Wide Right: How a Buffalo Bills Season Ended in Heartbreak—Again

As a modern Buffalo Bills fan, nothing rubs salt in the wound as much as the phrase “Thirteen Seconds”. The 2021 AFC Divisional game against the Kansas City Chiefs was a nail-biter. Going back and forth, four lead changes occurred and 25 points were scored in the final two minutes of regulation. After getting a lead early, the Bills fell behind, only regaining their lead with under two minutes to go. After a back-and-forth, the Bills were up by three points with thirteen seconds to go. That’s all Patrick Mahomes needed to drive down the field and get a field goal to tie the game at 36 apiece. Going into overtime, the Chiefs won the coin flip, drove down the field, scored a touchdown, and won. Josh Allen never got a chance to touch the ball.

Now, though, an old enemy has been brought back in Wide Right. In Super Bowl XXV, the Bills were down one with eight seconds left. They opted to go for a 47-yard field goal to win the game. It missed wide right. That was the closest the Bills have ever come to winning a Super Bowl. As of early 2024, that was a demon most Bills fans thought long vanquished. Then the Bills played the Chiefs in the playoffs for the third time in four years. In a back-and-forth game, the Bills managed to hold on despite having a defense that was racked with injuries. In the end, it came down to another field goal try. Tyler Bass lined up at the right hash, 44 yards out, with less than two minutes to play. If the kick was good, the Bills would tie the game. If the kick missed, the Bills would lose. It missed - wide right. Now, there are many reasons the Bills lost another close one to the Chiefs, but this one hurt more than most since there was old heartbreak associated with it. 

The Chiefs’ defense held Josh Allen and the Bills offense to zero plays over 20 yards, instead forcing Allen to rely on throwing check-downs almost the entire game by restricting his powerful receivers. After having an amazing run game in the first half, the Bills’ effectiveness was severely curtailed by an adaptive Chiefs’ defense. On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs had eight plays of 20+ yards and lit up the injured Bills' defense.

I do have some… questionable theories as to why the Bills have lost to the Chiefs in the playoffs three out of the last four years. For instance - all three of those games were broadcast on CBS and had Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Tracy Wolfson, and Jay Feely as announcers. Could it be their fault? In reality, it was a slew of bad plays and decisions that led up to that play. The Bills were sloppy all game, missing plays they would have normally made, and the sloppiness continued into their last drive. After driving down the field and making a couple of crucial errors, the Bills opted to go for a field goal to tie the game, but they hadn’t fully committed the play before. This was a huge mistake - it meant the Bills set up the ball on the right hash, with a 13 mph left-to-right crosswind. That meant Bass had to make a long field goal into the wind, which isn’t easy. If Diggs had caught that deep shot earlier in the drive or Allen hadn’t underthrown that potential touchdown to Shakir right before the field goal, we would all be singing a different tune. That didn’t happen, though, and the Bills lost because of it.

This Bills-Chiefs rivalry is amazing and will only get better with time, but as a Bills fan, I’d like to see us win once. It does seem a lot like a situation in the NBA where great players like Charles Barkley never won a ring because of players like Michael Jordan. Josh Allen is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL right now, but when it comes to it, Patrick Mahomes finds a way to win. Hopefully, Tom Brady is right and Allen is the next ringless QB to win a Super Bowl, but only time will tell.

In the end, as Josh Allen said, “I wish it wouldn't have been put in that situation. You win as a team, you lose as a team. One play doesn't define a game, it doesn't define a season”. But the old demons do hurt.

In an offseason update, the Bills have been hampered by the salary cap and their mismanagement up front. They have let go or traded what seems like half of their team, including their All-Pro Wide Receiver Stefon Diggs and All-Pro Cornerback Tre’davious White along with many other great players that were an integral part of their team. The defense that was one of the best in the league before it got injured has been sold for scrap, while on the other end of the ball, Josh Allen has almost no one to throw the ball to, since the Bills got rid of all of their good receivers. I guess Allen will have to be the #1 receiver this season too – he already does everything else.