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Alaina Getzenberg
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Josh Allen took a deep breath before he started his news conference Sunday.
The moment was familiar.
The Buffalo Bills quarterback was visibly frustrated as he tried to explain how he felt after the Bills came up short again. “It’s not fun, but to be the champs you’ve got to beat the champs, and we didn’t do it tonight,” Allen said.
The “champs,” otherwise known as the Kansas City Chiefs, have beaten the Bills four times in the past five postseasons, the first time in playoff history that one team has eliminated the same opponent four times in a five-season span. The Bills came back from multiple deficits, including an 11-point hole, but ultimately lost in the AFC Championship Game 32-29.
As red and gold confetti littered the hallways just a bit away from the visitor locker room and the cheers echoed throughout the stadium, a quiet Bills team was left to pack up their belongings, and process getting so close yet again. Allen returned from his press conference to sit in his locker in full uniform and look ahead and down as he does after the toughest of losses.
“You can either get it done or you can’t,” Allen said. “And we didn’t get it done.”
Finding an answer to getting past the Chiefs will extend into next season, as will the search to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1993 season for a franchise that has come close but not reached that elusive title.
“[The Chiefs] a good football team. They’ve won two Super Bowls, been to seven straight AFC championship games. That’s no excuse,” coach Sean McDermott said. “This is a good football team. We’ve got to keep working to get over that hump, there is no doubt about it. We’ve won a lot of tough games this year against really good opponents, really good coaches. I’m proud of this football team. This is obviously a challenge for us. We’ll figure it out.”
The Bills’ 78 wins over last six seasons, including the playoffs, are the most by any team in six-season span without a Super Bowl appearance in NFL history. Allen’s seven playoff wins are the most by any quarterback to never make a Super Bowl appearance.
A chance to put together a game-winning drive fell short as the Chiefs blitzed and pressured Allen on fourth-and-5 with two minutes remaining from the Buffalo 47-yard line. The quarterback was forced to scramble and heaved the ball up for tight end Dalton Kincaid, but instead of making a difficult catch, the ball fell to the ground.
“It’s football. Josh made a hell of attempt just to get the ball up there and just sucks a lot, not being able to bring it down,” Kincaid said.
Allen finished the game completing 22-of-34 passes for 237 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to running 39 yards on 11 carries. The drive was one of two in the second half for the Bills that ended on fourth down, including a controversial fourth-and-1 play by Allen where he was close to the line needed to gain, but replay ultimately ruled the call on the field that he was short held.
“Just short of the line was actually the first down, what it looked like to me when it was sitting next to me with the marker,” McDermott said. “Just inside that white stripe was the first down. And it looked like he got to it, that’s all I can say.”
One of Allen’s areas of success this year proved to be an issue against the Chiefs. Allen thrived under pressure this season, however, against Kansas City, he completed just 1-of-8 passes when pressured for four yards, including two of his final three passes.
On the other side, the Chiefs scored a season-high 32 points against a Bills defense that struggled to get off the field in the first half — allowing touchdowns in three of the Chiefs’ first four possessions — and couldn’t make enough stops in the second half.
“Didn’t do enough, didn’t make enough plays to win the game,” linebacker Terrel Bernard said. “It’s tough, man. It sucks, honestly, just thinking about all the work, all the effort, all the time you put into it, and then to not accomplish your ultimate goal, it sucks. So, we’ll take it, learn from it, and get better.”
The defense was without starting cornerback Christian Benford after the first quarter due to a concussion, after he was recently cleared from concussion protocol he was in throughout the week, and McDermott noted that losing Benford affected the defense. Despite the defensive issues in the first half, the Bills stayed in the game throughout, but it ultimately wasn’t enough.
“We don’t accomplish s—. We don’t win a ring,” cornerback Rasul Douglas said. “None of that s— going to matter. Everybody got one goal, bro. Only one team handles the goal at the end of every year. All other 31 is just trying to get to that goal.”
The difference for this team than other years was that loss brings to end a season in which the Bills surpassed outside expectations with a variety of new faces and leaders bringing a certain camaraderie to this team as players in the locker room noted. But the goal remained the same.
“If you get this close, you definitely going to try to win it all,” safety Damar Hamlin said. “Just thinking about having to prepare for next season, it’s just thinking about everything that it took to get to this point feels like a heavy load to lift. So, you want to try to maximize while you’re here.”