KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs’ quest for a three-peat is on the line Sunday, and Patrick Mahomes understands the magnitude of what’s at stake.
Mahomes and the Chiefs will meet Josh Allen and the Bills in the AFC championship game at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, marking the fourth time in five years the Chiefs and Bills have met in the playoffs. Mahomes is 3-0 against the Bills in the postseason, and a win Sunday puts the Chiefs in New Orleans for Super Bowl 59.
“For me, I have to play my best football whenever I get the opportunity to and try to put our team in the best position to succeed,” Mahomes said Wednesday. “If that’s limiting turnovers, if that’s changing the field position. Whatever that is, you have to find a way that day to win. When you go up against a great quarterback, it takes your best as well.”
The Bills defeated the Chiefs 30-21 in November in Buffalo when Mahomes threw for three touchdowns but had two interceptions. Travis Kelce, who had 117 yards receiving last week against the Texans in the divisional round, had just two catches for eight yards in that loss to the Bills.
Against the Texans, Xavier Worthy was the only Chiefs wide receiver to catch a pass. But Chiefs coach Andy Reid said he’d be surprised if that happens again Sunday, as Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster and DeAndre Hopkins could see bigger roles in the offense.
“That’s the way it worked out,” Reid said. “We want to use all of them. So they’re all good players. There’s just one ball. So it happened to go the other direction but not for any reason that it didn’t come their way. They’re all part of it.”
The Chiefs-Bills rivalry has become one of the best in the NFL, and Mahomes said the two teams pretty much know what they’re going to get when they take the field.
“It comes with this,” Mahomes said. “It comes with playing each other every year in the regular season, it comes with playing in the playoffs. You have to look at your weaknesses and try to make those strengths. And then your strengths, make them even better because you know that they’re going to go out there and try to take away those things.
“It’s a great football team. Like I said, great players, well-coached. And we know it’s going to take our best in order to find a way to get a win.”
The Chiefs will be much healthier than the first matchup against the Bills, as Isiah Pacheco, Brown, Jaylen Watson, Charles Omenihu and Harrison Butker were all out with injury when the two teams met in the regular season. The Chiefs also have the advantage of playing at home.
“Arrowhead Stadium is just a special place,” Mahomes said. “I mean, you get a feeling when you step in the stadium. And you know the history and the greatness that has been played at this football stadium. I think that kind of feeds the football team.
“Then the crowd is great at being quiet when we’re on offense and being extremely loud whenever our defense is out there. And you feel that passion that the fans have. It’s true, it’s real, and they want us to go out there and be the best that we can possibly be. And so we want to go out there and put up our best fight every single time we’re on that field.”
