‘Drive a dagger in:’ Is this the year the Buffalo Bills slay the king?
The Bills insist this team is different than the ones that fell short. Go Long chats with Von Miller & several players inside the locker room to see how they plan to execute a rebellion. Finally.
ORCHARD PARK, NY — The greatest ever crush you psychologically. Before they even take the field, they plant fear inside your mind. Damn good coaches and players start questioning everything, the ball is kicked, the fourth quarter begins and… your lead is vaporized. Your pride is shattered. Your offseason begins. Tom Brady spent two decades paralyzing opponents in such diabolical fashion and the mantle has now been passed to Patrick Mahomes. It’s no hyperbole: the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is on track to become the greatest player in NFL history.
No franchise understands this better than the one located off Abbott Road.
For an entire generation, the Buffalo Bills were rendered a court jester. They existed for the New England Patriots’ amusement. If Brady instructed the Bills to dance, they danced. If Bill Belichick demanded they juggle, they juggled. This generation is different. Behind a virtuoso of their own — Josh Allen — the Bills are a perennial threat to the throne. And yet? Each attempt at a rebellion has failed. Three times the Bills and Chiefs have met in the playoffs and all three times it was Mahomes who gallivanted off the field in joy.
The mental toll is taxing. The pain lingers until you’ve clawed your way back to the same game 12 months later. This season, the Bills have their best opportunity ever to take down the Chiefs and win the Super Bowl two weeks later. Inside this locker room, they’re also armed with the perspective of a two-time champ. Von Miller is set to play in his 16th postseason game. He turns 36 years old in March. Miller has witnessed the hypnotizing powers of both Brady and Mahomes. He’s seen the Chiefs quarterback demoralize teams before the game begins.
“If it is supposed to happen, it’s supposed to happen. If it’s not, it’s not,” Miller says. “I’m not going to lose the game before I even play ‘em. They gotta show me and make it happen. And whenever I’m in that situation, I’m looking to drive a dagger in, too. So we all have that mindset out there. You’ve got to take it one play at a time and don’t blink. Whatever’s going to happen, I want to take it on with eyes wide open.”
Seated in his locker, Miller tears off the tape around his ankle.
Yes, the Chiefs have been “ultra-successful.” Yes, everybody’s been clamoring on and on about this matchup nonstop — hype that always builds up Mahomes as a god king.
Those closest to the quarterback have witnessed his magic for years.
“You don’t want to get psyched out or anything like that,” Miller says. “It’s easy for me. I’ve been doing it for a long time and playing in a lot of good ones. I get up for games like this. Whenever the game comes, you still need to take advantage of the opportunity. You’ve got 60 minutes.”
The Bills recreated themselves this 2024 season. Each transaction made by GM Brandon Beane, each decision made by head coach Sean McDermott behind the scenes steered the Bills back to this defining moment. To this AFC title game. With a football in one hand and a sword in another. This week, Go Long canvassed the Bills locker room to see how the Bills plan to slay the king once and for all.
Of course, it’s the Bills themselves who inadvertently brought this king to power. Instead of drafting Mahomes — and granting the owner his wish — they delivered Kansas City a dynasty. Now, they’re still trying to take him down. The more players detail their mindset into this game, the more it’s clear they’re sincerely unburdened by playoff defeats past. They believe the path to victory isn’t necessarily X’s and O’s and devising a masterful gameplan. Rather, a clear mind.
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No Fear
From the stands, he witnessed the devastation as a fan. Jordan Phillips wasn’t even on the Bills roster in 2020 and 2021. He spent a pair of seasons with the Arizona Cardinals in-between his stints with this team.
Yet, he’s also a Wichita, Kan., native and Phillips was pulling for all of his friends the night of “13 Seconds.” When it appeared the Bills would beat the Chiefs and host the AFC title game that ’21 season, he started to book his flight on his cell phone.
Then, you know.
Mahomes hit Tyreek Hill for 19 yards, Travis Kelce for 25 yards, then tore through the Bills defense in overtime to polish off one of the most improbable wins in NFL history. Every player victimized by this quarterback has every reason to tremble in fear. As his legacy grows… and grows… and grows, the quarterback brings a Mike Tyson-like aura to the ring. His presence alone is intimidating because we’ve all seen the kill shots. Like Miller, the defensive tackle Phillips sees Mahomes beating teams before kickoff.
And he’s confident these Bills are not falling into that same trap.
Phillips loves that the Bills never viewed Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson as unstoppable deities in the divisional round. The “mystique” around players is real, he says. He’s seen greats like T.J. Watt, Aaron Donald psych out opponents.
