Stunning Discrepancy: How Allen, Mahomes Were Complete Opposites Sunday

Josh Allen, meanwhile, registered the highest completion percentage of his career, 88.5 percent (23 of 26).

“Josh played amazing. They ran the ball well, and their defense had a good gameplan. And so, it always comes down to these certain plays in games where you gotta go out there and make the play happen and we weren’t able to do that today.”

More history for Allen

Allen became the third player ever to complete at least 85 percent (minimum 15 attempts), while rushing for two touchdowns and passing for a touchdown in an NFL game, joining Kyler Murray (Sept. 10, 2024) and Trevor Lawrence (Oct. 16, 2022).

The star-crossed quarterbacks, who are now 5-5 in head-to-head meetings, played another one-score battle.

“Yeah, you know it's gonna come down to a couple plays,” Mahomes said. “And they made those plays today.”

The Chiefs’ defense made plays, just not when they ultimately needed them. As a result, Allen broke his career high from Oct. 1, 2023 (84.0 percent, 21 of 25), a 48-20 win over Miami.

“Josh Allen, you got to affect in multiple ways,” Chris Jones said after the game, “because he can throw off balance, out of the pocket, on the run. So different skill sets require different types of game plan for different quarterbacks.”

Relentless pressure

Mahomes got relentless pressure, however. In fact, Buffalo affected him on Sunday more than any of his prior nine meetings with the Bills.

And credit the Bills for making necessary adjustments early in the game. After Kansas City safety Bryan Cook broke up Allen’s fourth-down pass to halt a Buffalo drive, the Chiefs scored 10 unanswered points.

Then, Allen locked in. He completed 14 of his final 15 passes. The Bills outscored the Chiefs 21-3 over the next 25 minutes.

“They got the run game going,” Andy Reid said afterward, “and then right when you think they’re going to run, they come back with play-action and naked. They did a good job with that.”

Reid fell to 8-5 in games entering bye weeks since the Chiefs named him head coach in 2013. And when the Chiefs return, Mahomes won’t allow the team to lose its sense of urgency.

“You only learn from so many losses,” Mahomes said. “I mean, you got to kind of learn from it fast, and it’s gonna be an uphill battle when we get back, but I think our guys are up to it.”