"13 seconds."
Put in on the list.
- "Wide Right"
- "Home Run Throwback"
- "No Goal"
13 seconds and kicking off with a three-point lead. On the road, in the playoffs, against the team the Buffalo Bills were built to beat. After your quarterback had thrown two go-ahead touchdown passes after the two-minute warning.
The sting of this loss is going to last a long time. How long, you might ask? Well those three items at the top of the page here all happened in the '90s, so…
It’ll be a minute until we’re all over this one.
The thing about Sunday night’s loss in Kansas City to the Chiefs that has me feeling the worst is thinking about the opportunity the Bills let slip through their fingers. The opportunity to host the Cincinnati Bengals for the AFC Championship Game was right there, just 13 seconds away.
Yes, the Bills are well-built and have a superstar playing quarterback and organizational stability. The window for winning a Super Bowl didn’t slam shut on the Bills overnight.
But you can’t know immediately afterwards if what just blew up in your face was the best look you were ever going to get at winning it all. Pointing this out doesn’t mean the Bills won’t ever get there. It’s just to say that being 13 seconds from beating Patrick Mahomes on the road is an incredible opportunity to squander.
Right or wrong, if the Bills were hosting the Bengals next Sunday, loads of Bills fans would’ve started making plans to head for Los Angeles in three weeks.
I mean, the Bengals? At home? The way the Bills were playing?
Instead, we’ll be passing strangers muttering to ourselves about squib kicks and prevent defenses until next season comes around and probably for a long time after that too.
So what about a squib kick? Or maybe even better put, a kick that forces Kansas City to field the ball and waste a few valuable seconds?
If you're worried about the squib maybe going out of bounds or being fielded in too favorable a spot for the Chiefs, then kick it deep. Just not too deep. Anywhere inside the 10-yard line would’ve been just fine by me, thank you.
Maybe the Chiefs take a knee to avoid wasting time and preserve as much clock as possible for Mahomes. If they try to run it back at all, the clock is ticking down at least a few seconds, and that could’ve been enough to keep them from making two throws to get into reasonable field goal position. If the Chiefs do take the knee to preserve time, they’re inside their own 10-yard line.
Then there is the defense, especially on the 25-yard pass to Travis Kelce. The Chiefs had three receivers bunched up on the right side of their formation and only Kelce to the left. Bills cornerback Levi Wallace is the man on the scene there, and he appears to be guarding the sideline to keep the Chiefs from stopping the clock on a completion.
The problem with this tactic is the Chiefs had timeouts to burn and didn’t need the sideline. Kelce gets a free release off the line, and just runs straight up field for an easy pitch-and-catch with Mahomes.
Wallace, with no other receivers in the area, is slow to get after Kelce and that was that.
Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker makes his kick, the coin toss doesn’t go your way and, of course, Mahomes knifes the Chiefs through the Bills defense in overtime and that’s the end of that.
So, what now?
Well, now you get to start all over again next year.
There will be changes. There always are. The Bills avoided significant losses to their coaching staff last year, but I’d think Brian Daboll’s time as a head coach is coming.
The other teams with great young quarterbacks will keep grinding. Joe Borrow and the Bengals are already as far as the Bills got last season. Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers are likely to be a problem at some point. Maybe Deshaun Watson gets to play somewhere again. Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens are still out there.
And then there is still Mahomes, who continues to be the best of the best.
The Bills had him. Allen had him. Kicking off with a three-point lead.
With 13 seconds to go.
