Former NFL quarterback-turned-analyst Dan Orlovsky sat on the ESPN desk for “Get Up” the day after Championship Sunday with his head down.
Taking a breath, he spoke his mind after seeing the Buffalo Bills fall to the Kansas City Chiefs again in the playoffs – four straight times Josh Allen & Co. fell to Patrick Mahomes.
“I think it’s the most haunted organization and might be the most haunted player in the history of the NFL,” Orlovsky told his colleagues. “Four straight Super Bowl losses 30-plus years ago, and now four straight losses to Patrick Mahomes when your quarterback plays just as good. Just as good in all those games, and the point differential is only five points.”
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Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen walks off the field after the AFC Championship against the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. (Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)
Does Orlovsky have a point? Are the Bills, and Allen, the most haunted organization and player in the history of the league?
There are 12 teams who have never won a Super Bowl, four of which have never seen the “Big Game” on their schedule: Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Of those 12 teams, only two have been to the Super Bowl four times but lost every time – the Bills and Minnesota Vikings. But there’s only one team in the history of the NFL to go to four straight Super Bowls and lose them all, and “Bills Mafia” had to deal with four years of the highest of highs followed by the lowest of lows in terms of fandom.
There were the “Curse of the Bambino” and “Curse of the Billy Goat” for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, respectively, though they snapped those this century with World Series titles. For the Bills, the “Curse of Mahomes” might be the title for this Allen era, but the woes for the organization and fan base started in the 1990 season with an infamous kick.
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WIDE RIGHT
Super Bowl XXV saw two New York teams, the Bills and Giants, going against each other for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
In the fourth quarter, Jim Kelly, much like Allen in that they were both bonafide stars at the quarterback position at the time of the Bills’ success, had 2:16 remaining for a game-winning drive. On the team’s final possession, he led his offense down the field, moving the ball quickly with short passes and some runs.
The Bills managed to get in field goal range, where kicker Scott Norwood could attempt a game-winning kick from 47 yards out. But when Norwood connected with the ball, it went wide right, and the Giants ran out the clock to win their second Super Bowl title for the franchise.
HOW ‘BOUT THEM COWBOYS
The NFC East wasn’t kind to the Bills during this stretch, as they were beaten in Super Bowl XXVI by the Washington Redskins, 37-24, when Buffalo wasn’t able to put up a first-half point in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis in 1992.
Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith in action against the Buffalo Bills during Super Bowl XXVII at the Rose Bowl. The Cowboys defeated the Bills, 52-17. (Mandatory Credit: Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY NETWORK)
And if that was bad, it was even worse in 1993 when the Dallas Cowboys, led by multiple Hall of Famers in coach Jimmy Johnson, quarterback Troy Aikman, wide receiver Michael Irvin and running back Emmitt Smith, destroyed Buffalo, 52-17.
Kelly and the Bills got off to a hot start after Thurman Thomas scored from two yards out, but it was really all Cowboys from there. Jay Novacek had a 23-yard touchdown catch from Aikman, and a fumble recovered for a touchdown by Jimmie Jones gave Dallas the lead they wouldn’t look back from.
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It didn’t help that Kelly got injured in the second quarter and Frank Reich had to take over at quarterback. But for a third straight year, Buffalo went home empty-handed.
These two teams would meet again in Super Bowl XXVIII for a rematch, this time in the Georgia Dome. But a second-half goose egg on the scoreboard led to a 30-13 defeat for the Bills, and Smith won MVP after scoring two touchdowns and rushing for 132 yards on 30 carries.
Four straight years and no hardware is a tough pill to swallow, and what’s worse, the fan base hasn’t been back to the “Big Game” since then.
ALLEN VS. MAHOMES – PT. 1
For his regular-season career, Allen is 4-1 against Mahomes and the Chiefs, and he’s won each of the last four games. That included this season, where Allen broke multiple tackles on a 4th-and-short run to score the game-sealing touchdown in a fantastic performance at home.
But Allen and the Bills have known since the 2020 NFL campaign that Mahomes and the Chiefs are a different animal in the playoffs.
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The first meeting was the AFC Championship Game in 2021, where the Bills had a 9-0 lead to start the game, but Mahomes turned up the heat in the second quarter, scoring 21 points that led to a 21-12 first-half finish they wouldn’t look back from.
Mahomes would finish the game 29-of-38 for 325 yards with three touchdowns, while Tyreek Hill had a franchise-record 172 yards on nine catches and Travis Kelce totaled 13 catches for 118 yards and two scores – the most receptions by a receiver in a conference title game.
The Chiefs wouldn’t go on to win that Super Bowl, falling to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-9, at Raymond James Stadium. But it was apparent to the Bills who you had to go through in the AFC to get back to the Super Bowl.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen drops back to pass against the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of the AFC Championship at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. (Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)
13 SECONDS LEFT
Arguably, one of the greatest postseason football games of all-time didn’t go in the Bills’ favor, and this is perhaps the biggest gut punch of them all in recent years.
Allen couldn’t have played any better in this 2022 AFC Divisional Round game, going 27-of-37 for 329 yards and four touchdowns, all of which went to receiver Gabe Davis, who set a playoff record with his four scores, which came on eight catches for 201 yards.
