Buffalo fans have come to fear two things in the postseason: kickers and Patrick Mahomes. Both of them made their presence felt on Sunday night
For some Bills fans of a certain age, the ghost of Scott Norwood’s wide right 47-yard field goal in Super Bowl XXV and the three further Super Bowl losses that followed in successive years had begun to dwindle. After all, it’s a new era in Buffalo. They have a frequent shopper card to the NFL playoffs. They have a quarterback who can do exceptional things like effortlessly throw a football 65 yards. They came into form right time this season and got to host the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs instead of the usual other way around. With questions about the Chiefs’ lack of offense and how they would fare in raucous Buffalo, the time for the Bills to get past their postseason nemesis was now. Except the thing about curses is they can reappear at any time.
With 1:47 to go on Sunday, and Buffalo down 27-24, out trotted Bills kicker Tyler Bass to attempt a 44-yard goal. Before anyone could process how the Chiefs would respond and whether we were about to head to overtime as we did two years ago, the kick went, yep, wide right. It could have missed in any number of ways. A nice doink would have done the trick. Maybe a block. But it had to go wide right and not only stab Buffalo in the heart but twist the knife.
