Jan 26, 2025
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WROC) — Josh Allen and the Bills played another playoff classic against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Once again, it was Kansas City coming out on top. The Bills fell to the Chiefs 32-29 in the AFC Championship Game as Kansas City continued their quest for an unprecedented third-straight Super Bowl. Trailing by three with two minutes to play, the Bills faced fourth and five near midfield. The Chiefs sent pressure and Allen heaved a pass down the field to Dalton Kincaid. The ball fell through Kincaid's arms and landed incomplete. The Chiefs got two first downs on the ensuing drive to ice the game. Allen completed 22 of 34 attempts for 237 yards and two touchdowns. James Cook ran the ball 13 times for 85 yards and two touchdowns. Patrick Mahomes ran for two touchdowns and threw for another. Kareem Hunt had a rushing touchdown for the Chiefs and Xavier Worthy had a receiving touchdown. The Bills defense got a clutch stop to set up Buffalo's final drive. On first and goal from the 10, Jordan Phillips overpowered his man and got a sack of Mahomes to force a field goal and a 32-29 lead. With 6:15 left in the game, Allen connected with Curtis Samuel on 4th and goal from the four-yard line to tie the game at 29. The Chiefs took the lead with a 10-yard run by Mahomes early in the fourth quarter to move in front 29-22. That came just five plays after the Chiefs got a fourth-down stop on an Allen QB sneak. Allen came extremely close to converting, but the call was upheld on review. The drive prior, the Bills had a clutch conversion on fourth down. On fourth and goal from the 1-yard line down 21-16, the Bills went for it. Allen pitched the ball to Cook, who was hit about two yards short of the end zone. However, an incredible effort allowed him to reach the ball over the goal line for a touchdown and a 22-21 lead. The Bills trailed 21-16 at the half, a fortunate result with how poorly they played. Allen nearly threw interceptions on his first two attempts of the game. He also fumbled twice, but was able to recover both of them. The Bills took advantage of a Kansas City fumble on a botched handoff, which was recovered by Ed Oliver. Cook ran in a 6-yard touchdown one play after a clutch 24-yard completion to Khalil Shakir for a 10-7 lead. However, Xavier Worthy and Patrick Mahomes scored touchdowns on the next two possessions for a 21-10 lead. The Bills scored in their two-minute offense on the ensuing possession, with Allen completing a 34-yard pass to Mack Hollins for a touchdown. The Bills went for two after a penalty by the Chiefs, but Allen was stopped on a QB sneak. Christian Benford suffered a concussion in the first quarter and was quickly ruled out. Allen and the Bills will spend another offseason wondering how they can finally overcome their AFC rivals and advance to the Super Bowl. "They've ended a lot of teams' seasons, too," Allen said. "It's a good squad, they had a good plan tonight. They made one more play than we did." The Bills are now 0-4 in the postseason against Mahomes and the Chiefs. After the loss, Allen discussed what went wrong this time around. "You can either get it done or you can't, and we didn't get it done," Allen said. "Guys made some plays today, we've just got to make one more and score one more point than them, and we didn't do that tonight." Even with the win over the Chiefs in the regular season, Kansas City was too strong to overcome in the battle for a spot in the Super Bowl. After the loss, head coach Sean McDermott praised Kansas City's playoff stretch over the last few years. "They're a good football team. They've won two Super Bowls, they've been to seven-straight AFC Championship Games," he said. "That's no excuse, this is a good football team. We've got to keep working to get over that hump, there's no doubt about it." Even with the disappointment of adding another loss to the Chiefs to the Bills' postseason resume, McDermott is proud of the season his team produced. But still — figuring out how to take down Kansas City is on the head coach's mind. "Our guys played their hearts out, we came up a little bit short against a really good football team," McDermott said. "We go back to trying to figure it out in terms of how we can beat this football team, and we've got to look at everything." Taron Johnson also recognized the pattern in the playoffs, reflecting on being in the same position of losing to the Chiefs in the postseason. "We've been in this situation before, so just making sure that just because it happened again, doesn't mean it's going to keep happening," Johnson said. "Just making sure that we're not taking that loss and bringing it to next season. Clean slate and get back to the drawing board and get better." While Johnson already had thoughts of next season, Dawson Knox was feeling the moment of heartbreak. "It really is, it's devastating, and it takes awhile," Knox said. "Unfortunately, I've felt this type of pain before and even more so this year. But I've got a bunch of guys in this locker room that I love, that we'll be able to lean on each other." Although disappointed, the Bills have pride in their accomplishments this season. "I got so much pride in our guys. Showing up each and every day, working as hard as they can. Guys truly adopted what we talked about this year going into it. I love these guys," Allen said. As the clock hit zero, McDermott made sure his team knew just how he felt about its postseason run. "We gave everything we had, and I told the players that I'm extremely proud of them," McDermott said. "Wasn't the result we were looking for, but they gave this season everything they had and this team everything they had. You guys saw it out there until the very last play, those guys were going for it, and I appreciate that."
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