Deshaun Watson’s coach criticizes Josh Allen’s Bills' late-game meltdown vs Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs

It’s becoming a bit like a broken record for Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, who let another playoff lead against the Kansas City Chiefs slip away last weekend.

As we’ve come to expect, the AFC Championship Game between the Bills and Kansas City Chiefs boiled down to a few big plays, one in particular, which didn’t go Buffalo’s way. One fourth-quarter play will likely come back to haunt this Bills offense given how close they were to toppling the Chiefs.

Heading into the fourth quarter with a one-point lead, the Bills were in a position to exercise their playoff demons against KC. However, with the Bills in KC territory at the beginning of the final quarter, Sean McDermott decided to gamble on a fourth and short situation, which ultimately backfired.

It wasn’t so much that the Chiefs defense stuffed the fourth down running play that’s being talked about, though, but rather the play call the Bills went with.

Quincy Avery, a quarterback coach who works with the Cleveland Browns’ Deshaun Watson, believed that running the ball in that situation wasn’t the way to go.

On X, Avery said the issue was:

"Turning the protection down the field; that’s where it all went wrong."

It was noted that Bills receiver Khalil Shakir was open for what would’ve been an easy first down.

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Avery says that it’s a credit to Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, though, whose brilliant strategic mind seemed to discourage the Bills from throwing on that play.

"Credit to Spags, he’s paid millions to outsmart people, and he did exactly that when it mattered most," says Avery.

In the end, the play call was for Allen to run the ball, and though many would contest he got the necessary yardage, the officials ruled him short.

The video review was inconclusive, and the Chiefs took over on downs, then re-took the lead and never looked back.

In the game, the Bills went 4/6 on fourth-down conversions with Kansas City a perfect 1/1.

It’s the third successive time in the illustrious playoff history between Allen and Mahomes that the former has had a lead in the fourth quarter and wound up on the losing end.

Steve Spagnuolo has won four Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator, more than anyone else at the position.

Josh Allen has never beaten Mahomes in a playoff contest, with the Bills losing at home a season ago due to a late field goal miss.