Davis’ final touchdown at Arrowhead Stadium was supposed to be the dagger in the Chiefs’ hopeful return to the AFC Championship, as there were just 13 seconds left on the fourth-quarter clock when the Bills’ kickoff commenced.
Leave it to Mahomes, though, as he threw a 19-yard pass to Hill, which ran five seconds off the clock, and then Kelce was left wide open for a 25-yard catch-and-run, which was another five seconds. So, with a game-tying field goal at 36-33 on the line for Harrison Butker, he drilled a 49-yard attempt to force overtime.
With the old overtime rules, where a touchdown ends it, the Chiefs took full advantage when they won the coin toss. Mahomes needed just one run and five passes to get into the red zone, where he found Kelce on an 8-yard pass for the win.
Sports fans will tell you where they were and what they were doing for the biggest, and worst, moments of their favorite teams. This is a memory that is truly haunting.
Buffalo Bills kicker Tyler Bass missed what would have been a game-tying field goal. The Bills lost to the Chiefs in the divisional round, 27-24. (IMAGN)
WIDE RIGHT…AGAIN
Bills fans had déjà vu last season during the Divisional Round in a game that wasn’t Allen’s best, but there was still a chance to get their own overtime revenge.
In a game at Buffalo this time, the Bills found themselves down three points in the fourth quarter with a chance to drive and at least kick a game-tying field goal to keep hopes alive for a trip to the AFC Championship.
But much like Super Bowl XXV, where Norwood missed his game-winning field goal wide right, Tyler Bass did the exact same. Bills fans at Highmark Stadium couldn’t believe history was repeating itself, as Mahomes and the offense picked up the necessary first down to seal victory.
Mahomes would go on to win back-to-back Super Bowls with an overtime victory over San Francisco, while Allen and the Bills had to wait for another crack in 2024.
“IT’S JUST NOT FUN”
That was Allen’s quote after the 32-29 loss in Kansas City in the AFC Championship, marking the fourth straight dropped to Mahomes and the Chiefs. And there were surely some controversial calls, like the Xavier Worthy catch near the goal line that was ruled a catch despite the ball touching the ground during replay review.
But the biggest of them all came in the fourth quarter, when the Bills were up 22-21 over the Chiefs and had a chance to further their lead with another good drive. On 3rd-and-short, Allen whipped a screen to Dalton Kincaid, who scampered forward for what appeared to be a first down. However, he was ruled short despite referees not seeing his knee never touched the ground where he appeared to get tackled.
Instead of a challenge coming from the Bills’ sideline, they moved quickly to get Allen set up for a quarterback sneak. When the ball was snapped, Allen got stuffed, but not before he seemed to cross the line to gain with the football.
Once again, though, the refs called him short, turning it over on downs. Five plays later, Mahomes rushed in for the second time in the game and a two-point conversion gave them a seven-point lead.
Allen, though, with ice in his veins, tied the game with a 4th-and-goal pass to Curtis Samuel, and the Bills’ defense got the stop they needed to force just a field goal for the Chiefs, who now owned a 32-29 lead.
Enough time was on the clock, and Allen had the ball again late in the game with the ability to tie the game or take the lead. But on 4th-and-5 at the two-minute warning, the Chiefs’ blitz had Allen scrambling, though he was able to heave a pass downfield to Kincaid. The tight end had a shot at making it a miraculous throw-and-catch effort, but it bounced off his arms and the Chiefs would go on to win.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen dives for a first down against the Kansas City Chiefs during the second half of the AFC Championship. (Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images)
ALLEN STATS THAT SHOCK
Considering how great Allen and the Bills are, and the fact that they beat the Chiefs in the regular season, one would think Buffalo would pull one of these out.
But when Bass missed the field goal wide right this past season, the Bills tied the New Orleans Saints during their 2017-21 stretch with the most regular-season wins in a five-year stretch (58) without a Super Bowl appearance.
As for Allen, the last three Chiefs matchups in the postseason have resulted in 752 total passing yards and 179 rushing yards for a total of 931 yards with a 68.12% completion rate and nine total touchdowns with no turnovers.
So, despite averaging 310 yards per game over the last three meetings with the Chiefs in the playoffs and not turning the ball over, the Bills have not been able to win.
It’s why former NFL star receiver Brandon Marshall told Fox News Digital that Allen was just brought into the “wrong era to be a quarterback.”
“Sometimes you run into a Michael Jordan,” Marshall said. “Sometimes you run into a Tiger Woods in their prime, and you got to deal with it.”
WHAT NOW?
Allen’s post-game response this year said it all: “To be the champs, you got to beat the champs.”
The only thing he and the Bills can do is keep grinding, work on their fundamentals and execution and hope the Chiefs can somehow make those one or two mistakes that can flip the game in their favor.
Because what fans and experts alike can see is that Kansas City is buttoned up in those clutch moments while the Bills haven’t had things go their way.
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Is it because they’re haunted by a ‘90s stretch that could have a curse on them now? Or is it, like Marshall said, the wrong era to go against someone like Mahomes, who has already entered the conversation as the best quarterback of all-time?
Whichever school of thought you fall into doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, the Bills have gotten so close, and yet they’re on the outside looking in for the past 31 years.
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