The Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes are heading back to the AFC Championship Game this weekend to face the Baltimore Ravens. It will be their sixth consecutive appearance in the conference game. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen will be sitting at home, once again voided of victory over their rival. But is this really just a one-sided rivalry?
Allen and the Bills had mostly everything in their favor on Sunday in the AFC Divisional Round. They finally had the homefield advantage over the Chiefs, making them face Bills Mafia. They also had a six-game winning streak that dated back to Week 14 when they beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Yet, it still wasn't enough to cure the playoff disappointments they have against this one team specifically.
Most want this to be the rivalry of the league because it consists of two of the better teams in the league since the arrivals of their talented starting quarterbacks. Dating back to 2018, which was Mahomes' first year as a starter and Allen's first year in the league, starting 12 games that season, the Chiefs are 75-24, and the Bills are 64-34, which is ranked first and third in the league, according to StatMuse.
Again, that goes back to the exceptional quarterback play from both Mahomes and Allen, which is why fans want to see this blossom into the rivalry of the entire league. But as it stands right now, in their seven meetings, Mahomes is leading with a 4-3 record. Most would argue that's good enough to be considered a rivalry, only being decided by one game. The problem is, three of Mahomes' wins, and where he's undefeated against Allen, is in the NFL playoffs.
It all goes back to the 2021 AFC Divisional Round game
For whatever reason, Mahomes and the Chiefs own the Bills once the postseason hits. However, it could all date back to their Division Round game back in 2021 that ended in a thrilling 42-36 finish in the Chiefs' favor.
It was a game that had seven lead changes, and three alone in the final two minutes of regulation. When the Bills drove down the field in under a minute and a half to go up 36-33 that left only 13 seconds remaining on the clock, many thought that was the end of the game. Except that Mahomes and the Chiefs used that amount of time to drive down the field to allow Harrison Butker to nail a 49-yard field goal to send the game into overtime. Then, of course, Mahomes would find Travis Kelce for a 25-yard touchdown reception to end the game.
That game furthered the thought of what is aptly known as the Buffalo Sports Curse. And it would be hard to argue against that notion, especially with the way that this season's Divisional Round matchup ended, with Bills kicker Tyler Bass missing a 44-yard field goal to tie the game.
The Buffalo Sports Curse keeps Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen from being a true rivalry
Bass had been a large part of the Bills' win over the Chiefs in the Week 14 victory, hitting two field goals, one a 36-yarder for the go-ahead. But for whatever reason, his final kick on Sunday, where it looked initially as if it would sail between the uprights, took a sudden veering right to miss altogether, as if some sort of supernatural force pushed it off its trajectory.
If you go back and watch that last Bills drive, you'll notice that they were playing completely different than they were most of the night. They were playing scared, especially Allen, who was hoping he could finally be relieved of losing yet again to the Chiefs in the playoffs. But really, though, they were playing scared much sooner than that.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have Josh Allen and the Bills playing scared late
After the Chiefs went up 27-24 to end the third quarter, the Bills, needing an answer to start the fourth, only gained four yards on their next possession, and actually turned it over on downs after a fake punt only gained two of the five yards needed to convert a 4th-and-5 at their own 30-yard-line.
If not for a Chiefs fumble out of the end zone for a touchback two plays later, the game is probably all but over then for the Bills. On the Bills' final drive that went 16 plays and 54 yards where a deep, home run ball to Stefon Diggs was dropped, that pretty much ended up killing all hope right there. Then, later in the drive, on second down with only nine yards to go, Allen again goes for a touchdown instead of hitting Diggs on an underneath crossing-route where he was wide-open and easily could have gained the first down.
“We gotta find a way to score one more point than they do,” Allen said in the postgame press conference, via Dan Fetes at Buffalo Plus. And that really is the crux of it for Allen and the Bills and what keeps this from truly being a back-and-forth rivalry. Allen and the Bills continually fold in the latter moments against the Chiefs in the playoffs like in this past Divisional Round. They've seen too many times what Mahomes has done to them, with, again, that 2021 heartbreaking playoff loss being an outlier. They know the effect that Mahomes has on everything, including themselves.
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