Finally, Bills get Chiefs at home

1st road playoff for QB Mahomes

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — As much respect Josh Allen has for friend and occasional offseason golf partner Patrick Mahomes, the Buffalo Bills quarterback still can’t forget when his Kansas City Chiefs rival got the last laugh at his expense.

The two were teammates in a made-for-tv golf event in June 2022 when Mahomes was asked to describe Allen’s biggest fear. Pausing for a moment, Mahomes said, “A coin toss,” causing Allen to smile and lower his head.

The Kansas City quarterback, of course, was referring to the Chiefs’ 42-36 overtime victory in a 2021 season AFC divisional round game that Bills fans have dubbed “13 Seconds.” That’s the amount of time it took Mahomes to march the Chiefs 44 yards to set up a tying field goal as time expired, after which Kansas City won the coin toss and ended the game with a touchdown on the first overtime possession.

On Sunday night, the Bills (12-6) and Chiefs (12-6) will meet in the playoffs for the third time in four years and once again in the divisional round, and the past is the last thing on Allen’s mind.

“We don’t need to bring that up,” Allen said Wednesday. “I’m sure people will bring up what I’m afraid of but, nah, I got a lot of respect for him and his game and who he is off the field.”

After having their 2020 and ’21 seasons end at Arrowhead Stadium with playoff losses, it’s the Bills’ turn to host the Chiefs in what will be Mahomes’ first playoff road game. It will also mark Mahomes’ first time experiencing the full roar of fans at Highmark Stadium. His only other game at Buffalo was played in an empty stadium due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020.

“Even though I know it’s going to be hostile and there are going to be people talking trash and everything like that, I’m excited for it because it’s one of the best environments in football,” Mahomes said. “And you want to do that when you grow up watching these games in the best environments and see what it’s like.”

Although the teams had the same record in the regular season, Buffalo won the tiebreaker with its 2017 win at Kansas City last month. That was the first of six straight victories for the Bills.

Snow isn’t in the forecast, though cold temperatures are, which shouldn’t affect either team. The Bills are accustomed to the cold, while the Chiefs beat visiting Miami last weekend with a gametime temperature of minus-4 and wind chills that made it feel 20 degrees colder.