The Buffalo Bills couldn't take care of business in the AFC Championship Game and missed out on another shot at winning a Super Bowl. The latest heartbreak came just shy of a week ago when the Bills fell to the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 32 to 29.
It truly felt like this was the year that the Bills would get over the hump and reach their first Super Bowl since the 1993 season. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, as the Chiefs won the game.
Bills fans might not think that Kansas City won the game fair and square, however. There were several questionable calls from the officials that went in the Chiefs' favor and it was still a talking point for Sean McDermott as he held his end-of-year press conference on Thursday. McDermott said that he told his team before the game that they're not going to get the calls.
“We went into the game and one of my messages to the team, and this happens from time to time, is you’re going to have to — ,” McDermott said. “We’re not going to get calls. And I think just when you prepare a team, you prepare them ahead of time, mentally, for this is the way it’s going down. And you live with that. That’s not the reason why we lost. You start looking at that, you lose sight of all the things, all the adjustments you can make as a team, or as a person, coach, player, what have you to improve who we are and how we do things. So, there’s going to be some of that, and you have to be able to be above that and play above that.”
Sean McDermott to Bills before AFC Championship: "We're not going to get calls."
While the lack of officials' help was frustrating for the Bills, it wasn't the only reason they lost this game. Josh Allen and the Bills got the ball back with three and a half minutes to go and ultimately couldn't convert on fourth down to continue the drive.
If you had told a Bills fan before the game that Allen and the offense would have the ball with three and a half minutes to go to either tie or win the game, they'd have taken that scenario in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, the Bills couldn't execute on that final drive and the Chiefs captured another AFC win and will be going to yet another Super Bowl.
Games aren't won or lost on one play but it's still disappointing to think how this game could have played out if those questionable calls were fair calls instead. What happens if the Bills get the first down on the fourth down "tush push"? They were poised to go up by two scores if they could have gotten into the end zone on that drive and that might have been the end of any potential KC comeback.
Sadly, that's not the reality we're living in. The Bills couldn't get the job done even knowing calls wouldn't go in their favor.