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Mahomes went 89-of-122 (73%) for 1,057 passing yards, 11 TDs, 3 INTs (also added 117 rush yards on 13 carries and a touchdown). If that's regression, deal me in.

This loss didn't bother me for some reason. Maybe because I was genuinely happy for Bengals fans, or because the Bengals flat out outplayed the Chiefs and deserved to win, or maybe because the Chiefs have been on the other side of it so many times (the Chiefs had trailed in their five prior playoff wins, including three by double digits). After the last two years, Chiefs fans have assumed it would be easy sailing every year with Mahomes at QB. But this year was an epic grind that easily could have and probably should have ended in the Divisional Round. The middle part of the year where the Chiefs held it together and scraped out wins, it was the defense, not the offense, that kept them moving forward. It is frickin' hard to win. Now more than ever. The rest of the AFC is too good to assume an upward trajectory without slipping on the banana peels.

Yes: Don't get your hopes up in 2021. You will lose to the Chiefs in the playoffs again. 😉

He's referring to Mathieu (injury on opening series) and Fenton (key DB for Chiefs). Both were hugely important. Mathieu's absence led to the terrible Dan Sorensen being on the field; and Fenton's injury enabled Mike Hughes to play significant snaps. He got absolutely torched. Mathieu and Fenton both returned vs Bengals. Sorensen played just 12 snaps, Hughes played just one. Quite honestly, reading this forum, I would expect nothing less than 5000 yards, 40 TDs and single-digit INTs from Allen in 2022. 🙂

Despite the banged up secondary, KC actually did a nice job until losing Gabe Davis deep on the 75-yard bomb. The Bills went 35 plays for 185 yards (5.2 yds per play) and punted three of their first five drives. From that point on, as we know, they did the opposite of good. 😃

Belichick didn't have the personnel to slow the Bills down, especially not with the bodies they had in the playoff game. He got a pass due to a 40 mph wind game otherwise the Bills would have ran circles around that defense. But rest assured, his offseason personnel decisions will be made entirely to stop the Bills; just as the Bills' front office has had the Chiefs in mind when putting together their roster.

I'm sure they did. And many teams in fairness had some success. The Jags kept the Bills out of the end zone. The Falcons limited Allen to 120 passing yards and three INTs. The Colts' Matt Eberflus earned himself extra attention after he forced Allen into a horrible game in a Colts rout. Even the Jets made him look pedestrian for a half. Based on what I read, it seems Bills fans expect a continuation of the playoff performances. And that simply isn't going to happen. This league is too damn hard.

I think most Bills fans assume the stats will remain on an upward trajectory and that the next step is "Josh Allen is unstoppable." Chiefs fans thought the same with Mahomes. I'm seeing similar coverage now with Burrow and Herbert. Please note: Regress doesn't mean Josh Allen sucks! Mahomes is a better QB in 2022 than he was in 2018. But he will never again put up the numbers he did his first year in the league. I think it took him some time to confront that reality.

I'll start with this: I think the Bills are the favorite to earn the 1-seed in the AFC next year. But I think they'll do it with Josh Allen enduring a season that comes up short of the monster expectations that have been placed upon him. I've been reading Chiefs-Bengals postgame coverage, and it's predictably terrible, with the main thesis being that "Mahomes choked" in the 2nd half. It is true: Mahomes put together arguably his worst half as a pro—on the heels of one of his best. But the Bengals deserve credit for putting together a nice defensive plan, one that took advantage of two Chiefs tendencies: Andy's unwillingness to stick to the run; and Mahomes' desire to be aggressive and make plays. The Bengals dropped eight into coverage on roughly half of Mahomes' second half pass attempts, all but begging the Chiefs to run, and also a QB spy, all but eliminating Mahomes' ability to scramble free as he did so often vs Buffalo a week earlier. It worked to perfection. Mahomes kept force feeding passes into tight windows (no one was open) and the Chiefs kept throwing on 2nd-and-5s. The Bengals also got pressure on Mahomes with three-man rushes, sacking him twice in the 2nd half and chasing him around the yard a handful of other times. Anyway, this isn't the first time Mahomes has been 'solved.' And it won't be the last. Mahomes was downright terrible earlier this year. In a five-week stretch starting with the Bills game, Mahomes had six TDs vs six INTs, easily the worst stretch of play in a four-year career that has ended in either the AFC title game or the Super Bowl every time. Having watched every snap of Mahomes' career, there's no doubt he's better now at age 26 than he was at age 23. He will keep getting better. But he'll keep getting the "Mahomes Treatment," with defensive coordinators literally spending their offseasons inventing ways to stop him. Mahomes saw growth this year in mastering the two-high safety looks that confounded him in the Super Bowl and early in 2021. He became a more patient QB—his best display of patience probably came vs the Bills in the Divisional Round. But in the end, the Bengals got him, throwing new wrinkles at him that other defenses largely avoided; and play calling did Mahomes no favors either (especially in 2nd half.) All this to say: Josh Allen is about to start getting the Mahomes Treatment. Every team on Buffalo's schedule is going to spend extra time studying him and finding ways to beat him. And someone - perhaps Belichick, but maybe someone else - will find something that works. And every team will copy it. Doesn't mean they'll shut him down. Doesn't mean the Bills will start losing to teams like the Jets and Dolphins. But there will be turbulence, and I suspect you will see him go through a slump and his numbers will decline in 2022. The counter argument is that Allen's numbers should have been even better in 2021 than they were. I don't think any team played in worse weather conditions than the Bills did this year. The uncommonly easy schedule partially offsets that perhaps, but his stats still would have been better. Which reminds me: MVP voting is such a sham. Comparing Josh Allen stats (wintry Buffalo) vs Tom Brady stats (sunny TB with four road games played in domes) is utterly stupid. It would be like having a PGA Tour event where half the field plays in perfect weather while the other half tees off in 30 MPH wind and pouring rain. Gee, I wonder who will come out on top?

