We now know who will compete in the coming Super Bowl. It will be the defending champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, versus the San Francisco 49ers. A rematch of Super Bowl LIV, in other words.
Nobody is really shocked by either team getting there, I don't think.
However, it feels like the Buffalo Bills were getting really hot towards the end of this season. They went on a massive winning streak of five games, digging themselves out of being the 11th seed - where they seemed to be well out of the playoff picture - to going all the way up to the second seed. I've never seen a team with so little time left in the season rise from such depths and reach such heights.
Then, they won their first playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and convincingly. I actually thought that they would beat the Chiefs in the divisional round. Certainly, they had their chances.
In the end, it was not meant to be. They watched the AFC title game, just like the rest of us. Much as they have since the 2020 season, when they reached the AFC Championship Game for the first time since the 1990's. That's three seasons and counting.
This last playoff loss to the Chiefs - the third time in four years where the Bills have been eliminated by them - felt particularly devastating. It was a real punch in the gut. Because the Bills always seem to enjoy success against KC in the regular season, including a solid win over them this year, at Arrowhead. And finally, we manage to get them up in Buffalo, in January, when it sure appeared that the Chiefs had lost something of their championship swagger. And instead, Kansas City suddenly turns it up a notch, precisely in that game. As soon as I saw that, I had a feeling that they would get back to the Super Bowl.
Enough people were broken up about the loss, that they seemed to panic. It seemed that for many Bills fans, all hope was lost. Being eliminated three times in four years by the same team? Only three teams that I can think of suffered such indignities, being eliminated by the same team in the playoffs, year after year like that. The Cleveland Browns in the 1980's kept losing to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Games. The Green Bay Packers in the first half of the nineties kept losing to the Dallas Cowboys. And the San Francisco 49ers kept losing to the Green Bay Packers in the mid to late nineties. That last one might be the most promising one, because after getting eliminated by Green Bay in three successive postseasons, the 49ers finally did beat them - barely, and with a controversial non-call, to boot - in the next postseason.
The thing is, you never know what is going to happen. Bills fans have long felt like a tormented lot. This was the only franchise in history - not just NFL history, but in North American sports history - to have reached the championship level four years in a row, only to lose all four times. Yes, the Bills made some history in the nineties. They pulled off what I still think ranks as the greatest, most impressive comeback in NFL history (it still feels more impressive than Minnesota's 33-point comeback to the Colts in 2022). Also, they became the first and only team to have reached the Super Bowl four times in a row. Yet, they lost all four times.
And now, they once again have an enormously talented roster, on both sides of the ball. They have an excellent coach, one of the elite quarterbacks in the league, and a dangerously explosive offense. Also, a solid defense. But they keep falling short. Again, three postseason exits at the hands of the Chiefs, and one by the Bengals (also with Buffalo hosting) in the year in between.
Not surprising that Bills fans were kind of despairing. It really feels dangerously close to déjà vu.
Again, though, you never know what is going to happen. Teams - even dynasties - can fall apart remarkably quickly, and without warning. That happened to the Buffalo Bills of the nineties themselves after those four straight Super Bowl appearances. It happened to the Dallas Cowboys after they won their third (and as it turns out, their final) Super Bowl in the nineties. It happened to the San Francisco 49ers in the late nineties. It happened to the Green Bay Packers after they lost to the Denver Broncos in a huge upset in Super Bowl XXXII, after they had proclaimed themselves the new dynasty of the NFL. It happened to the Seattle Seahawks, also after they fell just short of back-to-back Super Bowl titles with a very controversial (and obviously heartbreaking) loss. It happened to the dynasty New England Patriots in the second half of the 2019 season, after they raced out to an impressive 8-0 start, and looked to one and all to have a real shot at qualifying for the Super Bowl for what would have been a fourth straight year, which would have tied the one Super Bowl record that the Bills still manage to own, for better or worse.
And win or lose this coming Super Bowl, it could happen to the Chiefs, too. Yes, they look damn good, and yes, Patrick Mahomes will surely be there for years. Probably Travis Kelce will be there for a few years to come, as well, although he is getting up there in terms of years now for a professional athlete. But there are also whispers that Andy Reid may step down. And again, rarely do teams make it to three straight Super Bowls (only the Dolphins in the 1970's, the Bills in the 1990's, and the Patriots in the 2010's managed the feat). If indeed the Chiefs do win this Super Bowl to earn back-to-back title, then they will have the same problem that other such champions have faced, because nobody to date has ever even reached a Super Bowl after winning the prior two Super Bowls, let alone won three straight Super Bowls. The San Francisco 49ers came reasonably close in 1990, as did the Dallas Cowboys in 1994. But close was not good enough.
All that is to say that there may be a path for this still talented Buffalo Bills team to reach the Super Bowl in the near future. They were right there, right in the thick of the race this season, and have ranked among the relative elite teams in the league for years now. Yes, they have a real shot.
So I for one am glad that the Bills brass is not dismantling this team, after falling short of their high expectations. They still have a shot at getting where they and their fans want them to go. So why scrap one of the best teams that Buffalo has ever seen?
Bills brass confident Super Bowl window not 'closed,' won't hit reset: 'We're disappointed ... not broken' by Bryan DeArdo Jan 23, 2024:
Buffalo will continue to press on after falling short of its ultimate goal
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills-brass-confident-super-bowl-window-not-closed-wont-hit-reset-were-disappointed-not-broken/?fbclid=IwAR3SASppE3Q-WzbAuNywfhxsJcvWEDaiUCx3nZedmS4ifrJc79L3AlRvYiE
So What's Next For The Buffalo Bills
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