“You’re already scared before you get in there,” Phillips says. “You watch some of their film and they’re out there doing ridiculous stuff and those guys win because people are scared of them. It’s not even like they’re having to do anything special. It’s all strictly fear. And that’s what the Chiefs have right now. Going into Kansas City is intimidating, but it’s a familiar environment for us. And even though we’ve won a lot of games this year — for some reason — it’s just like, ‘Well, this is going to be the one where they can’t win.’ We couldn’t beat the Chiefs in the regular season. We couldn’t beat the Lions in the regular season. We couldn’t beat Baltimore in the postseason. At this point, we’re just trying to prove ourselves right.”
Against KC, other defenses often try to become something they’re not. They trash their identity in the name of Mahomes, and it backfires.
“You’re over-coaching and trying to do stuff that’s not who you are,” he says. “That’s a fear thing.”
One could argue that McDermott made this grave mistake against the Chiefs last postseason by faking a punt from his own 30-yard line on fourth and 5. It was drastically out of character then. Over the course of a full calendar year, the Bills coach has led with loads of belief in his players. Fearlessness. His actions have backed up the rhetoric. It’d be no surprise if he managed a game with such gusto now — albeit with Allen, not Damar Hamlin, holding the football.
Playing bold is a must. When the two teams met on Nov. 17, McDermott’s decision to go for it on fourth and 2 served as that dagger through the sternum. Each situation is different, of course. The Bills coach opted for a 21-yard field goal in a similar position against Baltimore and Jackson nearly made the Bills pay. Mahomes — like Brady before him — has proven deadly whenever given a sliver of an opportunity in the fourth quarter. He’s nearly impossible to kill late in games. All that’s missing is Jason Voorhees’ bloody hockey mask and that timeless “Halloween” piano. (Which would sure beat all of the strange sounds coming out of Tony Romo.)
All dagger opportunities in this AFC Championship must be maximized. Allen must be given the green light to drive the ball downfield, whether Buffalo’s leading or trailing.
Playing not to lose never flies vs. this quarterback.
Especially with a three-peat on his mind.
Aggressiveness on defense may also be key given KC’s issues on the offensive line. Give Mahomes time and he’ll coolly tap dance his way through traffic. He’ll improvise long enough for Travis Kelce to peel off a defender. However the Bills can get pressure, they need pressure. And despite a round of controversial calls on the Houston Texans last week, Buffalo does not intend to pull up once they get to No. 15. They will not be taking Rob Gronkowski’s advice to only “touch” the QB because such apprehension is another sign of fear. If flags are thrown, so be it.
“We’re playing how we play football. We run. We hit. We talk shit. That’s what we do,” Phillips says. “And whatever happens, happens.
“I’ll take the fine. I’ll take whatever’s coming my way. It’s football. If I try to avoid him and he starts running or I try to slow up and I hurt myself, I’m not doing that.”
‘It’s Not Revenge... It’s A Reckoning’
Refer to Mahomes as Michael Jordan in conversation and Rasul Douglas cuts in. He cannot let this casual comparison slide. Clearly, to him, it’s not time.
“Jordan has six,” the Bills cornerback says. “What does Mahomes have? Three?”
Then, he confirms that the Bills wouldn’t want it any other way. They wanted Kansas City on this road to the Super Bowl.
The league’s history is rich in rivalries fueled by revenge. Members of the 2006 Indianapolis Colts desperately wanted to stick it to Tom Brady and the Patriots after repeated playoff heartbreak. Taken in the right dosage, revenge is a powerful drug in a violent sport. Abuse this drug, however, and teams run the risk of getting too juiced for such a matchup. These Bills, of course, strike an eerie resemblance to those Colts.
Start to broach the subject of revenge, and Douglas cuts in again.
“Revenge? Revenge for what?”
He insists nobody gives a damn about the playoff losses of ’20, ’21, even ’23. Asked if the Bills can use any of this for fuel — even last year’s narrow defeat — Douglas offers a curt two-word response: “Hell no.”
“This ain’t the same team,” Douglas says. “We ain’t in the same head space as last year. There’s no egos here. We are all different people. We are all in different places in our life. But we don’t even compare last year to this year’s team. Because we’re completely different. We’re writing our own stories. We don’t want no old ‘Last year they beat us. Oh, this year we got…’ Nah, that’s not the story we’re trying to write. We’re trying to write everything based off this year — since Arizona in Week 1 ‘til now. That’s it.”
To illustrate his point, Douglas lists off all of the players around Allen who didn’t even play last season: Amari Cooper, Keon Coleman, Mack Hollins, Curtis Samuel.
