It’s hard to believe Patrick Mahomes has never played in a true hostile environment in the playoffs in his career. Especially considering he’s played in 12 postseason games that weren’t at a neutral site.
It’s a remarkable streak that has spanned six seasons and has resulted in a 12-3 playoff record with two Lombardi Trophies. And next week, that streak comes to an end.
A main reason is that the Chiefs went 5-5 down the stretch. The final loss came at the hands of the Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium on Christmas Day.
Fading down the stretch dropped the Chiefs to the No. 3 seed, below the Ravens and Bills. Baltimore got the bye as the top seed, so in order to send the Chiefs on the road in the divisional round, Buffalo needed to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round.
Well, the Bills beat the Steelers 31-17, and as the No. 2 seed, they will host the Chiefs in Buffalo next Sunday. And thus we get to see if Mahomes can be Mahomes in front of a stadium full of noisy Bills fans.
The Chiefs and Bills have met twice in the playoffs over the past three years with Kansas City winning both matchups. In the 2020 season, the Chiefs beat Buffalo in the AFC title game and went on to lose Super Bowl LV to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. KC defeated the Bills again in the divisional round a year later but fell to the Bengals in the AFC championship game.
Now we get to see if the Bills can take their home-field advantage and pull out the win to send the Chiefs home.
