ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – With every Ravens turnover, every forced field goal instead of giving up a touchdown, and every failed two-point conversion that kept the opponents just out of reach, the Bills moved closer and closer to what they longed for. to come back to for years to come.
Finally, the Bills have returned to the AFC Championship Game. Their 27-25 victory over the Ravens exorcised several demons, both in this season and in previous seasons.
For the past three years it’s been like a record getting stuck on a loop and repeating the same part of the song, driving anyone listening to the music to the wall. In the divisional round, a super-talented Bills team with so much promise ultimately surrendered its path to the final four to another AFC superpower. First of all, it was the Chiefs. Then it was the Bengals. Then the Chiefs again. But this year… this year was different.
“You learn from all the scars,” said Dion Dawkins. “You never want that feeling again.”
“I think there’s something intangible about this team that feels different,” tight end Dawson Knox said. “It’s quite difficult to put your finger on it.”
Knox is not alone. It’s a feeling that is shared in the locker room and permeates the fan base. Some think it’s the players’ fault. Others might point to the way head coach Sean McDermott has evolved. But that unquantifiable feeling about the differences between the 2024-2025 bills has actually produced a different result than in the past.
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Since all the talk was about the Ravens and how the Bills would have to adapt to them, they forced the Ravens to adapt. The Bills held Derrick Henry under the century mark after letting him hit nearly 200 rushing yards in Week 4. They took the battle to the Ravens’ defensive line, which, for good reason, drew rave reviews for their run defense. The Bills running backs averaged 4.9 yards per carry on 26 attempts. They forced Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson into two game-changing turnovers.
And by the end of the evening, there stood the Bills, as the snow trickled down, causing the bright red, white and royal blue lights of the scoreboard to make a jumbotron-long banner shine even brighter.
“Next stop, AFC Championship.”
And that next stop is to Kansas City – because of course it is.
The Chiefs team that gave the Bills a cruel lesson four years ago about what it takes in the AFC Championship Game, punishing them for in-game mistakes and poor decisions en route to a blowout loss, well, there they are again – the AFC gatekeepers of the Super Bowl.
Only 13 players from that AFC Championship Game Bills team remain on the roster. Allen, Dawkins and Knox were there, along with Micah Hyde, Matt Milano, Taron Johnson, Ed Oliver, AJ Epenesa, Cam Lewis, Reggie Gilliam, Quinton Jefferson, Tyler Bass and Reid Ferguson.
The original thirteen are well aware of how poetic the coming confrontation is.
“Yes, 100 percent,” said Lewis. “I feel like we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“I was watching the (Chiefs-Texans) game the other day with my girlfriend,” Epenesa began. “She was like, ‘What if the Texans win?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, you know, on paper they’re the lesser team, whatever, whatever, but how much sweeter would it be to be able to beat the team that got us a few times in the past and all that? That?’ So I’m definitely on that page now because we have an opportunity to do something, and I’m looking forward to it.”
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A lot has changed for the Bills between the first AFC Championship game and now.
At that time, the bills were just beginners. It was all new to them, having only competed in the wildcard round the year before. They didn’t know what they didn’t know about deep playoff runs. The expectation was that they would return – and soon. It was only a matter of time.
“Soon” wasn’t quite what everyone expected. The Bills have learned tough lessons year after year, most of which were taught to them by the franchise they will face next weekend.
On Sunday, the Bills will have played more times in Kansas City than they have against their rivals in the past five years. They’ve been there every year since that first AFC title win, with Sunday marking their sixth appearance at Arrowhead. It will be the eighth meeting between these two AFC giants in the past five years, four of which will come in the postseason.
But you don’t need to be reminded of how the last three turned out. Most of the team’s fans have carried the weight like an elephant sitting on their collective chest.
AFC Championship Game in 2021 – a lopsided defeat. AFC Divisional Round in 2022 – a heartbreaking loss where victory was so close they could taste it. AFC Divisional round in 2024 – another loss so close that many wondered if the Bills would even return after an offseason roster revamp.
It all led to this year: the return to the AFC Championship Game in a year where no one thought it possible before the season. On Sunday, the Bills face the Chiefs, a chiseled Super Bowl contender hardened by one excruciating playoff exit after another.
“For the boys who were there [in 2021]I think it will definitely be an extra chip on the shoulder,” Knox began. “In a way it can help. You can let it feed you a little, but if you dwell on it too hard or too long, I think it becomes distracting at some point. But if you just let it lie beneath the surface, if it helps bring a little extra motivation, a little extra work into the week, great. But we’re not going to think about that too much.”
That’s one of the many things that has changed about this Bills team.
Gone is the wily Allen, who for all his brilliance had a penchant for backbreaking turnovers. Gone are the one-dimensional, pass-happy Bills, who only ran the ball well after sufficient success through the air. Gone is the weak offensive line of the past that led to uneven results. And gone is a head coach who usually opted for conservative decisions during the game.
In their place is a franchise quarterback playing the best football of his life, a running game that can take all the pressure off that franchise quarterback at any time during a game, an offensive line that is one of the team’s greatest strengths is and a coach in complete trust of his players and the math, not afraid of fourth downs.
But facing them is a Chiefs team that has made multiple turnovers during its incredible run while still remaining the class of the NFL. And certainly a team eager to overturn their only loss of the 2024 regular season, against the team that ruined the perfect season.
The Bills and Chiefs are perfectly intertwined, both in their personal connections and their playoff history. But as always, neither can live while the other survives.
“History tends to repeat itself,” Dawkins said. “But sometimes it has a different outcome. We’ll see how this one goes.”
(Top photo: Tina MacIntyre-Yee / USA Today)