Next, he points out that linebackers Terrel Bernard and Matt Milano also didn’t play in that Chiefs game. As for Douglas, he gritted through all 50 snaps of that 27-24 loss on a torn MCL. He calls that group a “handicapped” team.
This one is full of players completely oblivious to this team’s history with Mahomes.
“Look at it, bro,” Douglas continues. “Mack’s been playing in the league for eight years. He went to the Super Bowl his first year in the league and he ain’t even been in the playoffs since then. Curt, he was in Carolina. They weren’t doing shit! They’re going 3-13. Maybe some of the guys on this team have been to this point in their career, but not everybody. It’s all different.”
There’s always a chance the Bills win on Sunday and the visitor’s locker room turns into a Chiefs diss track with players, one by one, boasting about getting their vengeance. Mahomes has been this team’s daddy in the playoffs, completing 75 percent of his passes for 918 yards with nine total touchdowns, no picks and only three sacks. But Douglas is right. This team has changed drastically from the one victimized those final 13 seconds three years ago. That’s the value of advancing so deep into the playoffs in what the GM has cited as a transition year.
The best advice might’ve come from Matt Edwards. A week ago, the team’s assistant defensive line coach tapped into the 1993 Western, “Tombstone,” by telling players: “It’s not revenge, it’s a reckoning.” Revenge can be finite, fleeting. But a reckoning — a Super Bowl run — would serve as payment for all enemies through the Bills’ 63 years of pain. They’ve got an opportunity to purge all adversaries like Wyatt Earp.
“We try to prove to ourselves we are who we think we are,” Phillips says. “It has nothing to do with them.”
Adds tackle Alec Anderson: “They did come in here and beat us. So guys do remember that, but I think we’re not hanging too much onto it. If you look too much into the past or too much into the future, you kind of lose what’s in the present. And that’s what we don’t really want to do this year — lose what's in the present and in front of us.”
‘Present’
The Bills signed a king-slayer for this exact game. Two months after “13 Seconds,” Beane broke the bank for Von Miller. The pass rush needed an obvious jolt and they gambled that Miller still had mileage on him.
He’s excelled on this stage many times before.
Most famously, Miller helped the Denver Broncos (and Peyton Manning) triumph over Tom Brady’s Patriots in the 2015 AFC Championship, then won Super Bowl MVP vs. Carolina and league MVP Cam Newton.
He’s older. He’s slower. This obviously is not the same tier of game-wrecker.
But Miller believes he’s also wiser than ever. Repeatedly, he stresses the need for these Bills to live in the moment. He was more nervous for the Bills’ Week 18 finale against Joe Milton than these last two playoff games. Something about the heightened stakes completely calms Miller.
“Honestly, I feel like the bigger the game, the less nerves I have. And it is weird, but I just think over time, all the experience and all situations I've been in, these are the type of games that I live for. The bigger the game for me, I feel like the more and more I show up and it’s that quiet belief I’m supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be doing this.”
He credits experience. In 15 playoff games, Miller has 10.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and 48 tackles. His 39-yard fumble return was the critical play in Buffalo’s win last week against the Ravens.
Miller isn’t forcing the issue. If teammates want to talk about this mentality, they know they can always take a seat in the adjacent locker stall.
He’s been having many conversations as these playoffs march on.
Whether it’s Miller himself, or Allen, or James Cook, or Greg Rousseau, whoever, he says the key to sticking the dagger in the opponent is simply realizing when it’s your time. Last week, Miller and Terrel Bernard supplied such plays. Steer the binoculars toward Miller between series and there’s a good chance you’ll see him coaching up Rousseau, too. He’s constantly showing the 24-year-old different ways to rush the passer.
The margins are slim when these quarterbacks duel. Two or three plays change these games.
They don’t need to be perfect vs. Mahomes. One hit, one sack, one fumble may be all it takes.
“If it’s for you, it’s for you. And if it's not, it’s not. And I find peace in that. I find peace in controlling everything that I can control,” Miller says. “In high-pressure moments, it just feels like this is how it's supposed to be. And then after you do it so many different times, I wouldn’t say you expect it, but you kind of foresee it.
“As long as the mind’s ready to go — you’re in the right head space — then everything else will just happen. At this point in my career, it’s all about mental health, head space. What are you thinking? What is your perception? Perception is everything. It comes with experience. Wins and losses. Triumphant through adversity and losing through adversity, you gain that Jedi sense along the way.”
Miller doesn’t want to compare this Bills team to his ’15 Broncos or ’21 Rams that won rings, and that’s a theme. Players are determined to mentally stay in this moment.
