4 Buffalo Bills to blame for wasting another Josh Allen year with AFCCG loss

The Buffalo Bills have been haunted by their four straight Super Bowl losses in the early 1990s. Now, they’ll have to the battle the demons of a new four-game losing streak in the playoffs.

The Bills suffered a 32-29 loss against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night. The loss marked Buffalo’s fourth playoff loss against Kansas City in the past five seasons. Bills quarterback Josh Allen has now won four of five regular season matchups against Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, but he has been booted from the postseason in each of his four matchups against Kansas City.

The outcome of the game began to take shape early. While Kansas City moved the ball against Buffalo’s defense with relative ease, Buffalo’s offense had to take frequent gambles on fourth down to reach their total of 29 points. Kansas City scored their final two touchdowns on a six-play, 34-yard drive and a five-play, 59-yard drive. Meanwhile, Buffalo turned the ball over on downs in the fourth quarter on a nine-play, 29-yard drive and a six-play, 17-yard drive.

Here's a look at four Bills who are most responsible for the team's demise.

4. Dalton Kincaid

There is plenty of blame to go around for Buffalo’s final offensive play of the season. Buffalo’s poor third-down call forced the team to attempt a fourth-and-5. Buffalo’s offensive line clearly wasn’t expecting Kansas City’s blitz on the fourth-down play either. The offense went with a five-man protection, with the running back motioning before the snap. 

It’s not possible to know who deserves criticism for not picking up the blitz. At this stage of his career, Allen should have the ability to identify the blitz and either change the play call or adjust the protection scheme. He either failed to do so or wasn’t given the option to do so by the coaching staff. Either way, the play was destined to fail. Pressure came in immediately, and Allen threw up a prayer, which miraculously found tight end Dalton Kincaid.

It wasn’t an easy catch to make — he wasn’t running his route and expecting the ball, the pass was wobbly and there was plenty of traffic surrounding the tight end. Still, the ball hit Kincaid in the forearm. With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, he should have been able to find a way to reel it in.

If Kincaid had made that catch, Buffalo would have been in position to either score a game-winning touchdown or kick a game-tying field goal for overtime. Instead, Buffalo’s offense never got the ball back.

3. Brandon Beane

Bills general manager Brandon Beane has failed to build a roster capable of getting past Kansas City. Buffalo entered the offseason with a significant salary cap deficit, forcing the team to make considerable roster cuts. The mismanagement of the salary cap hurt Buffalo’s roster, and that lack of talent was apparent in all three phases of the AFC title game. 

To make matters worse, Beane traded Buffalo’s first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to Kansas City. The Chiefs used that pick to select Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy, who led the team with six receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown. After trading down, the Bills selected wide receiver Keon Coleman, who caught just three passes for 22 yards over all three playoffs games. While the Bills managed to finally find a running attack this season, the team’s lack of talent at wide receiver and across the defense was glaring.

2. Joe Brady

Buffalo’s offensive play-calling was questionable and, at times, desperate. An aggressive two-point conversion attempt at the end of the first half ended up costing Buffalo two points. Buffalo failed to convert that attempt, which forced them to attempt another two-point conversion attempt later in the game. That attempt also failed.

On a third-and-goal from the 4-yard line, Brady dialed up a fade route to rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman against Kansas City’s top cornerback. Buffalo managed to score on the ensuing fourth-down attempt, but they weren’t so lucky after their next questionable third-down call. Facing a third-and-10 on their final drive, Brady called a screen pass to wide receiver Amari Cooper, who struggled to gain just five yards. The following play, which proved to be Buffalo’s last offensive snap of the season, called for a five-man protection despite the defense showing pressure. 

When Kansas City opted to take away Allen’s ability to scramble out of the pocket, Brady failed to produce any answers in the passing game. Allen seemed to have little control of the offense in the pre-snap phase, and Buffalo often snapped the ball against disadvantageous defensive looks. 

1. Sean McDermott

Buffalo has won the AFC East division title in six consecutive seasons, and they’re one of just two teams to notch double-digit victories in each of the past six seasons. The issue? The only other team to do so has won three Super Bowl championships, while Buffalo has failed to reach the Super Bowl even once in that span. At some point, it’s fair to wonder why Buffalo has been able to find success against every team — including the Chiefs — in the regular season, only to turn into a pumpkin in the playoffs. That blame has to ultimately fall on head coach Sean McDermott.

McDermott has failed to get his team ready to compete at the highest levels of the game, and the team’s defensive game plan left a lot to be desired. The Bills played man coverage on nearly half of Mahomes’ dropbacks, their highest rate across nine career matchups against Mahomes, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Mahomes completed 12 of 15 passes for 169 yards and a touchdown against the Bills in man coverage. For a defensive-minded coach, there should have been some more creativity in the plan.