Pure Villainy: Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Robs Bills, Takes Knee on Super Bowl Aspirations

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs ended the Buffalo Bills season in the Divisional Round. This was the one the Bills were supposed to win.

There’s a unique sense of dread that comes with watching an elite quarterback march down the field. The prayers falling upon deaf ears. The held breaths lasting a little while longer. It was only a matter of time before Buffalo Bills fans would have felt a familiar knot in their stomachs. The kind that knows inevitability when it sees it.

Yet, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes stood on the sideline as the minutes faded off the Highmark Stadium scoreboard. The great ones, the truly great ones, can instill that impending doom in a fanbase. It was Josh Allen’s turn. It had to be.

Too many seconds left on the clock. Too many heartbreaking losses, chipping away at the prime of a talent whose legacy will etch itself into Western New York. Allen had the ball, with a chance to win the game in front of the fans who had desperately waited to play the Chiefs on their terms.

Jan 21, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) reacts against the Buffalo Bills in the second half of the 2024 AFC divisional round game at Highmark Stadium / Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

Mahomes didn’t get to take the breath away from the Buffalo faithful. He didn’t have to.

Life isn’t fair, and neither is football.

After 13 plays, the Bills needed nine yards for a first down and 26 for a go-ahead score. Down 27-24, a 44-yard field goal was supposed to be the worst-case scenario. Allen misfired on second down. His next pass would fall incomplete.

Tyler Bass missed the field goal.

Mahomes would win again. With the worst offensive supporting cast of his career, staring down an elite performance from his quarterbacking counterpart, he still found a way to win,

He was devilishly good. By expected points added per play, he put forth a 96th-percentile performance. His 18.2 completion percentage over expected was equally incredible. It wouldn’t have been fair to him to go home because of a fumble from receiver Mecole Hardman. His victory wasn’t anymore just.

“That’s the nature of the business,” Allen said. “There’s one happy team at the end of the season really, and it’s not you. You’re so close it just sucks.”

'Wide Right!' Bills Fall to Chiefs, Mahomes in Another Playoff Heartbreaker

There’s one other quarterback on this side of the millennium to win so consistently, to tear out hearts so relentlessly, to somehow—without being on the field—seem to control the fate of an opposing fanbase. He won seven Super Bowls.

Buffalo has once again found itself in the crosshairs of a villain in his truest form. No mercy. No fairy tale ending. Solely pain, delivered in its freshest form. It’s over, again, and there’s nothing the Bills can do except put themselves in position to get hurt this time next year.