ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Heartbreak has struck again.

And man, did it come with a painful reminder for the Buffalo Bills: Wide right.

How cruel. Those words are so painful to longtime Bills fans, stung by the missed field-goal kick that might have won Super Bowl XXV.

Now it has happened again. The Bills had a chance to tie the AFC divisional playoff in crunch time on Sunday night, but Tyler Bass missed on the 44-yard kick with 1:43 on the clock. It pretty much sealed the 27-24 result that sends Patrick Mahomes and his Kansas City Chiefs to Baltimore for a sixth consecutive trip to the AFC Championship game.

Sorry, Buffalo. 

Not only have the Bills missed a chance to chase the elusive dream of winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl, they are destined for another offseason of second-guesses and what-ifs following a setback that could have swung in their favor … but didn’t.

And there was no bigger what-if than the missed kick.

“I wish it wouldn’t have been put in that situation,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said. “You win as a team, you lose as a team. One play doesn’t define a game, it doesn’t define a season. People are going to be out there saying that. We’ve got to be there for him.

“If we execute a couple plays prior, we’d probably be singing a different tune right now.”

If. Two plays before the field-goal try, Allen missed, badly, on a throw to Khalil Shakir from the Chiefs’ 26-yard line that had go-ahead touchdown written all over it. Allen appeared to be indecisive before launching the pass, but Shakir, who had a step on his defender with a skinny post route, was indeed the first option. Allen, though, was unhinged by the pressure that forced him to slide in the pocket. His movement was off.“Just couldn’t get into the throw,” he said.

On the next play, third down, Allen was flushed from the pocket by Charles Omenihu and threw the ball away.

Then came the missed kick.

The sequence summed up how the flow of the game changed. Kansas City’s defense, pushed around for 124 rushing yards in the first half and stung by Allen’s legs through three quarters — he rolled left and threw a dime on the run to Shakir in the short corner of the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown near the end of the third quarter — shut out the Bills in the fourth quarter.

Of course, Mahomes, the reigning MVP and Super Bowl MVP, left plenty of fingerprints in the effort to eliminate the Bills from the playoffs for the third time in his career. He completed 17-of-23 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. He didn’t commit a turnover and had a robust 131.6 passer rating. And he had a deft scamper for 24 yards along the sideline that was longer than any single play that Buffalo produced.

Although Allen led Buffalo on four ball-control scoring drives, it was Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense that struck for the big chunk plays that ultimately were the difference. The Chiefs had eight plays of at least 20 yards, including a 29-yard throw from Mahomes to Travis Kelce, a 25-yard connection with Rashee Rice and a 32-yard strike to Marquez Valdes-Scantling that opened the second half.

Buffalo’s big plays? Zero. The Bills didn’t manage a run or pass for 20 yards.

Chiefs’ defense finds its groove in fourth quarter

Allen missed on one deep heave after another as Kansas City’s defense adjusted as the game progressed. The Chiefs were intent on causing confusion by rotating disguised coverages after the snap. And they made a concerted effort to seal off the edges, which limited Allen’s ability to extend plays by rolling out of the pocket and helped control the edges in the running game.

It worked. Stefon Diggs, Allen’s most-proven target, finished with three catches for 21 yards. And James Cook, who led the rushing onslaught in the first half, ran for just 20 yards after halftime. The Chiefs’ defense, ranked in the top five for yards allowed and scoring, found its groove.

Kelce caught two touchdowns. Isiah Pacheco rushed for a hard 97 yards and powered through a 4-yard score early in the fourth quarter that turned out to be the game-winner.

“Pacheco is a beast,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid.

Mahomes kicked himself a bit for missing throws on a couple of scoring opportunities where they settled for Harrison Butker field goals. But the star quarterback was jazzed up by the defense as he assessed what had to happen to produce a victory in the first AFC playoff road game of his career.

“Through three quarters, they were moving the ball up and down the field,” Mahomes said. “But we shut them down in the fourth quarter. I went over to the defense and I told them, ‘Y’all shut it down and we will win this football game. We’ll go to the AFC Championship game.’ “

Good thing that, well, the Chiefs’ defense listened.

“Next time, I’ll try to tell them earlier. Like I’ll tell ’em at halftime, shut ’em out from there,” Mahomes said.

That’s the banter that comes with advancing in the playoffs. Across the tunnel, the mood was dejection. Again.

“Losing sucks,” Allen said. “Losing to them. Losing to anybody. At home. It sucks.”

Mahomes knew it would come down to the wire. It almost always does when it comes to these teams that have provided us with a real rivalry. The Bills have won the last three regular-season matches. But Kansas City has triumphed when it mattered most — in the past three playoff matchups.

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“If we don’t play them again, I’m OK with that,” Reid said.

It seemed fitting that if Mahomes was going to have to play his first road playoff game that it happened in Buffalo, given the bustling rivalry — which now has some fresh layers of documented drama.

And now it’s even more fitting that if the Bills are ever going to get over the hump and advance to a title game or a Super Bowl, they should have to go through the Chiefs. Mahomes knows.

“Every time I go up against Josh, I know it’s going to come down to the end, just because of the competitor that he is, the player that he is,” Mahomes said. “Same when I go against Joe (Burrow), Lamar (Jackson), all these guys. I know how much fire they have, and they’re not going to give up til the very end.

“You appreciate that stuff. These are the games I watched growing up. Hopefully, we’re making those memories for little kids watching football.”

And for the big grown-ups who wear Bills uniforms, there’s also the matter of creating nightmares.