Bills' season is over after being run over in Kansas City
The clock struck midnight on the Buffalo Bills' Cinderella season during Sunday night's AFC Championship game, won in a romp by the host Kansas City Chiefs, 38-24.
Despite falling behind, 9-0, the defending Super Bowl champs' explosive offense would not be denied and their red-zone defense was nearly perfect as they earned a trip to Tampa to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed 29 passes in 38 attempts for 325 yards and three TDs. Two of them were caught by tight end Travis Kelce, who finished with a game-high 13 catches for 118 yards.
The power of Kelce and the speed of Tyreek Hill (nine catches, 172 yards) and Mecole Hardman, who raced 50 yards on a sweep to set up a touchdown, had the Bills' defense on its heels' throughout.
Offensively, the Bills couldn't sustain their normally effective passing game mostly because when they weren't being overpowered by the Chiefs' pass rushers, they had no clue about how to pick up the blitz.
As a result, Allen finished 28-of-48 for 287 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
The Bills' only first-half touchdown came after pouncing on a muffed punt near the Chiefs' goal line and scoring on the next play.
Buffalo coach Sean McDermott also made highly questionable decisions throughout, settling for field goals of 20 and 27 yards instead of going for touchdowns in the second and fourth quarters, respectively, and then going for two points after scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter that cut the Chiefs' lead to 17 points.
An extra point would have given the Bills a chance to tie the game with two touchdowns followed by two-point conversions. Instead, Josh Allen's pass was intercepted, keeping it a three-score game with 4:11 remaining.
The Bills were bidding for their first Super Bowl berth since the 1993 season and first under McDermott, who spent 12 seasons on Chiefs coach Andy Reid's staff in Philadelphia from 1999 through 2010.
"This was a learning experience," Bills coach Sean McDermott said. "We didn't play our best game, we didn't coach our best game. We'll be back.
"I'm proud that we've been on a great climb and proud of everyone here and proud of Bills Mafia that made it to the game. We didn't play our best game, but we're going to learn from this experience."
McDermott's decisions to kick field goals instead of going for touchdowns will be second-guessed by many for months to come, including McDermott himself, who admitted in his post-game press conference that he might have gone for a touchdown at least one time if he had it to do over again.
His decision to kick the field goal right before halftime was because he didn't want to risk being denied points right before ending a shaky first half.
