Buffalo Rumblings
The hardest game of the year to revisit
The Buffalo Bills’ 2024 season has been written. So, let’s add some “illustrations!” If you’re new to Plays That Defined, this isn’t a highlight recap, but rather a cathartic retelling of the past season, chapter by chapter.
Don’t vote for your favorite play necessarily, vote for the one that best represents that game’s narrative. I’ll recap the game to refresh your memory, but don’t feel locked in by my narrative.
I believe it would be difficult to write about a Super Bowl in certain respects. It’s never easy to say goodbye and the final game of each season is a tough moment. That said, I do have to imagine it’d be easier than farewells like this one. Anyway, about the game itself...
If you count tying the score up as a lead change (like I do), then this game had seven lead changes. If you don’t count a tie as a lead change there were still five. Looking at the stat sheet, there are remarkable similarities between the two teams. That’s not remotely unexpected with the two heavyweights trading blows. However, if you’re like me there was a feeling for much of the game that Buffalo was fighting more of an uphill battle than Kansas City. A few stats may add some validity to the notion. Hint: Yards per play.
This might be the single image I believe I’ve seen used most for this game, so here you go. I don’t need to explain the controversy with Xavier Worthy scoring against the Bills so I won’t. A KC score deserves to be in the running to establish that Buffalo allowed more points to Kansas City than anyone had accomplished ALL SEASON at the exact time when it mattered the most. So here we are.
Or
At this point in the season, this was the third-highest point total allowed by Kansas City if you can believe it. The highest was against the Denver Broncos in the sham game to end the season. The second highest was the Bills in the regular season. In other words, until the Philadelphia Eagles smacked Kansas City in the mouth, the absolute best team against KC was the Buffalo. Twice. So a Bills score deserves to be in the running too.
I’m going to do something different though this time. I had a hard time deciding between these two scores for their level of moxie. If forced to choose I would have gone with James Cook over Mack Hollins as Cook had a good day overall. I was going to do that too, because I always worry including two similar plays will cannibalize the votes and not give either play a fair shake.
This time though, I’m doing two polls. The first one will be the normal poll, but for this entry look...
