Thirteen seconds.
Over the next few weeks and months in bars and restaurants around Buffalo, those two simple words will carry a lot of meaning. They will spark arguments, lead to people buying each other drinks, and perhaps even generate new friendships and relationships.
Friendships and relationships forged over what might have been.
In Super Bowl XXIII, the San Francisco 49ers topped the Cincinnati Bengals by a final score of 20-16. It would be the last NFL game for legendary coach Bill Walsh, as he witnessed Joe Montana drive San Francisco down the field and hit Jon Taylor wit ha touchdown pass to give the 49ers the lead late.
After the game ended, Walsh walked to midfield to embrace one of his former coaches, Sam Wyche, now the head coach of the Bengals. The two walked off the field together, amazed at the game they had just witnessed. But prior to that moment between two men who loved each other dearly, Wyche was caught on the Cincinnati sideline, muttering to no one in particular, these three words in the wake of Taylor’s catch:
Thirty-nine seconds.
The margin between winning and losing is so razor-thin in the NFL, and both the Bengals back in 1989 and the Bills of Buffalo Bills of today are living proof. After losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in last season’s AFC Championship game, the Bills had their sights set on revenge. Revenge for what was lost a season ago. Revenge for what could have been, but was not.
At multiple moments this evening, it looked like the Bills, led by their quarterback Josh Allen, had secured that revenge. Allen was, in a word, spectacular. He completed 27 of 37 passes for 329 yards and four touchdowns, and was the Bills’ leading rusher on the night as well, carrying the football for 68 yards on 11 carries.
In reality, however, statistics alone do not do his performance justice. Nor do the replays, although they do come close. For example, Allen’s rocket to Gabriel Davis to give the Bills the lead with just under two minutes remaining is a classic Allen moment, the kind of throw that Bills fans only dreamed about when the organization drafted him in the first round a few years ago, to the chagrin of many:
THE @BUFFALOBILLS HAVE THE LEAD. #NFLPlayoffs
📺: #BUFvsKC on CBS
📱: https://t.co/bCIjXIlFWh pic.twitter.com/NrxNk9jSHq— NFL (@NFL) January 24, 2022
Then of course came the two-point conversion, another rabbit Allen pulled from his ever-growing hat:
Josh Allen is SUPERHUMAN. #NFLPlayoffs
📺: #BUFvsKC on CBS
📱: https://t.co/bCIjXIlFWh pic.twitter.com/lwB9IZtTXt— NFL (@NFL) January 24, 2022
Unfortunately, Allen would be needed again. Because the quarterback patrolling the other sideline is, much like the Buffalo passer, a freak of nature put on this planet to awe and inspire with how they play the toughest position in sports. Patrick Mahomes found Tyreek Hill on an in-breaking route, and suddenly, the Bills were trailing anew.
But with 17 seconds remaining, Allen and Davis connected again, on another rocket shot that seemed like it was launched from the south of Florida, and not on a chilly field in Missouri:
JOSH ALLEN AND GABRIEL DAVIS' 4TH TD GIVES THE BILLS THE LEAD WITH 17 SECONDS.
📺: #BUFvsKC on CBS
📱: https://t.co/bCIjXIlFWh pic.twitter.com/DgdL4Pwvnd— NFL (@NFL) January 24, 2022
Thirteen seconds.
By now, you know how this story ends. Mahomes with just 13 seconds to work with somehow drives the Chiefs into field goal range, and Harrison Butker splits the uprights to force overtime. And a coin toss, which the Chiefs win, turning Allen into something absurdly painful in that moment.
A spectator.
Allen and the Bills offense could only watch as Mahomes went back to work, ultimately finding Travis Kelce with the game-winning touchdown, sending Arrowhead Stadium into a frenzy, and the Bills home for the second-straight year.
Eventually, the chill of a Buffalo winter will give way to spring, and the sun will hang longer in the sky every afternoon and evening. Thoughts about what might have been will give way to dreams of what could be. Around dinner tables and at corner bars, the agony behind those two words marking a snapshot of time will recede into hope anew.
With good reason.
While the line of demarcation between winning and losing is, as we have seen this weekend, razor-thin, what can bend that line in a team’s favor is the guy. The quarterback who can defy the odds. The quarterback who can beat a defensive front with his legs, and a secondary with his arm and mind.
The Bills have that quarterback. A quarterback who is carving out his own legend in upper New York state, similar to a guy who used to patrol that sideline wearing a #12 jersey, leading the Bills to multiple Super Bowl appearances. A quarterback who has defied the odds, proven the experts wrong, and reshaped how the position is evaluated and viewed for the future.
So next fall, when the fans are again meeting at Kettles, or Prohibition, or tailgating outside of Highmark Stadium, there will be hope. Hope for what could be in the season ahead. Hope provided by the influx of new talent, acquired via free agency and the draft. Hope for what the promise of a new season offers, after having been so close so many times before.
The words thirteen seconds will become a rallying cry of sorts, acknowledging just how close this team is to greatness.
And how their quarterback is already there.
Because the day is coming when it is the opposition, and not the Bills, who are left to wonder what might have been.
