Today, they’ll make this about Josh Allen—and they’ll be correct.
For the past five years—and everyone who follows the NFL should hope for the next decade or so—these Buffalo Bills–Kansas City Chiefs showdowns have been headlined by Allen and Patrick Mahomes. How they play is the bellwether, which was the case at Highmark Stadium on this temperate November afternoon.
We’ll all remember how Buffalo’s 28-year-old monster truck of a quarterback went into superhero mode on fourth-and-2 to end the two-time defending champs’ run at a perfect season with a 26-yard touchdown run, securing Buffalo’s scintillating 30–21 win and positioning the Bills—if Kansas City slips up—for a shot to steal the No. 1 seed and home field in the AFC playoffs.
We’ve known that Allen could make a highlight-reel play like that for a long time. What we didn’t know is if what’s around Allen in Orchard Park could get him back into that fourth-and-2, with a chance to slay this NFL era’s great dragon. Gone are so many of the pieces that starred in the early editions of Allen vs. Mahomes, in the 2020 AFC title game, and, of course, the divisional round classic of ’21.
Over the past two years, sans Tyreek Hill and a host of others, Kansas City has shown an ability to withstand attrition and keep giving its once-in-a-lifetime quarterback title shots. This year, the Bills are proving themselves capable of doing the same.
“The standard that we’ve set as a team, as a culture, whoever’s playing is expected to play at that level and that standard,” fresh-faced, third-year linebacker Terrel Bernard told me from the victorious locker room Sunday night. “That’s been our motto. We lost a lot of great players, lot of veterans and captains on this team last year. New guys got to step up and play to that level and rise to the occasion. That’s what we’ve been doing.”
Bernard did it himself, with a game-sealing pick of Mahomes at the end to salt away what was, yes, a big win, but one that Sean McDermott and the rest of the guys in Western New York hope is the launching point for bigger things to come a couple of months from now.
We’ve known for a while that Allen’s good enough to get the Bills there.
Sunday showed that what’s around him, even after all the attrition, may be, too.
