The idea that the Bills prevented an expedited Patrick Mahomes scoring drive at the end of the game Sunday to hang on and win exorcises some number of demons. Had Mahomes carved up the Buffalo secondary again in some multiple of 13 seconds to steal the game, Bills coach Sean McDermott would have had a real pickle on his hands, needing to amass a quantity of cleansing sage for Orchard Park too large for standard shipping.
We don’t necessarily buy the idea the Bills were totally able to cling to the platitude that a date with the Chiefs was just another game on their schedule, though it was certainly part of their psychological preparation for this week. But it’s not all about what happened last year. It’s a safe bet there was a real curiosity on their part to see how good they really were after thumping the Rams in the opener, beating the Titans by 34 and the Steelers by 35. Everyone knows the Bills are the best team in football, but it’s weeks such as this one that cement the idea bone-deep.
The Chiefs represented their last real hurdle, both mentally and physically, for the only goals that will truly eviscerate how the 2021 season ended in January: gaining home field advantage in the playoffs and a first-round bye to make the ludicrously difficult task of making it to the Super Bowl a little bit easier.
They will almost certainly see the Chiefs again. They gave them a good deal of homework in the meantime. At least from the looks of it, more than the Chiefs can reasonably make up in the next three months.
Jay Biggerstaff/USA TODAY Sports
There were a number of moments in Sunday’s game in which the Bills flashed maturity, both as a roster and as a staff. The additions of certain players—such as Von Miller—and the ability to sidestep a key portion of the game plan when one player was ineffective or not having his best week, were critical parts of their win over the Chiefs. They are beyond the quicksand moments that often grip a team when various uncalled penalties and untimely physical annoyances mount.
Buffalo was able to completely eliminate the Chiefs’ running game, limit the damage done by Mahomes’s favorite pass catcher (Travis Kelce) and force Mahomes into that kind of slow-motion Matrix pose he tends to make while distressed and on the run, just before a sidearm pass lands in the arms of an opposing defender.
Mahomes on Sunday was not as lost and wandering as he was in the Super Bowl LV loss to the Buccaneers, but he was similarly trapped into extending plays that benefited the Bills’ defense directly.
Much will be made of what happened back in January but, as McDermott alluded to this week, they spent an entire offseason making sure they weren’t that team anymore. This was true in almost every draft-night decision and other acquisition or maneuver. For the better part of two years now, the goal has been to Chiefs-proof the roster. For the most part, they could rest assured that they were better than everyone else.
Winning this game legitimized that part of the process.
Since the 2020 season, when the Bills went three rounds deep into the playoffs and Josh Allen solidified his place as one of those quarterbacks who is too talented to suffer extended periods of futility, we have wondered when (not if) he will christen his time in the NFL with a Super Bowl. Was he destined to be in more of a John Elway situation, where chapters of his career had to pass by before the right circumstances facilitated a championship run? Or, was all of this plotting and scheming directed at the heart of the matter: Building a team that can effectively outduel any of the power players in their division right now who might stand in their way.
It’s one thing to be all in, and simply load the roster with enough good players to outflex the division. It’s quite another to build yourself as the antithesis of your most common foil. The Bills showed they are the latter in Arrowhead on Sunday, which ultimately means way more than amassing style points by preventing Mahomes from doing what he did to you a year ago.
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