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          Bills-Chiefs, Commanders-Eagles: Lessons from AFC, NFC title games

          Josh Allen threw for 237 yards with two touchdowns and added 39 rushing yards, but the Bills again couldn't beat the Chiefs in the postseason. Photo by Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images
          • Bill BarnwellJan 27, 2025, 08:50 AM ET
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              Bill Barnwell is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. He analyzes football on and off the field like no one else on the planet, writing about in-season X's and O's, offseason transactions and so much more.

              He is the host of the Bill Barnwell Show podcast, with episodes released weekly. Barnwell joined ESPN in 2011 as a staff writer at Grantland.
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          Conference Championship Sunday might have been better described as Inevitability Sunday.

          It felt inevitable that Saquon Barkley would produce another big play, and the star back didn't take long, as he housed the first offensive snap of the game for the Eagles, giving Philadelphia a lead it would never relinquish. It felt inevitable that the Commanders would be overwhelmed by a far superior team on paper, and after they forced the Lions into a sloppy game last week, Dan Quinn's team was finally the squad that looked overmatched and made too many mistakes in a 55-23 loss.

          It felt inevitable that the Bills-Chiefs game would come down to a big blitz in a key situation by Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, and while Josh Allen did his best to produce a miracle, his prayer of a pass to Dalton Kincaid fell just short of being answered. And it seemed inevitable that the Chiefs were going to claw their way into Super Bowl LIX, as a team that won without being impressive week after week this year produced its best offensive output of the season in a 32-29 nail-biter.

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          Inevitable doesn't mean obvious or easy to see, though. There are several fascinating nuggets and stories coming out of Sunday's games, and I'm excited to run through them here. Let's talk through what happened in the NFC and AFC title games, and how the Eagles and Chiefs won:

          Jump to a section:
          These games showed how football has changed
          The Bills ran it back -- with different results
          The Eagles' additions continue to dominate
          Why it's sometimes good to just get lucky
          Is Josh Allen ever going to make a Super Bowl?

          These were four quintessentially 2024 teams

          In September, I wrote about how the rise and spread of the mobile quarterback would make modern football unrecognizable to someone who stopped watching the NFL 15 years ago. These four teams, along with the Ravens and maybe one or two other teams, represent the cutting edge of NFL offenses. Their style of play and how that played out Sunday would be stark and surprising to a lapsed viewer.

          We've never had a final four in which all four quarterbacks were meaningful parts of their team's run games. In that, I don't mean quarterbacks who can throw on the run or who scramble for big gains, but literally designed playcalls in which the quarterback is expected to either carry the ball or have the potential to run if the post-snap read calls for that to happen.

          And so, this became the Sunday in which quarterback runs decided games. It was surely the first Conference Championship Sunday in league history in which both games saw a team run a speed option for a touchdown, as Jayden Daniels ran one in with a terrific cutback for the Commanders, while Allen pitched to James Cook for a fourth-and-goal score for the Bills. The concept of an option run with a quarterback was essentially out of the league for decades, outside of being used as a gadget play. Now, even after Patrick Mahomes was knocked out of a playoff game running a speed option against the Browns during the 2020 postseason, it's in playbooks.

          Jalen Hurts scored three times and had a fourth run called back by a holding call. The wiped-away score and his 9-yard TD rush early in the third quarter (his longest run of the day) both came on quarterback draws, with Barkley delivering a perfect lead block to set up the score. There was little evidence of the knee injury Hurts suffered last week against the Rams, as the Eagles star had one of his best games of the season as a passer, going 20-of-28 for 246 yards with a touchdown, plus 33 more yards from pass interference penalties.

          The other two Hurts rushing scores came on the tush push, with the Commanders so desperate to stop the play by jumping the snap count that they nearly invoked a rarely mentioned "palpably unfair act" penalty, in which the referees retain the right to award a team a touchdown if the other team repeatedly commits penalties. I had heard that rule brought up only in reference to potential plays in which teams would deliberately break the rules, like having a player run off the sideline to tackle an opponent or send 14 players onto the field late in a game on defense to try to burn clock and limit the opposing team to one final play. The Commanders weren't deliberately trying to jump offside, but they clearly felt like their only way of stopping Hurts was by perfectly timing the snap. In the end, Hurts went 4-for-6 on his tush push attempts (for either first downs or touchdowns), and the Commanders will need to try to find a new solution next season.

