This time was supposed to be different for Josh Allen and his Buffalo Bills. Sunday night marked the third postseason matchup between Allen's Bills and Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs, but this was the first matchup played in Buffalo instead of Kansas City.
The location didn't matter, though, as the Chiefs prevailed once again, 27-24, after Bills kicker Tyler Bass missed a 44-yard field goal attempt wide right with 1:47 left to play. Instead of seeing the game potentially head to overtime, the Chiefs picked up a first down and then knelt to end the game.
"It sucks," Josh Allen said at his postgame press conference Sunday night. "Losing sucks. Losing to them, losing to anybody at home sucks. Here, there, it doesn't matter," Allen said. "Losing sucks. I don't know what else to say."
In the last four postseasons, Allen and the Bills are a perfect 5-0 against all AFC teams who haven't represented the conference in the Super Bowl in that span. Buffalo is 0-4 against the Chiefs and Bengals in the same stretch. Despite the inability to triumph over the conference's top contenders, Allen believes the Bills are close. His performance Sunday night -- three total touchdowns (two rushing and one passing) and 258 total yards (186 passing and 72 rushing) -- had Buffalo in position to drive and potentially take the lead late. Consecutive incompletions forced Buffalo to settle for the 44-yard kick.
"I don't think it's a big change," Allen said. "I think it's just, again, we've got to find a way to score one more point than they do. And every season, if you don't win, it's a failed season. That's the nature of the business. There's one happy team at the end of the season, really. And when it's not you and you're so close, it sucks."
As long Allen is around, the Bills have a shot. His 27 total postseason touchdowns in 10 postseason games are the second-most all time in a player's first 10 playoff contests, trailing only Mahomes' 30. Perhaps one of the big keys to getting them back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1990s is getting Pro Bowl wide receiver Stefon Diggs back on track. He averaged 48.9 receiving yards per game over his last 13 games of the season with no 100-yard games. That stands as the longest drought without a 100-yard receiving game in his career.
Changes happen to every NFL roster in the offseason, and how much Buffalo's changes this March and April will be one of the league's bigger storylines.
