No matter how high Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills get, the story always ends the same way. Doesn’t matter if he is in the MVP conversation, or a Pro Bowler — or in some eyes, the best QB in the world during the regular season. Come postseason, we know the script; Patrick Mahomes will send him home, and that’s okay because Mahomes sends everybody home. But it is time for us to stop making excuses for Allen — he has no more.
On Jan. 26, Allen and Mahomes met for the fourth time in five postseasons, and the end scene has been the same every time: a heart-breaking loss and an awful last drive from Allen. With two minutes left, the Chiefs blitzed and pressured Allen on fourth-and-5 from Buffalo‘s 47-yard line, which forced Allen to escape the pocket. Allen scrambled and tossed the ball in the air toward the direction of tight end Dalton Kincaid, who was unable to make the tough catch. The Chiefs took over on downs, and the game was all but over. This is also first time in NFL playoff history that one team has eliminated the same opponent four times in a five-season span.
After the Jan. 26 loss — including the playoffs — the Bills’ 78 victories over the last six seasons are the most by any franchise in NFL history over a six-season stretch without a Super Bowl trip. Allen played a decent game; he gained 39 yards on 11 carries and ended the game 22-of-34 for 237 yards with two touchdowns. It wasn’t enough, however, to stop him from making negative history. Of all the quarterbacks who have never played in the Super Bowl, Allen now has the most playoff wins with seven.
It was supposed to be Allen‘s year. He is a finalist for MVP. He was the only person this season to beat Mahomes and the Chiefs when their starters played. He finally had a team around him that had everything: a good running game, a good O-line and a great coach in Sean McDermott. He was playing arguably the best ball of his career — and faced the weakest Kansas City team of his career — yet he still wound up on the losing end. It’s safe to say that Allen will never beat the Chiefs, and that’s because he is the exact opposite of Mahomes in clutch time.
The reason the Chiefs are damn near undefeatable is because when it’s winning time, there is no better player than Mahomes. Allen has shown us multiple times when the game is on the line, he cannot be trusted. Allen — who has thrived under pressure this season — completed just 1 of 8 passes for 4 yards when pressured by the Chiefs on Jan. 26. One the most important drive of his career — with a Super Bowl berth on the line and down only a field goal — Allen went three and out, effectively ending the game for his team.
Allen will never win a Super Bowl because he will never beat Mahomes. Whenever they match up, he folds like a lawn chair. This year, his biggest weakness — his turnovers — he completely neutralized it until he had to see Mahomes again. Whenever Mahomes is on the opposing sideline, it rattles Allen, and we’ve now seen it in four straight matchups. They say a third time is the charm, so what does a fourth make? I’d say a fourth time makes no excuse. There is a famous saying that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity. Well, expecting Allen to ever beat Mahomes is insanity — and now even the city of Buffalo believes as much.
