CBS Sports

‘The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills had an average audience of 57.4 million, according to the Sports Business Journal, making it the most-watched AFC title game in NFL history.’

‘Coleman and Kincaid combined for three catches and 25 yards in the AFC Championship. That can’t happen. And this wasn’t a one-off down performance from those two. Coleman and Kincaid were both injured around the time same, for a similar duration in the middle of the season. After Kincaid’s return, in six outings — including the playoffs — he had 16 receptions for 163 yards and went over 50 yards in a single game once.’

‘That’s four playoff losses for Allen and the Bills to Mahomes and the Chiefs. They’ve all been close losses, but they’re still all losses. Before this season’s epic matchup, the narrative was already built. It’s only going to get louder. And you’re going to hear a lot of people questioning whether Allen can win the big one, and — even worse — plenty of sports shriekers talking about Buffalo needing to move on from McDermott.’

‘Coleman and Kincaid combined for three catches and 25 yards in the AFC Championship. That can’t happen. And this wasn’t a one-off down performance from those two. Coleman and Kincaid were both injured around the time same, for a similar duration in the middle of the season. After Kincaid’s return, in six outings — including the playoffs — he had 16 receptions for 163 yards and went over 50 yards in a single game once.’

‘”To be the champs, you’ve got to beat the champs, and we didn’t do that tonight,” Allen told reporters postgame.’

‘The Bills, of course, did not go quietly. They turned this game into the classic battle of the titans that it nearly always is, as Josh Allen went shot-for-shot with Mahomes for the umpteenth time. Allen went 22 of 34 for 237 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran 11 times for 39 yards. He was repeatedly called on to convert in short yardage, and came through on all but one occasion. (More on that below.) He battled back from multiple deficits (7-0, 21-10 and 29-22) to either give the Bills a lead or tie the game, only to see Mahomes come right back and do the same.’

‘”I thought he had it,” McDermott told the media. “Just short of the line was actually the first down, what it looked like to me when it was sitting next to me with the marker, just inside that white stripe was the first down and it looked like he got to it. That’s all I can say.”‘

‘”What Kansas City has accomplished, you respect it so much,” Brees said during a one-on-one interview with CBS Sports. “It’s unprecedented. At the same time, you’ve got Josh Allen on on the other side. … I’ll make the Bulls-Pistons comparison. It’s trying to get over the hump, trying to get past kind of the big bully. Kansas City’s only loss (with Mahomes starting) this year was to the Bills. Now that was in Buffalo … but you just feel like, man, Buffalo is right there. It’s their opportunity.”‘

‘The Bills had the second-best scoring offense in the league this year with Brady as the full-time play-caller. He took over 10 games into last season after head coach Sean McDermott fired Ken Dorsey, and the offense flourished under Brady to end the season.’

‘You’ll hear it a lot from football fans outside of Kansas City: “ABC. Anyone but the Chiefs.” The Chiefs are in their seventh straight AFC Championship game and if they advance, it would be their fifth Super Bowl appearance in six years. If you’re thinking it’s time for someone else to get a chance to play on the biggest stage in American sports, you’re not alone.’

‘Josh Allen had a better 2024 regular season than did Patrick Mahomes. He averaged more yards per attempt, threw for more touchdowns and fewer interceptions, took fewer sacks, created more explosive plays and added more expected points per dropback, via TruMedia. And yet … there is no possible way that one can say any other QB in this league is better than Mahomes. Not given what we know about Mahomes, what he’s capable of, what he does on a weekly basis in the playoffs and even what he’s done against this specific Bills team.’

‘Counting the playoffs, Cook has had 15% of his runs go for zero or negative yards, the 11th-lowest rate among the 46 running backs with 100-plus carries. Fascinatingly, nine of the 10 backs with a lower rate in that advanced stat also had a lower percentage of eight-plus defenders in the box on their respective runs this season. The only back with a lower rate of runs that have gone for no gain or lost yardage and a higher stacked-box rate is Derrick Henry.’

‘While Allen wasn’t nearly as prolific as, say, Baltimore Ravens star Lamar Jackson in the MVP race, there’s a reason he’s drawn plenty of support for the NFL’s top individual honor: Not only has the Bills’ leader remained dynamic as a dual threat, ranking second only to Jalen Hurts in rushing scores, but he’s significantly cut down on untimely turnovers, enjoying his most efficient run since 2020, when — not coincidentally — he also led Buffalo to an AFC Championship clash against the Chiefs.’

‘Specifically, sales for this Sunday’s AFC Championship are 50% higher than final sales for 2023’s divisional-round matchup in Buffalo, where Tyler Bass missed a would-be game-winning field goal for the Bills. They’re also 155% higher than sales for their 2021 showdown, in which Mahomes needed just 13 seconds at the close of the game to engineer an overtime-inducing scoring drive; and 140% higher than sales for the 2020 AFC Championship, which the Chiefs won 38-20.’

‘”Offensive linemen don’t have awards for being great,” Dawkins said, via the Batavia Daily News. “There’s not a Protector of the Year award. I’m knocking at so many doors now to get this award going. I’m gonna [spearhead] it and make sure that this gets done before I’m done playing. Because there’s so many greats. There’s so many greats. If we have great quarterbacks, we have great running backs, we have rushing titles, we have quarterback passing titles. All those titles are reflections of the O-linemen, which are the protectors.”‘