I was there! First half was strange. Even as the Chiefs were dominating, it felt more like a regular season game than an AFC championship and I can honestly say I didn't take the Bengals seriously. I commented to a friend, "If I were a Bills fan, I would feel proud, knowing that the Bills and Chiefs are so far ahead of anyone else in the AFC." Compared to the prior three AFC title games at Arrowhead, this was a distant fourth behind only the limited capacity game vs the Bills last year. The atmosphere as a whole had nothing on last week's win over the Bills either. I don't know if Chiefs fans ever really moved on from last week. Speaking for myself, I consumed entirely post-game Chiefs-Bills coverage this week and almost zero Chiefs-Bengals pregame coverage. That is not typical. Anyway, the 2nd half was pretty electric. The Chiefs were choking their brains out and Arrowhead was anxiety filled by early 4th quarter. All credit to the Bengals, they made plays and the Chiefs didn't. I'm sure the broadcast made Mahomes look worse than he really was. In reality, there were just never any WRs open it seemed after HT. The Bengals locked them down completely after looking overmatched in 1st half. As a Chiefs fan, I've endured plenty of playoff heartbreak through the years—this was the third lead of 18+ I've seen these Chiefs blow under Andy Reid alone! And yet, this was an easy loss for me to take. The Chiefs stunk for much of this year and never really seemed to have it. It's hard to get back to these games, and harder still to advance to the big one. I was also happy for the Bengals fans. Until today I don't think I'd ever met a Bengals fan. But most I interacted with were a lot of fun and they've been starved for success. Couldn't believe how many were there either. I'd estimate they had twice as many fans there as were Bills fans in the divisional round. Underrated fan base, and underrated team.

Most interesting part of the chat was definitely on the subject of communication. He essentially said, and I'm paraphrasing: "McDermott is details, details, details. All offseason. Spring and summer. All the time. Obsessive. We spend time going over these things. Communication is always stressed. And then, 13 seconds left, it all breaks down. And nobody knows what we are doing. Nobody knows why this happened."

This was one of the most interesting player interviews I've ever heard. Really enjoyed this. Surprised by some of the candid comments.

Will probably have to click through Youtube to view. Very well done. Includes radio calls from both Chiefs and Bills announcers, as well as CBS's Jim Nantz/Romo.

http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/012537.php Yes, it would sit in between. If you need it for baseball, slide it over to Kauffman Stadium. Need it for football? Slide it over to Arrowhead. The roof could have enabled Arrowhead to host the Super Bowl, could have enabled it to host Final Fours, conventions, etc. About 17 years ago, Jackson County taxpayers had a chance to vote on adding a rolling roof—dusting off the original idea from three decades earlier. The NFL promised the Chiefs a Super Bowl if it was passed. But taxpayers voted it down by less than 1%.

I was in club level for Chiefs-Bills. About 45 minutes after the game, I walked out to the stands and there was one remaining fan left in the entire lower bowl of the stadium, surrounded by thousands of empty red seats, and a clean up crew a few sections over. It was a Bills fan. He looked so, so sad. 🙁

I tend to agree with this, but it was eye opening to watch the Chiefs this year the first half of the season. Not only did they face a brutal schedule early, but they were taking every team's absolute best shot. That was never more true than in the Bills game on SNF. When you become the team everyone is chasing, they are saving their best plays for you, and in some cases they are literally building their team to beat yours. That will continue to be true for the Chiefs as teams study them more and more and try to invent new ways to slow them down. The Chiefs caught a few amazing breaks at a critical time this year. At 3-4 overall, they had a stretch of vs GB, at Vegas (SNF), vs Dallas before their bye week. It wasn't crazy to think that the Chiefs could have dropped two of three to fall to 4-6 which would have been very hard to recover from with more tough games left on their schedule (in particular at LAC, vs Cincy). But Aaron Rodgers got COVID, effectively gifting the Chiefs a win in what otherwise would have been a coin flip. And then a few weeks later, Dallas lost two of their best WRs, which greatly enhanced the Chiefs' chances. Everything that could go right did go right for the Chiefs ever since, of course. But especially as the AFC West improves (Chargers should be ready to roll going forward, and Vegas or Denver could add a star QB through trade or free agency), the Chiefs will have their hands full. In good news, Veach has drafted amazingly well in recent years and has hit on enough picks in 2020 and 2021 that they're in remarkably good shape in the near term.

