No Mahomes, no problems? Bills have a new (but familiar) adversary standing in way of title

You recognize the sensation. You’ve been sitting in visitors for what seems like an eternity, plodding alongside, at all times within the flawed lane. However then, miraculously, the visitors breaks up, and you’ve got a free and clear open street forward of you. What else is there to do however flooring it?

You, on this situation, are Josh Allen and the Buffalo Payments, and the open street is that this yr’s postseason. No Lamar Jackson. No Joe Burrow. And, most importantly, no Patrick Mahomes ready to wreck yet one more Payments season.

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Because the AP famous earlier this week, exterior of Aaron Rodgers’ 11 playoff wins, no AFC quarterback has wherever near Allen’s seven postseason victories. CJ Stroud has two, Trevor Lawrence has one, and nobody else within the convention even has one. Quarterback wins aren’t probably the most dependable metric — Rodgers doesn’t precisely have the perfect odds to win the AFC — however they attest to a quarterback’s capability to outlive and thrive underneath postseason strain.

So sure, the street would appear to be clear for Buffalo … had been it not for that retooled, reworked street rocket in an all-too-familiar red-white-and-blue paint scheme streaking up on the surface.

Six years after Tom Brady and Invoice Belichick relinquished their maintain on the AFC East, 5 years after Buffalo started stacking division titles as soon as once more, and in the identical yr that the hated Chiefs lastly performed themselves out of the postseason … right here come these rattling New England Patriots once more. There aren’t sufficient tables in Buffalo to cushion Payments followers’ agony.

Buffalo surrendered the AFC East title to Mike Vrabel, Drake Maye and the resurgent Patriots in 2025 after holding it the previous 5 seasons. This isn’t an inconsequential shift; dropping their annual home-field benefit means Buffalo can’t freeze out guests for at the very least one postseason recreation. The Payments’ Tremendous Bowl window has been closing for years, however now right here come the Patriots, making an attempt to pound that window shut with each arms.

But when the Payments are on the lookout for hope, first off, they don’t have to look any farther than Week 15. Of their essential street rematch with New England, down 21-0 halfway by the second quarter and 24-7 at halftime, the Payments rallied with three straight touchdowns after which traded punches en path to a 35-31 victory. It wasn’t sufficient to reclaim the division, nevertheless it was sufficient to make a critical assertion.

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Allen believed that the message popping out of that recreation was, “We’re not out of it. We’re going to proceed to combat, one play at a time. It doesn’t matter what the rating is, if it’s within the third quarter, it’s within the fourth quarter,” he mentioned after the victory. “No matter it’s, if we’ve bought an opportunity and we’ve bought the ball, we really feel like we like our possibilities. That’s that.”

He’s proper; the Payments have made a behavior of posting second-half comebacks to win. They set the tone again within the very first recreation of the season, rallying from 15 factors all the way down to Baltimore within the last 4 minutes of the sport to win. In Week 14, Buffalo posted one other flurry of fourth-quarter touchdowns — three in underneath 5 minutes — to flip a 10-point deficit to Cincinnati right into a victory. And now that Foxborough win looms massive in each groups’ minds.

Plus, there’s the idea of battle testing. Allen and the Payments have been right here earlier than — many occasions earlier than, however let’s not belabor that time — whereas that is the primary playoff journey for Vrabel, Maye and the remainder of the Patriots as a unit.

And  should you imagine within the validity of regular-season tuneups, Buffalo needed to face the they-were-good-at-the-time Ravens and Chiefs, whereas the Patriots drew the Raiders, Browns and Giants. (Each groups fattened up on the decrease half of their division and the largely simple pickings of the NFC South.)

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A possible Payments-Patriots postseason matchup wouldn’t occur till the AFC title recreation; Buffalo would face Denver subsequent spherical if each groups win. But when the playing cards fell that means, it will be one hell of a recreation.

Each offensively and defensively, the Payments and Patriots completed the season with near-identical top-of-the-league numbers. New England averaged 379.4 yards of offense and 28.8 factors per recreation; Buffalo averaged 376.3 yards and 28.3 factors. On protection, Buffalo allowed 293.1 yards and 21.2 factors, whereas New England allowed extra yards, 295.2, however fewer factors at 18.8.

Final season, after yet one more playoff loss to the Chiefs — an AFC championship that was tied with lower than 4 minutes remaining — Allen meditated on what went flawed as soon as once more. “You bought to not simply knock,” he mentioned. “You bought to kick the door down, and we did not try this.”

Belichick and Brady are gone, however Vrabel and Maye might be round for a very long time to return. The time is now for Buffalo to kick the door down, no matter who’s standing on the opposite aspect.