Bills get Chiefs rematch but at home
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – For the first time in his NFL career, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is going to have to play a true road playoff game Sunday night.
And that game will take place at Highmark Stadium thanks to the Buffalo Bills’ 31-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on a frigid Monday night in a venue that looked like an igloo three hours before the start of the game.
Bills fans, I would think, are perfectly happy that the AFC wild-card game was moved from Sunday to Monday because the weather was about a million times better – cold, yes, but manageable wind and no snow – and it allowed the Buffalo offense to function the way it normally would.
“People keep saying that’s what we wanted (the game being moved), and we had no call in that, or no say in that,” Josh Allen said. “That was a health and safety issue from the state. We would have played yesterday, would have played Saturday, would have played Friday, it wouldn’t have mattered. We would have come out here and played when we were told to play.”
But they would not have played, at least on offense, as well as they did. For the Bills to have scored 31 points and not turn the ball over was quite a night, even if the Steelers didn’t have their best player, edge rusher T.J. Watt, but that production would have been impossible Sunday.
For a while, it looked as if this was going to be an easy Buffalo victory as the Bills jumped out to a 21-0 secondquarter lead, but an unfortunate sequence at the end of the half changed things dramatically and because nothing has ever come easy for the Bills, the rest of the night was not nearly as comfortable as it should have been.
In the end the Bills survived and advanced, and as a result, the game Bills fans have been pining for – the Chiefs coming to Buffalo rather than the other way around for a postseason game – will come to pass at 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday, the final matchup of the divisional round weekend.
Mahomes has never had to go on the road in the postseason. His only games away from Arrowhead Stadium were the three Super Bowls he has played in. At home, he’s 10-2 in January and two of those victories, as we all know, came against the Bills in the 2020 AFC championship game and the 2021 divisional round game, the infamous 13 seconds debacle.
Of course, the Chiefs will have two extra days of rest when they come to Buffalo because of the one-day postponement, and it will make for a hectic week for a tired and battered Bills team.
“We’re a step behind already, we understand that,” Allen said. “I think it’s gonna be very crucial for guys to get their rest and making sure that we’re getting in the training room and rehabbing as much as we can. I know guys are gonna be bruised and beat up tomorrow. So, again, it’s going to take everybody this week getting our guys ready to go.”
Unfortunately for the Bills, they paid a heavy price to beat the Steelers and they face the prospect of playing the Chiefs with a severely depleted defense.
In the last two weeks, disaster has struck. They lost cornerback Rasul Douglas, linebacker Tyrel Dodson and safety Taylor Rapp in the Miami game and then lost linebacker Terrel Bernard, cornerback Christian Benford, linebacker Baylon Spector and nickel cornerback Taron Johnson against the Steelers.
That is a major situation with Mahomes and Travis Kelce coming to town. Bernard certainly looks to be out as he was carted off the field with an ankle issue, so that’s certainly not a good sign, and the others are going to be a waitand-see scenario all week.