McDermott can say as much as he’d like about being present, but it’s more impactful when a player with Hall of Fame credentials is articulating that same message throughout the course of the week.
Says Miller: “Instead of trying to figure everything out or understand everything that’s going on, you surrender to the process and stay in the moment.”
That being said, Miller did (briefly) allow himself to look into the future during this chat. His pass rush, like his hairline, isn’t what it used to be. But Miller still believes he’s got some pop to his game. Physically, he feels great. So, yeah, Miller plans on playing football in 2025. He cites a cosmic understanding for how offenses are trying to attack.
“Situational football is at an all-time high for me,” Miller says, “and I’m still able to boost the play of everybody else around me.”
Listen closely and several players are echoing the wisdom of the man with 140 sacks to his name.
Left tackle Dion Dawkins knows it’s possible to watch film for hours and hours and hours and allow anxiety to build. At one point during his press conference this week, he turned around, pointed at the AFC Championship logo on the backdrop and said the Bills cannot get caught up in the magnitude of Sunday. He’ll play video games, hang out with his kids, mess around on his DJ booth and refuse to change anything he’s done all season long.
“Because if you try to do something that you have not done this season,” Dawkins says, “it’s going to crush you. Why do it now? If you want to make life more difficult, then you’re not on that championship mindset.”
The Bills are determined to treat this game like any other, exactly as they’re determined to respect but not mythologize Mahomes because that’s the best way to keep nerves at bay.
Stay at peace mentally and there’s no need to get tight thinking of debacles past. Miller is reminding players they’re here for a reason. Instead of trying to dissect “why” or “how,” Miller tells players to stay present with their “eyes wide open.” On one wall this side of the Bills locker room, there’s even a picture with a person’s eyes prodded open with the words Don’t Blink.
The 6-foot-5, 305-pound Anderson, this team’s gnarly sixth lineman, has caught himself getting too hyped up for games past. That’s when he’s made mistakes. This week, he’s taking the lead of Dawkins, Miller, all the vets by staying calm.
With one caveat.
This is an emotional game. Soon, the present will be the AFC Championship.
“Once the national anthem hits, dude, you fucking let that bitch loose,” Anderson says. “You’ve got to. I tear up every now and then because it’s just like, ‘Damn, it's crazy.’ The opportunity that you get to stand on the field and entertain people. To me, it’s like ‘Wow.’ Childhood dreams are being accomplished, but just real life goals of now it’s here. You put it on paper. You put it up on your wall, in your bathroom mirror, and you read those goals, but then once you see those goals come to light? It’s a little bit more surreal to me of like, ‘Wow, it is actually here, so let’s get to work.’”
‘This shit’s for life’
The secret sauce to winning a championship isn’t always visible to the naked eye. Too often, we draw all conclusions from what we see those 60 minutes of game action. But repeatedly — all season — the 2024 Buffalo Bills have told us they’re exceptionally close to each other. Bonds are strong. After his team’s win over the Ravens, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones described the roster as a bunch of “mutts” who all hang out constantly.
This is not all the mere byproduct of winning games, either. Not all teams are this close.
Two weeks ago, Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt reminisced back to his days in Green Bay. The 2010 group that snuck into the playoffs and won the Super Bowl loved each other. The very next year, 2011, the Packers went 15-1 but something was missing. “The locker room didn’t like each other,” Whitt admitted. “Everybody wanted to be on TV and wanted to do this, that.” That group proved to be a house of cards that caved in against the underdog New York Giants in the divisional round of the playoffs.
There’s a human element to account for when 22 bodies collide 150 times a game. When a play inevitably goes haywire — when Mahomes makes the Bills pay for a DB screwing up in coverage — how will all parties involved respond on the sideline? Prudence in that moment dictates what happens next. The relationships must be strong. The relationships at One Bills Drive, seasons past, weren’t always this strong. Eight years into his tenure, Sean McDermott has cultivated a building that’s enjoyable for players and coaches to work in.
“Because it’s not just about getting paid and making a lot of money,” says Phillips, who’s come back to the Bills three times in his career. “You really do have a brotherhood here. It’s a college feel. These are the people who are going to go to weddings. They’re going to come to your house. They’re going to hang out with your kids. It’s not just like a six-month, ‘Hey, we’re coworkers.’ No, this shit’s for life. And I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Players at all positions hang out all offseason and Phillips is certain these bonds make “a big, big difference” on the field.
He also notes that the assistant coaches are more like “big brothers,” and that everybody’s comfortable walking right into McDermott’s office or Beane’s office to shoot the shit. Coaches and GMs in this sport always say their door’s always open but rarely do players actually feel comfortable barging in. Here, it happens all the time.
