Buffalo Rumblings
The Bills didn’t play in Super Bowl LIX, but there were several things to learn about Buffalo on the heels of the year’s biggest game.
The Buffalo Bills fell short of making it to play in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, LA, yet again losing in the AFC Championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Even without the Bills playing last Sunday, the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Chiefs offered a decent amount of food for thought for Bills Mafia.
Here are my main Bills’ takeaways from the Super Bowl.
Watching the Eagles steamroll over the Chiefs and how particularly dominant their defense played, I couldn’t help but think Buffalo lost the best opportunity yet to get past Kansas City in the playoffs and make it back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1994.
The Chiefs’ offense didn’t look right all season long, being unable to score 30 points or more in all but one game — obviously against the Bills, two weeks ago. Right after the game I had one, and just one question to be answered in the Super Bowl matchup: Was it the Chiefs finally unleashing their true offense when it mattered most, or was it yet again just the Bills’ defense failing miserably on the same stage?
Despite Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes looking way more inspired against Buffalo than last Sunday, I think it was pretty clear Philadelphia’s defense had the potential to force them into a difficult day, not making things look good for the Buffalo’s unit. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s plan wasn’t anything new — in fact, that’s exactly how head coach Sean McDermott loved to play his defense initially, rushing just four and playing zone coverages behind it.
However, Philly’s defensive line got the job done with how quickly they were able to beat the opposing offensive line and make Mahomes’ life miserable. On the other hand, Buffalo’s defensive line never was capable of getting to Mahomes consistently enough to disrupt KC’s offense.
It’s not just about beating the Chiefs, though. Getting back to a Super Bowl, even if they lost it, would’ve been seen as an improvement, in my opinion. One more step in the right direction, as much as it would be painful to lose another Super Bowl.
I do believe the Bills could have done better than the Chiefs did, however. We saw an amazing game between those two teams in the regular season a year ago. At that time, the Eagles were still playing really well before their implosion, and Buffalo wasn’t as good as they were this year. Philly won in overtime, in a game where the Bills lost some very good opportunities to close it out.
The case can be made about this Eagles team being improved over that 2023 one that was about to implode. However, this Bills’ team was also improved,...