          Mahomes even got into the mix. He was stellar as a scrambler, as his six attempts picked up 37 yards, five first downs and a touchdown. The Chiefs even dialed up a rare designed run for him to pick up a second rushing score. Early in the game, Kareem Hunt scored out of a Full House backfield on a counter concept, with the guard and tackle pulling across and Hunt following them upfield for a 12-yard touchdown.

          Later in the game, Andy Reid went back to that same look and showed the Bills something they weren't expecting. The Chiefs showed the same counter concept, but instead of handing the ball to Hunt, Mahomes kept it for himself and ran the other direction. The two tight ends alongside him in the backfield served as lead blockers, and Mahomes ran through a tackle attempt near the goal line for the first two-rushing-touchdown game of his career:

          The one quarterback in these games who didn't score a rushing touchdown, ironically enough, was Allen. Before Sunday, he had gone 32-of-39 this season in converting first downs or touchdowns in short yardage on third or fourth downs. On Sunday, he went 3-of-8, including a stuff on a 2-point try, a failed third-and-goal run from the 1-yard line and a controversial fourth-and-1 stuff in the fourth quarter. (For what it's worth, I thought Allen made the line to gain, but the league is never going to overturn a spot unless there's obvious evidence the ball crossed the line to gain, and there wasn't that evidence on replay.) The Chiefs clearly took note of Allen's propensity to sneak behind left guard David Edwards and stopped him three different times on sneaks in that direction.

          With all the quarterback runs added to the mix, this was a special day for rushing scores. The record for the most rushing touchdowns we had ever seen across both conference title games in a single year was eight. The Eagles scored seven rushing touchdowns alone Sunday, with Hurts and Barkley each racking up three before Will Shipley added another. Daniels' score made it eight, while the Bills and Chiefs added five more in the nightcap. The 13 combined rushing touchdowns blow away the prior record. As recently as 2021, there weren't any rushing scores in the conference title games.

          Getting quarterbacks involved in the run game made these teams more aggressive on fourth down than ever before. The Commanders went for a pair of fourth downs on their opening drive that would have been unthinkable to even consider as recently as five years ago. They converted and nobody batted an eye. The Eagles picked up a fourth-and-5 in the first half in no-man's land. The Bills and Chiefs combined for seven fourth-down attempts, converting five.

          Teams in the past would go for it on fourth down when they were trailing and had no choice, but that has changed. The four offenses went for it on fourth down 10 times Sunday when they had a win probability of at least 10%. A year ago, that number was four. Over the prior 15 years, the average was 1.7 such attempts. Each team was forced to be aggressive on fourth down knowing the other team was going to play that way, too. Being aggressive and trusting the data on fourth down used to be a competitive advantage. Now it's a prerequisite.

          All of these teams relied on the run in their own ways. The Commanders tried to use the run early to slow down Philly defensive tackle Jalen Carter, although they fell behind and had to lean on the pass. The Eagles physically overwhelmed the Commanders, averaging 6.4 yards per play while using the run both as an explosive weapon and a short-yardage solution. They eventually forced Washington to sell out to stop the run, at which point Hurts was able to hit his receivers on out-breaking routes against man or soft zone coverage. When the Commanders tried to tighten up, Hurts threw over the top to A.J. Brown for a long fourth-and-5 completion, setting up the first of a two touchdowns at the end of the first half that broke open the game.

          The Bills used the run to get their offense back on track, as they rushed 11 times in 12 plays on their 80-yard touchdown drive to start the third quarter. The Chiefs used it to control clock and try to manipulate the Bills into playing their base defense. Early on, they used heavy doses of RPOs to create conflicts for Bills defenders and to get them out of zone coverage. When the Bills were in man coverage, Mahomes went 12-of-15 for 169 yards with a touchdown.

          They also all ran mesh. America's favorite pass concept popped up over and over again during the game in key situations, including a fourth down that Daniels converted with a scramble. The Eagles ran it for a first down to DeVonta Smith and the Chiefs picked up a big gain late from Xavier Worthy with it.

          But the most important snap of the season saw the Bills go back to the same concept that worked well for them the last time they played the Chiefs; this time, it yielded different results.

