Third Chiefs-Bills playoff meeting in 4 seasons highlights the NFL’s divisional round

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrates during an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Miami Dolphins Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrates during an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Miami Dolphins Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills will have a third shot at Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs.

This time, Buffalo gets to play at home.

And there won’t be a Super Bowl rematch between Mahomes and Jalen Hurts. At least not this season.

Mahomes will play his first career road playoff game next Sunday night against the Bills, who advanced to the AFC divisional round with a 31-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday.

The Bills (12-6) did what No. 2 seeds are supposed to do against No. 7 seeds, cruising to a double-digit victory in a game that was played a day late because of a snowstorm.

That sets up a third playoff meeting against the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs (12-6) in four seasons.

Hurts and the defending NFC champion Eagles were routed 32-9 Monday night by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, sending Philadelphia to an early vacation after a 10-1 start.

Kansas City defeated Buffalo 38-24 in the AFC championship game on Jan. 24, 2021. A year later, the Chiefs beat the Bills 42-36 in overtime in the divisional round.

Buffalo’s win over Pittsburgh means the No. 1 seed Baltimore Ravens (13-4) will host the fourth-seeded Houston Texans (11-7) on Saturday in the other AFC divisional game. The Texans advanced with a 45-14 rout of Cleveland in the weekend’s first wild-card game.

The No. 1 seed San Francisco 49ers (12-5) host the Green Bay Packers (10-8) on Saturday in one NFC matchup. That was determined when Green Bay destroyed Dallas 48-32 on Sunday, becoming the first No. 7 seed to beat a No. 2 seed since the NFL expanded the playoffs to 14 teams in 2020.

Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers (10-8) advanced to face Detroit (13-5) on Sunday. The Lions beat the Los Angeles Rams 24-23.

The Allen-Mahomes rematch highlights the next round.

Buffalo turned its season around at Kansas City in Week 14. The Bills were 6-6 going into that game before a 20-17 victory ignited a five-game winning streak to conclude the regular season that ended with a winner-take-the-AFC-East win at Miami.

Mahomes is 10-2 at home in the playoffs, including Kansas City’s 26-7 win over the Dolphins on Saturday. He’s 2-1 in Super Bowls.

In the last Bills-Chiefs playoff meeting, Mahomes rallied Kansas City to a tying field goal in regulation after Buffalo took a 36-33 lead with 13 seconds remaining. The Chiefs won the coin toss in OT and Mahomes threw a TD pass to Travis Kelce to win it on the opening drive.

That led the NFL to change its overtime rules for the playoffs, ensuring each team gets a possession.