The Chiefs just had three of their 2021 draft picks — C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, LB Nick Bolton — selected to the PFWA All Rookie Team. That's 3 players out of 22 that were picked, more than any other team. Five AFC teams, including the Bills, had zero players picked. They have Mahomes, Kelce, Hill, Hardman, Clyde, Thuney and soon to be Orlando Brown locked up offensively for 2022. Smith and Humphrey are on rookie deals. Realistically, they'll need to identify a new WR if they decide to part ways with Byron Pringle or Demarcus Robinson. There should be zero drop off on offense. Defensively, I would agree it gets a bit trickier. But they will be able to keep all the players they want for the most part.

29 of the 45 Chiefs players who took snaps vs the Bills were either drafted by the Chiefs or were signed as rookie free agents. A handful of others have been with KC long-term after another team discarded them as rookies or shortly after. The only prominent players on KC's roster signed via trade or free agency are: Orlando Brown, Joe Thuney, Frank Clark, Tyrann Mathieu, Anthony Hitchens, Melvin Ingram.

Bills get Titans at home; Ravens on the road. Bills will be favored in both games but it will be a shorter spread vs Ravens.

With absolute precision? No. But I'd be willing to bet you that the Chiefs, Rams, Bengals and Bills will finish 2022 in the top half of the standings, while the Jets, Texans, Giants and Panthers will be in the bottom half. Never? KC played in Buffalo in 2020, and three straight years in in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Looking ahead to the Bills' schedule, based on current Vegas odds, they'll have three games against the two worst teams in the NFL (Lions and Jets x2). They'll play three more against bottom 10 teams (Steelers, Vikings, Bears). They'll play three more against avg/below avg teams (Dolphins x2, Browns). The hardest games will be, in order: -At Chiefs (best odds to win '23 Super Bowl) -At Rams (5th best odds) -Vs Packers (3rd best, if Rodgers stays) -At Bengals (8th best) -At Ravens (9th best) -Vs Titans (10th best) Obviously, personnel can and will change in the offseason. But it's looking like another favorable schedule for the Bills. The Chiefs, meanwhile, will play six games against top-10 level teams—Bills, Bucs, Rams, 49ers, Bengals, Titans. They'll play five more against avg to above avg teams (Chargers x2, Cardinals, Colts, Seahawks). They'll have four games against the Raiders and Broncos, ranked 18th and 20th, and both teams could make a QB splash—perhaps getting Watson, Rodgers or Wilson (we know the Broncos are expected to be aggressive in making a move.) So that would be 15 games against top-20 level teams, with eight of them on the road. KC's lone easy games will be vs Jaguars (28th) and at Texans (29th).

The best plays in no particular order: -Allen's scramble in OP of this thread -Mahomes' ridiculous arm angle throw that zipped past Rousseau -Allen's scramble and throw to Diggs for the 2-pt conversion -Diggs' tackle of the idiot who ran on the field -Tyreek's two plays (punt return and catch-and-run TD) -Mahomes evading defenders to flip it to McKinnon for 1st down on opening series -Gabe Davis's ankle-breaking route on 4th-and-13 to get TD -Allen's throw to Davis deep to provide instant rebuttal after falling behind by 9 pts -Mecole Hardman zooming past defenders for TD along sideline -Mahomes to Kelce game winning TD, perfectly thrown ball to corner of end zone

I counted three. 😁

Up to 80k and counting. Nice writeup in Buffalo News: https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/chiefs-fans-donate-more-than-80-000-to-oishei-childrens-hospital-many-in-13-increments/article_2b378128-7e0a-11ec-bacf-870c52b26d3b.html

Well, I agree with your sentiment. But it also requires a coach/coaching staff who trusts their players and their instincts and values their input. That's what Andy has done in KC. When the Chiefs trailed by 10 pts, 8 mins left, facing 3rd-and-15 in the Super Bowl vs the 49ers, and Mahomes hit Tyreek deep, it was Mahomes - not Andy, not Bieniemy - who asked for that particular play call. I think McDermott is a really strong coach. He has his flaws like all of them do, and he's still learning, but from a leadership standpoint I think he is as good as anyone and he reminds me of a Mini Andy. That said, I think when push comes to shove, the Bills will ultimately realize that pairing Allen with an offensive minded head coach is going to be the best recipe for long-term, sustainable success. Andy has churned through several OC's in his time - from Pederson to Nagy to perhaps Bieniemy - all a result of the success of his offense. But Andy has been the stabilizing force and will continue to be as long as he's there. Allen, if he stays on this track, will be earning OC's like Daboll their head coaching jobs too. But without that stabilizing force at head coach, it's going to be somewhat annoying to constantly re-learn or re-tool the offense every three years, unless the Bills are able to develop/promote from within and keep the same system intact.