Orchard Park, N.Y.

When the Chiefs’ bus pulled into the hotel outside Buffalo late Saturday, the eve of the team’s first road game in the playoffs since you-know-who arrived, they had a few party favors waiting.

Snowballs.

Middle fingers.

Some choice words.

As the former pelted the bus, along with the assistance of some palms, wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling could swear he saw his quarterback smile. And he knew why.

They arrived here inside Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., a day later, greeted with an environment that lived up to the reputation they’d heard about all week, antagonistic enough that defensive lineman Chris Jones found himself in a verbal shouting match with fans hours before kickoff. It was loud, the boos for Patrick Mahomes perhaps more thunderous than the home Bills’ player introductions.

This was supposed to be the unfriendly, uncomfortable and unfamiliar setting that would change the trend of these AFC playoffs. Heck, change the half-decade trend of the AFC playoffs.

Instead, some 950 miles from Kansas City, the playoffs returned to the same place they have since you-know-who arrived — with Mahomes playing for yet another trip to the Super Bowl.

The Chiefs and Mahomes will play in the AFC Championship Game for the sixth straight season after a 27-24 victory against the Bills, overcoming an inexcusable turnover, crediting a missed field goal late and forever appreciating that they have that guy.

You’ll have to look past the mere totals, because the Bills did all they could to limit the game’s possessions. But the game that was intended to intimidate Mahomes instead brought out the best in him. That analysis is forthcoming, but we can’t just gloss over the big picture.

Mahomes has been an NFL starting quarterback for six seasons. He’s been in the conference title game each and every one of them.

But never like this. These are kind of games — the kind of playoff paths, as the underdog — that alter legacies. They’re the kind of games the man with the very best legacy, Tom Brady, used to win more often than not.

Mahomes? Well, he’s one for one.

In his weekly media session, he was asked a couple of times about taking his postseason show on the road, and he all but literally shrugged in response.

Behind the scenes? A bit different. His Chiefs teammates were eager to talk about that afterward, as though they’d been holding in a secret for a week.

“He was the biggest advocate of anyone to go on the road and play. He was all for it. He wanted it,” Valdes-Scantling said. “He’s been the good guy of the league for awhile now, but he plays it’s cool — he loved being the villain.”

“Pat was a certain type of way all week,” running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire said. “It’s an intuition thing, but when you know someone, you can see it through their eyes.”

“He was turnt,” receiver Rashee Rice said. “Oh, my, gosh — that walk-through.”

And then Mahomes, after a sly grin: “I was very excited.”

OK, but about that walk-through.

In the first Chiefs practice of the week, called a walk-through because it’s supposed to literally be that, Mahomes came out blazing.

“Usually it’s a little soft toss,” Valdes-Scantling said. “He’s throwing it like we’re in a game.

“I’m like, ‘It’s a walk-through, Pat. We’re in street clothes.’”

His teammates couldn’t slow him down on the weekdays.

The Bills couldn’t on Sunday.

The Chiefs totaled 7.7 yards per play, better than any game in the regular season. Mahomes was at 9.3 yards per pass attempt, better than all but one game this year. Forget fourth downs — the Bills only forced the Chiefs into five third downs over eight possessions, and one of those arrived after a couple of kneels.

Offered just 47 plays with which to operate — compared to 78 for the Bills — the Chiefs turned eight of them into 20-plus yards, and Mahomes was responsible for six. He completed three passes that traveled at least 20 yards in the air for the first time all year.

It was just like the old days again, the Chiefs on such a roll that the Bills were determined to try just about anything to avoid returning them the ball — even if it meant a fake punt required to gain five yards on their own 30-yard line.

The only thing, as it turns out, that could stop Mahomes was putting the ball in the hands of Mecole Hardman — an inexplicable play-call that, had the result shifted, would’ve drawn the entirety of this column.

That’s for another day.

Because it was Mahomes’ night.

There used to be a time, you know, when those who followed this franchise expected the worst to happen in these games — who, for example, would have expected a Hardman fumble at the goal line to be the turning point. And who could have blamed them? They knew the history. They lived the history.

The Chiefs, no matter the spread in Vegas, were for years the perpetual underdog. Follow them at your own risk.

On Sunday, they were the literal underdog in Buffalo, playing on the road against a red-hot team that once admitted it was built to beat them and whose quarterback played a heck of a game.

Yet Mahomes crossed among the few items absent from his resume: the proof that the game travels in the playoffs, that it’s not all credited to home-field advantage and that they can win the games they aren’t supposed to win.

With another — or perhaps two — on the way. The Chiefs are headed to Baltimore, yet another date on the road, yet another date that will feature them as the underdog in the market. Bet against them at your own risk.

After the game Sunday in New York, Mahomes removed his headband and ran toward the stands to gift a souvenir to a young fan dressed in a red No. 15 jersey. He had to dodge some items from the stands along the way.

Snowballs.

How fitting.

After the final snap, he had taken a knee to kill the clock, and when he popped back up, he provided a wave toward no individual in particular.

Goodbye, Buffalo.

Hello, Baltimore.