ORCHARD PARK — By time the Buffalo Bills returned to practice Wednesday, a sign directing CBS employees was already standing in the Highmark Stadium parking lot.
The station’s top broadcast crew — Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson — attended Buffalo’s practice Friday, and Sunday, their colleagues from the NFL Today pregame show will set up outside the stadium prior to the titanic matchup with the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs. This isn’t a game that will determine the AFC championship, but the magnitude is undeniable.
The Chiefs beat Baltimore and Buffalo on the road last year to prove that home-field advantage is more of a travel convenience than an edge. But every team wants that convenience and Kansas City already holds a win over Baltimore with matchups against the Steelers and Texans still to come.
On the other side, the Bills are already 1 ½ games behind the Chiefs and have losses to the Ravens and Texans. More than anything, though, the Bills can’t fall to 0-3 against presumptive AFC divisional winners, not just for playoff seeding, but to show they are truly in the conversation to win the conference.
And yet, just like before their reunion with matchups against the Dolphins, a trip to Baltimore and their Stefon Diggs in Houston, the Bills say this is just another game.
“We focus on what we focus on, and our controls are things that we can control,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “We don’t focus on things we can’t control. We certainly understand the situation and respect it, two good teams, and the most important thing we can be is consistent with our preparation, and that’s really the main thing that’s within our control.”
The first half of McDermott’s second sentence is critical. Just because the Bills are preparing for the Chiefs in the same way they would any other opponent doesn’t mean they are oblivious to the fact that the Chiefs aren’t just any other opponent.
Playing seven times since 2020 and twice per year three of the previous four seasons is bound to create a rivalry. From Duke-North Carolina to Bears-Packers to Steelers-Ravens, Bills backup quarterback Mitchell Trubisky has been part of a lot of classic rivalries, and while Bills-Chiefs may not have the same historical significance, it’s a series that runs deep.
Foes dating back to the AFL, the Chiefs kept the Bills from a third consecutive league championship in 1966, advancing to Super Bowl I against the Packers. The first Monday Night Football game held at then-Rich Stadium was played against the Chiefs in 1973 and then the Bills took both playoff matchups against Kansas City in the 1990s, including a 30-13 win in the 1993 AFC championship game.
The two teams played 13 times from 2000 to 2019 and some of those games were memorable, but never significant. A history that was never really considered a rivalry until 2020 is now perhaps the most relevant non-division rivalry in the NFL right now.
There’s the Josh Allen-Patrick Mahomes comparison, with fuel added in due to Buffalo’s 2017 draft-night trade that gave Kansas City the pick it used on Mahomes. Chiefs coach Andy Reid hired McDermott in Philadelphia in 2002, worked his way up the ranks to defensive coordinator and was fired in 2010.
It’s a matchup with all the ingredients of a good rivalry, with a little extra mixed in. The Chiefs (60) and Bills (56) are the only teams with 50 wins since 2020, while the last four matchups have been decided by no more than six points.
“It makes the game even more fun, because you feel like there’s more on the line for that game,” Trubisky told the Gazette. “So not that it’s necessarily any more pressure, it’s just like when you have a rivalry, you want to beat your rival more than anything. … You want to win every game bad, but when you’re playing your rival, you want to win that one even more, just for the fans and everyone involved.”
There’s no question losing to the Chiefs in 2020 and 2021 impacted how the Bills operated in the aftermath of both games. They drafted defensive ends Greg Rousseau and Boogie Basham in the first two rounds of the 2021 draft and took it to another level after losing to the Chiefs in the 13 seconds game.
Not only did the Bills spend four draft picks on defensive players — including a first-rounder on cornerback Kaiir Elam — but they overhauled the defensive line after Mahomes torched them for 703 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions on 75.6% completions and three sacks in two playoff losses.
The Bills shelled out $149.187 million — including $65.112 million guaranteed — to defensive linemen in free agency ahead of 2021, including making the splash of free agency by signing Von Miller to a six-year, $120 million contract. But just because the Bills are desperately trying to beat the Chiefs, doesn’t mean they are a frequent topic of conversation by coaches and players.
Trubisky signed just after the Bills were smacked by the Chiefs twice in 2020 and was on the team for the 2021 divisional round loss, and now, in his second stint, he hears the same amount of chatter about the Chiefs as he did the first time around: none.
Practice squad quarterback Mike White told the Gazette earlier in the season that the Dolphins spoke frequently about the Bills while he was in Miami last season, while reserve linebacker Nicholas Morrow heard more talk about the Chiefs when he played for the Raiders than he does now.
“Inside the building, I don’t think it’s talked about as much,” Morrow said. “Outside the building, I hear it a lot with fans and whatever. But if we’re talking about inside the building, not as much, honestly.”
But while the Bills don’t sit around lamenting their losses to the Chiefs or spend time thinking about how to beat them, they know the score in the rivalry. Although the Chiefs technically lead 4-3 since 2020, the Bills are 0-3 when the games matter most.
“I know we haven’t beaten them in the playoffs,” Allen said. “So that’s the only thing that kind of matters.”
NOTES: McDermott ruled out TE Dalton Kincaid (knee) Sunday. … OT Spencer Brown (ankle) and WR Amari Cooper (wrist) are questionable.