Buffalo Rumblings
Bernard and Milano will look to give fits to Patrick Mahomes and KC’s offense on Sunday
The Buffalo Bills are set to face the Kansas City Chiefs in what seems to have become their perennial postseason date. So much is different this season than last, including what defense the Chiefs will be looking at on Sunday.
Buffalo and KC met last January for a divisional round playoff game in Orchard Park, NY. This time they gather in Missouri for the AFC Championship Game — and with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. While all that is enough to shift talking points and narratives about Sunday’s game, the biggest difference may be who suits up at linebacker for the Bills.
Last January in a three-point defeat, the Bills had to rely on reserve linebackers A.J. Klein and Baylon Spector. This time, they’ll have both starting linebackers in Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard.
Last year, general manager Brandon Beane had to call Klein and ask him to abandon his family vacation and head to Buffalo as the Bills had run out of linebackers. Matt Milano was on Injured Reserve with a fractured leg and Terrel Bernard was out after suffering an ankle subluxation the week before. Sure, Buffalo had linebacker Dorian Williams — who this season led the team in tackles through the first 11 weeks subbing for the again-injured Milano — but last year he was a rookie and still figuring things out.
In fact, the Chiefs’ offense has never faced the starting linebacker duo of Bernard and Milano. The last time Milano played the Chiefs, it was Tremaine Edmunds who was his on-field mate. That was October 2022, and a game the Bills won. That season, Milano earned All-Pro honors as well.
The Bills let Edmunds leave in free agency that offseason and planned to hold a competition between Terrel Bernard and Baylon Spector to take his spot. Whether it was due to Spector getting injured during training camp or just Bernard was that much better, the Bills started the 2023 season with intentions of unleashing Bernard and Milano on the football world.
Five weeks later, Milano suffered a season-ending injury and when the Bills and Chiefs played during the regular season, it was a rotation of Spector and Williams, each with one tackle a piece, taking his place beside Bernard (who had eight tackles).
Over his career, Bernard has 20 tackles, one sack, and an interception in games he’s played against Patrick Mahomes. Milano has 23, including 11 in the one playoff game he’s played against the Chiefs.
Game planning about how to neutralize Buffalo’s linebackers has likely taken a lot more work this week than it has in any previous matchup between the AFC’s top two teams.
