Orchard Park, N.Y. — Though much of the game consisted of back-and-forth scoring, there are missed plays and opportunities that will haunt the Buffalo Bills from their Sunday night playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Highmark Stadium.
Yes, kicker Tyler Bass’ missed 44-yard field goal that sealed the game is the big one. There are a few more.
“I think you always gonna want plays back, but I think at the end of the day, we were getting down there and driving,” wide receiver Trent Sherfield said postgame. “Being able to possibly get the field goal and score points, that’s where you wanna be. We just had another missed opportunity. Just fell short.”
Here are five missed plays, besides the field goal, the Bills should want back from Sunday’s AFC divisional round loss.
Sherfield’s two drops to set up Bills’ two punts
Sherfield whiffed on two downfield reception attempts, each preceding the Bills’ only two punts in the game.
The first came in the second quarter on a second-and-8 at the Buffalo 37 yard line. Quarterback Josh Allen targeted Sherfield for a 32-yarder, but it fell incomplete. After only a short completion on third down, the Bills brought out Sam Martin for his first punt of the night.
It was a similar scenario in the fourth quarter. With 10:59 to go in the game, Sherfield dropped a 46-yard target on third-and-12 from the Buffalo 18 yard line. Martin punted the next play.
Sherfield took responsibility postgame for both misses and said it was “nothing that (the Chiefs) were doing” on defense that prevented the Bills from connecting on deep plays. His two drops were a “focus” issue.
The Bills did not have a single play go for more than 18 yards in the game, while the Chiefs had plays of up to 28, 29 and 32 yards both rushing and passing.
Patrick Mahomes’ 32-yarder to Marquez Valdes-Scantling
If there was one play the Bills’ defense could have done without giving up, it was Patrick Mahomes’ third-quarter completion to Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
The 32-yard pass deep middle near the end of the quarter helped set up Isiah Pachecho’s 4-yard rushing touchdown at the top of the fourth quarter that would wind up being the final scoring play of the game.
Mahomes had just 215 passing yards in the Chiefs win, his fifth-fewest this season, on 17 completions. The pass to Valdes-Scantling was his longest of the game and cost the Bills’ defense despite their ability to contain him otherwise.
Early second-half timeout
Not technically a play, but the Bills timeout called by Allen from the field with around 3 minutes left in the third quarter might’ve been better saved for late in the game.
The Bills had just two timeouts left instead of three after Bass’ miss with 1:47 left on the game clock.
Though they would’ve also needed a defensive stop — they gave up first down rush instead — the third timeout could’ve potentially allowed the Bills offense to get the ball back for one last go.
Deep incomplete to Stefon Diggs
At the top of what ended up being the Bills’ final offensive drive of the game, Allen targeted wide receiver Stefon Diggs downfield for a potential 54-yard play only to have it fall incomplete.
Diggs had two other targets go incomplete on the drive, though for shorter distances. He finished the game with just three receptions for 21 yards on eight targets.
Though the first-down incompletion isn’t necessarily as damning as Sherfield’s two drops — the Bills went on to have a relatively solid drive up until the final plays — it’s a major “What if?” in the game.
At the time of the play, there was still 8:23 left in the game.
Diggs declined multiple postgame interview requests.
Allen’s throwaway to set up missed field goal
Allen finished 26-of-39 passing on the night for 186 yards as the Bills were limited to short-yardage plays with the lack of success downfield.
“KC’s a good defense,” wide receiver Khalil Shakir said postgame of why the Bills couldn’t generate chunk plays. “They’re a good team. Defense is really good… Hats off to them.”
Of his 13 incompletions, this might be the one that keeps Allen up at night: Albeit under p—ressure, he threw away a ball with at least one receiver as a target in front of him in the end zone on the Bills’ third-and-9 at the Kansas City 26 yard line just inside the two-minute warning.
Allen had completed his preceding three pass attempts and 6-of-9 attempts in the drive.
But that one killed the Bills’ chance of winning outright and forced them to settle for the game-tying option.
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