          The Bills ran it back on fourth down

          Go back to Mahomes' only loss of the season (he didn't play in Kansas City's Week 18 loss), the 30-21 defeat at the hands of the Bills in Buffalo in November. The most memorable snap of that game came on fourth-and-2 late in the fourth quarter, when Sean McDermott resisted the urge to kick a field goal with a two-point lead and kept his offense on the field. Coordinator Joe Brady dialed up a concept the Bills love in key situations, the aforementioned mesh, with two receivers crossing over the middle of the field, a wheel route out of the backfield, an over route behind the crossers and some sort of downfield route that rarely gets thrown.

          Brady called mesh because the Chiefs often blitz and play man coverage in key spots. In that November game, he was wrong, but it didn't matter. Spagnuolo dropped his troops into zone coverage and rushed four, which locked up the pass routes, but Allen simply broke the defense. He scrambled for a first down, eluded several defenders and turned the play into a 26-yard rushing touchdown. Mesh has a way of occupying the linebackers and second-level defenders who might typically have eyes on the quarterback, which makes it an even more devastating concept for teams with mobile passers.

          On Sunday, facing a fourth-and-5 with his team's season on the line, Brady went back to mesh. The Bills scored their fourth-down touchdown earlier in the quarter on a play in which Khalil Shakir went in orbit motion to create a four-man route concept that served as eye candy to free up Curtis Samuel over the middle of the field for a score. This time, they lined up with four receivers to one side and motioned Shakir into the backfield before again sending him back on a wheel route. He was open, but Allen was never going to have time to get there because of what happened next.

          Just like they did on that fourth-and-2 during the regular season, the Bills ran mesh, expecting a blitz and man coverage. They were half right. Brady lined up with his offense in condensed splits, meaning his receivers were closer to the offensive line than they would be in a more traditional pass concept, which was unlike the snap from the regular season. The Chiefs (and teams that like to blitz) love blitzing condensed splits, because it's easier to disguise slot blitzes and pressures off the edge before the snap. Brady likely knows this, but he might have tried to lure Spagnuolo into blitzing in the hopes of getting man coverage and a quick completion for Allen.

          Unfortunately for the Bills, Spagnuolo blitzed and played zone behind. At the snap, he sent an overload from the right side, with Trent McDuffie coming on a slot blitz. The Chiefs sent three defenders at two linemen on the right side, and guard O'Cyrus Torrence never ended up blocking anybody. That meant two free rushers. When Allen tried to bail away from the rush, he ran into George Karlaftis, who had already looped outside to take away a potential scramble. If the Bills blocked it up better, if the splits made the blitz more obvious or if Allen could have somehow escaped past Karlaftis, maybe he would have been able to scramble for a first down or had the time to find a wide-open Shakir. Neither was realistic given the time he had to work with and the immediate pressure to his right side.

          As it stood, all Allen had time to do was extend the play by running backward before tossing up a prayer to Kincaid, who had come open downfield as the Chiefs tried to match the route concepts. I've seen this called a drop, and I suppose it is by the letter of receiver law, but it's silly to use the same word to describe what happened here that we used to describe what Mark Andrews did on the 2-pointer last week. Andrews was open, had a pass thrown to him within the structure of the play and had the ball hit him in a position from which he commonly catches passes. That's a drop.

          Kincaid's situation was totally different. The tight end was running a route to the sideline and had to adjust to a pass that was wobbly and thrown way behind him. (That's not a knock on Allen, either.) Kincaid had to stop his momentum, turn back toward the ball, and then try to catch it while diving. Yes, he had a shot at catching the ball, but this was an infinitely more difficult catch than Andrews' drop. It's like the difference between ground balls in baseball. A routine two-hopper that is flubbed by a shortstop is an error. A play deep in the hole that would have required a spectacular snag and throw to beat a runner that bounces off a glove is a single. Kincaid's attempted catch felt more like the latter.

          I'd also throw in a comment about the play before. On third-and-10, Brady nearly got Spagnuolo for what could have been a long touchdown. The Chiefs sent the house with a Cover 0 blitz, leaving four defensive backs against four receivers in coverage. Allen immediately threw a screen to Amari Cooper on the edge, a perfect call against that sort of pressure. The Bills were going to have two blockers against two defenders. If they executed this play well, Cooper was going to have a clear path to the end zone.

