Each of Patrick Mahomes’ prior postseason bouts with Josh Allen played out differently, yet the outcome was the same every time.
Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs blew out Allen’s Buffalo Bills, 38-24, in the AFC Championship Game in 2021, leading by at least two scores for nearly all of the second half.
The following postseason, the Chiefs eked out a 42-36 overtime victory over the Bills in an instant-classic divisional-round slugfest, during which the lead changed three times in the final two minutes of regulation.
And then last year, the Chiefs held on for a 27-24 victory in the divisional round, keeping the Bills scoreless on their final three drives. Buffalo kicker Tyler Bass missed a would-be-game-tying 44-yard field goal with 1:47 remaining.
“You always remember the feeling of not pulling through,” Allen, 28, said this week. “That sticks with you for a while, and that really doesn’t leave.”
The rivalry renews this Sunday evening when Allen’s Bills visit Mahomes’ Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
But the stakes are even higher than that.
Mahomes and the Chiefs are pursuing their third consecutive Super Bowl victory, which would make them the first team in NFL history to achieve a three-peat.
Allen seeks his first trip to a Super Bowl, with a chance to change a narrative hanging over his otherwise excellent career.
“Patrick’s one of the greatest to ever play the game, and they’re one of the greatest teams to ever be assembled, going for a three-peat,” Allen said. “That’s what everyone wants to be in this league, to have the sustained success that they have.”
Despite the championship void on his résumé, the rocket-armed Allen has been an elite postseason performer for much of his seven-year NFL career. He’s thrown 23 touchdowns against four interceptions in 12 playoff games.
But Allen is 0-3 against the Chiefs in the playoffs, compared to 7-2 against everyone else.
“I’ve played against Josh enough times to know that he’s going to come out and play great football, especially in those big moments,” Mahomes said this week. “When you go up against a great quarterback, it takes your best as well.”
Both quarterbacks have often been at their best when they’ve faced each other.
In that back-and-forth 2022 divisional-round game, Mahomes threw for 378 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another 69 yards and a score. Allen threw for 329 yards and four touchdowns and added another 68 yards on the ground.
Allen’s 19-yard touchdown pass to Gabriel Davis put the Bills up, 36-33, with 13 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Mahomes responded with a 13-second field goal drive, setting up Harrison Butker’s 49-yarder to force OT.
The Chiefs won the overtime coin toss and scored the game-winning touchdown on the opening possession, with Mahomes firing a walk-off eight-yard pass to Travis Kelce. Two months later, the NFL owners approved a rule change that guarantees both teams receive an offensive possession in playoff overtimes.
The regular-season meetings have been similarly competitive, though Allen is 4-1 in those games.
The teams have faced each other five regular seasons in a row, including in November when the Bills handed the Chiefs their only loss this season in a game started by Mahomes.
“We’ve been able to beat them in the playoffs, and they’ve gotten us in the regular season,” Mahomes said. “But if you look at the games, every game is close.”
Las Vegas expects Sunday’s game to be close, too. The Chiefs enter as 1.5-point favorites.
The Chiefs, behind a ball-control offense and stout defense, went 15-2 in the regular season to clinch the AFC’s No. 1 seed and a first-round bye. They cruised past the Houston Texans, 23-14, in the divisional round.
The Bills finished 13-4 in the regular season and as the conference’s No. 2 seed, with Allen’s 40 total touchdowns leading a high-powered offense and while earning him a nod as an MVP finalist. Buffalo beat the Denver Broncos, 31-7, in the wild card round and the Baltimore Ravens, 27-25, in the divisional round.
It all led to the inevitable: Chiefs vs. Bills in the playoffs once again.
“It’s like a division game,” Allen said. “I feel like we’ve played them just as much as we’ve played the guys in our division. With that comes familiarity, new wrinkles here and there throughout the game, but they know who we are. We know who they are. It literally comes down to who executes well on Sunday. “