True friendships have helped fuel the unselfishness nature of this Bills team. Offensively, post-Stefon Diggs, the ball is spread out. Thirteen players caught touchdowns this season, tying the NFL record. The Bills became the first team ever to score 30 touchdowns on the ground and 30 touchdowns through the air. Defensively, players don’t go rogue. Douglas won a Super Bowl his rookie year in Philly and has come close multiple times since then with Green Bay and Buffalo. He’s seen how a pinch of selfishness can spoil a good thing. Here, he insists that the only thing the Bills care about is yelling “Big Dubs” into the team’s iPad coming off the field.
“Nothing else,” Douglas says. “We don’t care if Josh throws for 5,000 yards in the game or if he throws for one yard in the game. Nothing else matters. Nobody’s individual stuff. ‘Oh, if he gets 100 yards receiving’ or ‘if he gets 2,000 yards rushing,’ none of that shit matters. It just matters that we get in the tunnel and we bring it up and we got another game to play.”
One through 53, a roster’s bound to include players thinking about their financial situation. Contract issues can easily poison a contender.
Douglas believes these Bills realize the money comes with the bling. He points to a backup tight end on his 2017 Eagles team (Trey Burton) cashing in with the Chicago Bears after his “Philly Special” moment.
“When you win a Super Bowl, everybody goes, ‘Yo, how did they win the Super Bowl? Let me bring them on the team and see if we can take our team from being mediocre to getting over that hump,’” Douglas says. “That’s what everybody does. So you’re going get it, bro. Money’s going to come. If you go looking for it and pressing for it? You’re not going to make it. Let that junk come when it’s supposed to come.”
He points to Rousseau as a prime example. It would’ve been easy for the young defensive end to start pressing when he went five games without a sack. But he didn’t. The sacks started to pick up again. He’s a player Buffalo will absolutely need in a major way on Sunday.
On offense, wide receiver Curtis Samuel has had every reason to brood. After inking a three-year, $24 million deal with Buffalo, his production was modest most of the season. He ranked fifth on the team in targets with 56. But Samuel just may be the player Buffalo needs — he caught five balls for 58 yards and a TD vs. KC on Nov. 17, and had the 55-yard score that blew open a wild card win vs. Denver.
Everyone’s always on call. If he’s not catching a pass, Samuel says he can “create windows and lanes” for other receivers to get the ball
“Everybody plays a focal role,” Samuel says. “Football is the ultimate team sport. I feel like we’ve been doing a great job at that.”
Adds Phillips: “No egos. Everybody just cares about everybody’s success. And I think that takes you a lot further.”
The last time the Bills played a playoff game at Arrowhead, the mood inside the locker room was not so harmonious. After losing in overtime to the Chiefs, 42-36, as we reported, teammates clashed. One vet told us there was “a big uproar and people were about to throw hands.” Diggs was in the middle of the mayhem. It was ugly. It was revealing. Obviously that 2021 team wasn’t as close as they thought they were before that game. Another teammate vividly remembers Diggs screaming, “Every fucking time! Every single fucking time!”
This time, the Bills are hoping for a much different postgame scene. There’s a very real calmness to this team. As if they know they’ve belonged in this conference title game all along — regardless of everyone else’s prognostications. Samuel believes this team’s mental toughness was forged all the way back in OTAs. Anderson points to the first day in pads at training camp.
“Guys came in ready to rock and we were fucking smacking,” Anderson says. “It’s been that way this whole year. Everybody’s chin straps have been buckled, and I think we have that Buffalo mentality, that blue-collar mentality. We want to get dirty and we want it to be hard. Because that’s the fun part, that’s what we enjoy.
“We know that we’re the hardest-working people out here.”
Anderson will get his wish at Arrowhead. This promises to be a hard game that demands contributions up and down the Bills roster. Win at Arrowhead on Sunday night and there will be no melees inside the locker room. The only thing players will be shouting is “Super Bowl.” Repeatedly.
There’s just one more hurdle to clear.
A look back to the day the Buffalo Bills could’ve drafted Patrick Mahomes. (Yes, their owner, Terry Pegula, loved him.) Former GM Doug Whaley tells all:
Going into battle, this version of the Bills matches up more favorably against the Chiefs than in previous seasons. However, the combination of coaching strategy/creativity and home field still tilts the advantage in favor of Andy Reid and the Chiefs. If the Bills pull out a victory it will be a tremendous achievement and confidence boost for Coach McDermott and QB Allen.
Wonderful piece. The Miller/Dawkins section alone makes for a great read.