          The execution was more B-minus than A-plus. Allen's throw was just narrowly out past Cooper and forced the veteran wide receiver to gather it into his body, which took a moment. Right tackle Spencer Brown attempted to block safety Chamarri Conner but fell down as he tried to take on the smaller defender, which led Cooper to get caught up in the wake of the falling lineman and slow down as he attempted to get up the sideline. And while Karlaftis had gone to rush the quarterback, those moments gave the edge rusher enough time to chase down Cooper for a short gain.

          The Eagles' 2024 offseason additions continue to dominate

          I projected the Eagles as a team to likely decline heading into this season, which has clearly turned out to be incorrect. The biggest reason I was wrong? General manager Howie Roseman and the Eagles nailed nearly every one of their significant decisions during the 2024 offseason. Those additions have been incredibly valuable all season, and they were responsible for swinging the NFC title game toward Philadelphia.

          That starts with Barkley, of course, who requires no introduction. His 60-yard touchdown on Sunday was the most spectacular play of the day, but he also got some help from his opponents. When the Eagles pitched him the ball, Dante Fowler Jr. decided to spin in the hopes of eluding A.J. Brown's block attempt. In doing so, Fowler was run over by a pursuing Bobby Wagner, which also slowed down the legendary linebacker. Barkley got into the open field relatively easily, at which point he shrugged off one tackle attempt and ran away from another.

          Barkley's second score might have actually been more impressive. Running inside near the goal line, he was about to meet Frankie Luvu in the hole for what probably would have been a short gain. In an instant, though, he teleported outside and into open space for a score. Most backs either don't have the vision to see that opportunity or the speed to get out there without being met by defenders or causing their offensive linemen to hold. Barkley is one of the rare runners who can do that at full speed.

          Between the regular season and the playoffs, Barkley has carried the ball 411 times for 2,447 yards. He's now within 29 rushing yards of Terrell Davis' record, which the Broncos star racked up across 470 rushes in 1998. Had the Eagles not sat him more often Sunday because of what appeared to be a calf issue, Barkley might have broken the record before making it to the Super Bowl. Instead, he will surely get there in two weeks' time. He was also brilliant in pass protection against the Commanders.

          While Barkley might win Offensive Player of the Year, the Defensive Player of the Year candidate the Eagles picked up also had a big day. First-team All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun has been a big play machine this season, and while he allowed an early fourth-down conversion to tight end Zach Ertz and wasn't able to bring down Terry McLaurin on a touchdown catch, he more than made up for it in the first half. He forced a Dyami Brown fumble with a punch later in the quarter, leading to a short field and an Eagles score. Baun stuffed one run for no gain, another for a loss and then recovered another Commanders' fumble late in the third quarter with Washington driving and attempting to get within one score.

          There's more. Rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell recovered from a shoulder injury and spent most of the day matched up against McLaurin, Washington's top wideout. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, McLaurin lined up for 36 routes against Mitchell, catching just one pass on four targets for a total of 7 yards. (His score came on the other side of the field.) Mitchell also added an exclamation point by intercepting Daniels on a fade to McLaurin in the fourth quarter before mocking the wideout's touchdown celebration after the pick.

          Cooper DeJean, the team's other rookie corner, allowed four catches for 25 yards across 50 coverage snaps and held up Brown long enough for Baun to come over and punch out the football. Free-agent addition C.J. Gardner-Johnson allowed two catches for 25 yards. And right guard Mekhi Becton, signed to a one-year deal in the offseason, held his own on a day in which the Eagles had to deal with multiple centers, as Landon Dickerson moved over from guard and filled in for an ailing Cam Jurgens in the first half, then went out after the break with his own injury, forcing Jurgens into the lineup.

          And then there are the coordinators. Kellen Moore was joining his third organization in three years, but the former Cowboys and Chargers offensive coordinator has helped give the Eagles more answers on offense. Hurts went from struggling against the blitz to posting the league's best QBR against it this season. While the Commanders were able to get pressure against the injury-hit interior of the Eagles line with blitzes for a stretch in this game, Moore eventually found solutions.

          It was only a little over a year ago, meanwhile, that Dolphins players were taking to Twitter with their excitement that the organization had parted ways with defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. All he has done since joining Philadelphia is turn the Eagles into the league's best defense. The first drive of the game might have resulted in three points, but it was easy to see how difficult it was for the Commanders to work the ball down the field, as they needed to pick up two fourth downs and failed to gain more than 7 yards on any single snap during an 18-play possession.

