We covered all the divisional round action in the takeaways. So, I wanted to start this week, like last, by taking a look forward, with some initial thoughts on what’s ahead for championship Sunday …
• The familiarity of the AFC combatants is, obviously, notable. Sean McDermott’s NFL mentor is Andy Reid, who brought the Buffalo Bills’ coach into the league as “assistant to the head coach” (a role that’s led to a lot of upward mobility for young coaches and scouts under Reid) in Philadelphia.
Buffalo has won the past four regular-season meetings between the teams, and Josh Allen is 4–1 against the Kansas City Chiefs outside of the playoffs. But the Chiefs, of course, have won all three playoff meetings between Allen and Patrick Mahomes—the 2020 AFC title game, the epic shootout after the ’21 season and last year’s three-point Kansas City win in Orchard Park.
In total, this will be the ninth time the teams have met since the start of the 2020 season, with the matchup taking on the quality of a division game.
“What are they? Two-time defending Super Bowl champs?” McDermott said as he and I talked in the training room beneath Highmark Stadium on Sunday night. “Yeah, incredible, incredible feat. And all season long, I know the buzz about them is like, . Then they go put it on a really good team in Houston. And they’re fresh—it sounds like they’re healthy.
“So again, we got to have a good week of preparation, put a good plan together, and go out there as a team because that’s the only way it’s going to get done.”
