also added more EPA by scrambles in those situations than any quarterback in the NFL since the beginning of 2023.
Mahomes finished this game with 11 rushing attempts for 43 yards and two touchdowns. And 17 of those yards and one touchdown came on two rushes in the fourth quarter. Advertisement Bills defensive end Greg Rousseau said some of the situations Mahomes ran in caught them off guard.
For instance, Mahomes’ 10-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter came with a formation in which the Chiefs had two tight ends lined up next to Mahomes. Rousseau said he didn’t see that on any of the breakdowns he watched during the week. “He’s a dual threat quarterback,” Rousseau said.
“Sometimes with him you look at the film form the regular season game and he was more so throwing the ball. Then last night he was running the ball a lot more. It was a lot more boots and they kind of changed up the game plan.
You kind of don’t know what you’re going to get with a quarterback like him.” GO DEEPER Inside Patrick Mahomes' 'superhero' transformation and another Chiefs AFC title According to TruMedia, this was the second highest scramble percentage Mahomes has had in a single game in his career. The only time he scrambled more was in a 2020 regular season win against the Bills.
He was pressured on 29-percent of his dropbacks. He’s only lost six times in his career when pressured at that rate or lower. This is also the first time in his career he’s had two rushing touchdowns in a game.
“The plays where he got out, it was just Mahomes magic,” Miller said. “He saw a little crease and got out. Whether it was a stunt that we had that way or whether it was a blitz that we had the opposite way.
We knew in the playoffs the odds of him running go way up, because he’s the guy over there. Just like Josh (Allen). Josh runs a little more in the playoffs.
He was just seeing those creases and making it happen. Out of all the stuff that happened, it all came down to just a couple of plays. Even though it’s hard to live with, I can live with that.
” McDermott and his staff will have to live with it until they’re back in this spot, too. Here are some other odds and ends from locker cleanout day in Orchard Park. Advertisement 1.
The 4th-and-1 spot on Allen’s fourth-quarter quarterback sneak will be added to the long list of gut-wrenching moments in Buffalo sports history. Those who want to blame officials will point to that play, and it was no doubt a turning point in the game. The Chiefs went down the field and took the lead back in just five plays after getting that stop.
But regardless of the ball spot on that final quarterback sneak, the Bills had a much tougher time with that play against the Chiefs than they did throughout the season. In the regular season, Josh Allen had 17 rushing first downs on 18 tries on 3rd or 4th-down and one yard to go. The Chiefs stopped him three different times in those situations.
What was often an impossible play for defenses to stop this season became predictable for the Chiefs. “Those plays you always just have to win your block I would say and hopefully the call is good enough,” Torrence said. “It’s still just a game of inches.
You watch film and think you know what the defense is going to do and then they come out and do something different. I think that’s kind of what was getting us a little bit. They slammed a few times and sometimes they didn’t.
Crowding the ball real well, things like that.” Like in other areas, the Chiefs had answers when the Bills didn’t. It’s fair to second guess offensive coordinator Joe Brady for not adjusting, especially with how well James Cook was running.
But that’s also a play that has been Buffalo’s go-to in those spots. “That has been a staple in our offense when we get to that, we always do that,” Torrence said. “That’s why we never went away from it.
If we’re going to get it, we’re going to get it because we’ve been getting it all year. So I don’t feel bad that coach was calling it because he put the game in our hands and gave us a chance to get the first down.” GO DEEPER These Bills were different, but the outcome was the same 2.
When Allen spoke on Monday, he did so with his right hand and wrist wrapped. He said the injury happened on the two-point conversion attempt at the end of the first half. He had some swelling on Monday but the pain was manageable during the game.
In a game that came down to the slimmest of margins, though, having your franchise quarterback’s throwing hand and wrist banged up isn’t ideal. Allen doesn’t anticipate any of the minor aches and pains he had coming out of the season to require medical attention beyond rest, though. 3.
Also on the injury front, tight end Dawson Knox revealed that Dalton Kincaid was playing on two injured knees. He had a torn PCL in one knee and had a bunch of fluid in the other knee. Both Knox and Allen were quick to defend Kincaid for his drop at the end of the game.
The degree of difficulty was high on the play, but Allen somehow hit him in the hands. But that was just one moment in an underwhelming second season for Kincaid. The 2023 first-round pick had just 448 yards and two touchdowns this season and then added only six catches for 71 yards in the playoffs.
“I have to be better for him,”Allen said. “I didn’t feel like I put him in enough situations this year ball placement wise. Even the one last night I left it behind him and allowed 32 (Nick Bolton) to make a play on it.
He can sit there and think about that play over and over but I have to be better. That’s what it comes down to. I know he’s been battling throughout the entire year, bumps and bruises, probably games he shouldn’t have played he was in.
But he’s a tough sucker and I have nothing but love for him and how he’s approached this year. He’s going to be so much better next year. Advertisement 4.
Amari Cooper joined the Bills midseason when general manager Brandon Beane traded third and seventh-round draft picks to acquire him. Allen spoke glowingly about how unselfish Cooper was and how much he loved playing with him. Cooper is a free agent, and he said he doesn’t know yet what the future holds.
He’s open to returning to the Bills if it makes sense for both sides because he would love a chance to finish what he started. He also said quarterback play would influence his decision in free agency, and he knows what he has in Allen. “It’s a huge factor,” Cooper said.
“Truth be told it’s the most important position on the field. Their position just holds a lot more weight based off the responsibility that they have. Whoever is in that position at any given team is going to say a lot about the team and their ability to win in the big moments.
It’s very important. 5. Miller said at the end of last season he was considering retiring.
He didn’t feel like he was in the best place on or off the field. But he rebounded this season with six sacks and said he saw special qualities in this team that he didn’t even see in the two Super Bowl winners he played for. “Coming into training camp I still wasn’t sure that I could play football,” Miller said.
“I think I proved myself that I’ve done enough for myself to build the confidence up that I can come back for year 15. Year 16 that’s way down the road but I have year 15 on the books for sure.” Miller said he’ll keep coming to One Bills Drive as long as his key card works.
He wants to return to the Bills and thinks that feeling is mutual. Miller, who turns 36 in March, is scheduled to have a $23.8 million cap hit, according to Over The Cap, and the Bills would absorb a $15.
4 million dead cap hit if they cut or trade him. GO DEEPER 'No moral victories in this': Bills overachieved, just not for long enough (Top photo: David Eulitt / Getty Images).