          The Eagles made such good draft picks, free agent signings and coordinator hires that it overshadows what might have been one of the worst signings of the offseason. Roseman's biggest splash was signing former Jets defensive end Bryce Huff to a three-year, $51.1 million deal. Huff quickly fell out of favor and saw his role reduced before suffering a wrist injury. He played just one snap over the first two postseason games before playing 12 Sunday, all of which came up multiple scores in the fourth quarter.

          Devin White, who was expected to be a starting linebacker for the team, was cut without playing a single snap after signing a one-year deal with $3.5 million guaranteed. The guy who took his place in the starting lineup was Baun, and he has been phenomenal. As I wrote in my deep dive on Roseman last offseason, he has made some of the best moves of the past decade and some of the worst. Thankfully for Philadelphia fans, this season was an example where the good decisions were far more important and impactful than the less successful ones. Roseman has the Eagles back to a third Super Bowl in eight years.

          It's good to get lucky: Fumbles and injuries matter

          Both the Chiefs and Eagles deserved to win Sunday, but even good teams benefit from having something mostly out of their control go their way. The same factors we saw play out in both games have helped the Eagles throughout the postseason and helped the Chiefs win the Super Bowl a year ago.

          The Eagles continue to dominate the turnover battle. Forcing and avoiding turnovers is a skill, and they have a plus-10 turnover margin through the first three rounds of the playoffs. That's the best mark any team has had since 2000, one ahead of the 2001 Rams and 2008 Cardinals. (Both of those teams coincidentally lost the turnover battle and the game itself in the Super Bowl, allowing the other team to score a return touchdown in the process.)

          The Eagles are forcing lots of fumbles, but they've run hot in terms of recovering those. After recovering 47% of their fumbles during the regular season, they have fallen on eight of the 11 fumbles that have hit the ground in their games during the postseason, a recovery rate just under 73%. They literally started their postseason by forcing and recovering a Keisean Nixon fumble on the opening kickoff against the Packers, which produced an early touchdown in a game in which they only produced one other touchdown-scoring drive the rest of the way on offense.

          On Sunday, the Eagles forced three fumbles on defense and special teams and recovered all three. (It also looked like Hurts came close to fumbling on a tush push, although if the ball hit the ground, the quarterback quickly recovered it.) Those fumble recoveries handed them short fields, as they took over twice in Washington territory and once on their own 49-yard line. Those possessions yielded three touchdowns.

          Turnovers have defined these playoffs, as teams that won the turnover battle had gone 8-0 heading into Sunday night. The Chiefs became the first team to lose the turnover battle and still win a game in these playoffs, as a fumbled exchange between Mahomes and Isiah Pacheco was the only turnover in the AFC title game. The Chiefs actually endured horrific fumble luck in their game, as the Bills recovered all five fumbles, including four by their own offense.

          Instead, the Chiefs benefited again when their opponent lost a player to injury, just as Super Bowl LVIII might have swung on in-game injuries to the 49ers. Linebacker Dre Greenlaw tore his Achilles running onto the field and was replaced by Oren Burks, who allowed nine catches in that game. Right guard Jon Feliciano also went down injured in the third quarter, and replacement Spencer Burford blew a block in overtime that allowed Jones to run free at Brock Purdy for a pressure on a critical third down.

          On Sunday, the Bills weren't sure whether they would have top cornerback Christian Benford, who suffered a concussion in last week's win over the Ravens. Benford was active and played the first 12 defensive snaps, but he suffered another injury in the first quarter and was removed from the game.

          Benford was replaced by 2022 first-round pick Kaiir Elam, who had been scratched for the first two playoff games while spending most of the regular season on the bench. The Chiefs proceeded to relentlessly target Elam, who was repeatedly playing off coverage and allowing throws on curls underneath to avoid giving up bigger plays. Elam also committed a face mask penalty on a play in which he wasn't targeted and a pass interference call for another first down.

          The Bills were also without starting free safety Taylor Rapp, who was replaced by Cole Bishop. While Bishop wasn't targeted as often, the Chiefs were able to exploit the backup. Bishop made a nice tackle to save a Hunt touchdown in the first quarter, but the veteran back ran through a would-be tackle attempt by Bishop later in the same series for a score. Worthy outmuscled Bishop on a contested catch for a 26-yard completion to set up another score. Then, with the Chiefs trying to run out the clock, Pacheco ran over Bishop to pick up a critical first down.

