ORCHARD PARK — If Highmark Stadium had a roof, it might’ve come off with 2:17 remaining in Sunday evening’s showcase NFL game.
A nervous Buffalo Bills crowd turned to an elated one with one fourth-down play against Kansas City.
Facing fourth-and-two from the KC 26-yard line protecting a two-point lead, some teams might’ve opted to kick a field goal, extending the lead to five. Others may have sent the offense out to try to draw the defense offside and — in all likelihood — inevitably take a timeout and kick the field goal.
But not these Bills. Not against these Chiefs. And not with Josh Allen on their side.
Out of the shotgun, Allen took the snap and faked a pass to his left to running back Ty Johnson, quickly scanned toward his four other receiving options but made his mind up soon to run.
Allen avoided tackles from three different Chiefs, falling into the end zone with safety Bryan Cook on top of him.
Allen said he appreciated “coach (Sean McDermott) for trusting us” on fourth-and-two. The play call was for man coverage, but KC dropped into a zone.
“It’s a man concept where Khalil, if there’s a man on the left side, we fly the back, try to create some eye candy, if you will, run him through the line,” Allen told reporters. “It’s just like a mesh play. And again they went zone, so, just made a play.”
Right guard O’Cyrus Torrence drew the assignment of Chiefs star Chris Jones on the biggest play of the game and cleared him out of Allen’s way.
“I didn’t see him until he was already like 10 yards downfield, when (Allen) was just running people over, running through tackles,” center Connor McGovern told the Times Herald. “But the big thing on that play was I didn’t know until afterwards O’Cyrus had a great block (on Jones), an inside move, and he takes him and throws him literally past me. And that just gave Josh this huge open hole and he just took off. So credit goes to Cybo on that one.”
Even for the Chiefs, a two-score deficit with two minutes remaining would be too much. At 30-21, Buffalo handed the defending champs their first loss since Christmas Day 2023.
Buffalo led the entire second half, but it was tense enough that stadium operations didn’t queue up “Mr. Brightside” — the team’s adopted fan sing-a-long anthem this season — until the two-minute warning. Four plays later, Terrel Bernard intercepted Patrick Mahomes’ desperate fourth-and-13 heave and the celebration was truly on.
Allen downplayed the big-picture significance of a win over KC — “We’re in week 11, you know, we’re 9-2. Last time I checked nine wins probably doesn’t get you into the playoffs,” he said — but Mahomes expects a rematch. CBS cameras caught him telling Allen, “We’ll do it again, baby,” in a postgame handshake.
“Given our history, we tend to meet in the playoffs,” Allen acknowledged. “So again, we’re not there yet. We’ll focus on that when we get there. But we’ve got a bye week and we’ve got a tough team (San Francisco) coming here.”
The Bills enter their bye with a real shot at the No. 1 seed, only one game back in the ‘L’ column with a head-to-head tiebreaker. And if he wasn’t there already, Allen’s fourth-down run should vault him back into MVP contention with an NFL version of a “Heisman Moment.”
Those moments are still impressive to Allen’s teammates, who’ve seen plenty of them since he entered the league in 2018.
“I mean it’s probably close to 100. He’s played 100 games now, it seems like he does that every game so it still never gets old,” tight end Dawson Knox said. “It’s weird, you get to the point where you kind of expect it and you’re like holy cow, why does this almost feel normal? And then you watch it again on film and you’re like this shouldn’t be normal. But it is. And the whole crowd immediately starts chanting M-V-P. It’s really fun. He’s incredible, man. It’s awesome.”
Asked in the locker room about his memory of the play, left tackle Dion Dawkins said he planned to rewatch it on social media. But he knew it was special.
“We take for granted what’s going on. Like the world takes for granted what is going on,” Dawkins said. “And what Josh is doing is crazy. That’s some next-level, MVP, superstar stuff, and I want to tip my hat to him. I just want the world to really notice that. That stuff just doesn’t happen because he’s 17, but 17 puts in the work, he executes and he’s consistently showing why he’s the best.”
Buffalo didn’t win this game solely on offense. Leading 16-14 at halftime, its consecutive third-quarter stops of Mahomes and KC gave the Bills a chance to finally create some separation with Curtis Samuel’s 12-yard touchdown catch with 12:51 left, taking a 23-14 lead. But seeing how easily KC cut through the defense on the ensuing drive (10 plays, 66 yards) to again make it a two-point game, it was clear anything less than a touchdown — or 0:00 on the clock — on Buffalo’s last drive wouldn’t feel safe.
“I would have stood by it if it didn’t work out,” McDermott said of the fourth-down decision. “I just felt like there’s been too many games where Andy (Reid) and Patrick have come back and you kick a field goal and they go score a touchdown, or it’s overtime … they get the ball first and then the game’s over. So they’re just way too good to not go for it right there.”
But with one run through the Chiefs defense, Allen allayed those fears.
“It’s Josh,” McGovern said. “He’s going to make those crazy plays and you’re like how the (bleep) did that just happen? It’s great having him on your side.”