          Of course, this isn't the first "what if" for the Bills. In the 2021 playoffs, fans wondered whether McDermott and the secondary were too conservative with 13 seconds left and a three-point lead. The following season, the Bills were ripped apart by injuries in the secondary and couldn't hold up in coverage in a loss to the Bengals. Last season, for Bills receiver Stefon Diggs wasn't able to bring in a long pass from Allen and Tyler Bass missed a 44-yard field goal that would have tied the game in a 27-24 home loss to the Chiefs. And this season, the Bills lost two critical defensive backs at the wrong time.

          Is Josh Allen ever going to make it to a Super Bowl?

          This isn't a prediction or a criticism. It's a reflection on how difficult it has been and will continue to be for any quarterback, especially one in the AFC, to make it to the Super Bowl. This was the first time Allen had made it as far as the conference title game in four postseasons, with the Bills falling in the divisional round in 2021, 2022 and 2023. This AFC title game was much closer than Buffalo's last one, where the Chiefs were up 23 points in the fourth quarter before the Bills scored in garbage time. Allen actually had a possession in the fourth quarter Sunday with a chance to take the lead and get Buffalo to the Super Bowl.

          Even getting back to this point is going to be tough, given that Mahomes and the Chiefs seem to start their season in the AFC Championship Game every year. Allen will have to compete with what will likely be a three-time MVP in Lamar Jackson. The Bengals are going to rebuild their defense and still have Joe Burrow, whose Bengals have beaten Allen and Mahomes in the postseason. The Chargers look like they're going to be a problem with Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh. The Texans have an exciting young core. The AFC is going to continue to be a brutal place to play, especially if 15 teams are competing for one spot in the conference title game.

          Allen is only 28 years old and is playing at an MVP level. For whatever concerns there are about his physical style of play, he hasn't missed a start since his rookie season. The Bills successfully retooled their roster last offseason in a transition from the Diggs/Micah Hyde/Jordan Poyer era and have a younger core around him. They'll have more cap space to work with this offseason after moving on from Von Miller. Brady decided against pursuing the last remaining head coaching job. Buffalo is going to continue to be a very good team for years to come.

          Even legendary quarterbacks who have made it to the Super Bowl have failed to make it back after this point of their careers, though. Dan Marino made it to the Super Bowl in Year 2 with one of the best seasons in league history, and while the Dolphins lost, their ensuing trip to the conference title game made it clear that Miami was going to be a perennial title contender. But then Marino never made it back to another Super Bowl and made it only as far as the conference title game one more time over the ensuing 14 seasons.

          Marino is not the only one. Brett Favre went to back-to-back Super Bowls during his age-27 and age-28 seasons, played 13 more years and never got to a third championship game. Russell Wilson made it to the Super Bowl twice in his first three seasons with a legendary defense, winning one and coming within 2 yards of claiming a second. He hasn't made it back since. Ben Roethlisberger made it to the Super Bowl three times through his age-28 year, winning two. Despite a great defense and an excellent coach in Mike Tomlin, Roethlisberger never made it back, making only one conference title game over his remaining 11 NFL seasons.

          For whatever has happened in previous postseasons, I don't have any doubt the Bills can beat the Chiefs in a playoff game. They have a four-game winning streak against Kansas City in the regular season, and while it's easy to say those games are different, go up to a Chiefs player before their regular-season game against the Bills next season and ask them if they're saving their best effort for the postseason rematch. The Chiefs want to win those games, and the Bills deserve credit for being the only team to get the best of Mahomes this season.

          History is littered with teams that couldn't do it until they did. The Peyton Manning-era Colts couldn't beat the Patriots in the postseason until they launched a comeback from 21-3 down in the second quarter of the 2006 AFC Championship Game and won, 38-34. Other times, the roadblock gets out of the way. The Packers lost to the Cowboys six times between the regular season and the playoffs in the 1993, 1994 and 1995 seasons. In 1996, they lost to the Cowboys again in the regular season, but when Dallas lost to Carolina in the divisional round, Favre & Co. beat the Panthers in the NFC Championship Game and won Super Bowl XXXI.

          Every year Allen and the Bills don't get there, though, is another year wasted.