Chiefs shutting down Josh Allen QB sneaks proved to be key X-factor in AFC Championship win over Bills

The Kansas City Chiefs are heading back to the Super Bowl. Andy Reid’s club has punched its ticket to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX after taking down the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship. While any playoff win of this magnitude is impressive, how Kansas City was able to take down Buffalo — specifically Josh Allen — has essentially never been done before. 

One of the key X-factors in the Chiefs coming out on top was their ability to stonewall Allen on QB sneaks on third and fourth down. In the AFC Championship, Allen converted just two of his five sneaks on the key downs, including a monumental stop on fourth-and-1 in the early minutes of the fourth quarter that turned the ball over on downs. That sparked a Chiefs touchdown drive to take a 29-22 lead and help lead them to the win. 

This is a rather miraculous turnaround for a Chiefs defense that had allowed 32 consecutive third- and fourth-down conversions on sneak plays coming into this playoff contest. Those three stops on Allen’s sneaks were the most against any QB in a game since at least 2017. Moreover, Josh Allen has been virtually unstoppable in this setting entering Sunday converting 20 of his 21 third-,fourth-down sneaks this season. That includes a perfect 9 for 9 on fourth-down sneaks. Allen was never stopped more than three times in a season on third-, fourth-down QB sneaks entering the AFC Championship. 

Josh Allen’s career QB sneaks on third/fourth down

“The look we had in the stadium … I thought he had it,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott said after the game regarding the failed fourth-down attempt. “Just short of the line was actually the first down, what it looked like to me, when it was sitting next to me with the marker. Just inside that white stripe was the first down. It looked like he got to it. That’s all I can say.”    

Allen came into this game converting 83 of his 93 career sneaks on the key downs (including postseason), further emphasizing how rare his shortcomings were in this latest playoff loss to Kansas City. 

“It’s been our best play all year at one or inside of one yard [to go],” McDermott said. “We won some of those, but to your point, they were doing a good job.  

“I thought overall, maybe we could have disguised it. Maybe not. But at the end of the day, we have confidence in Josh and our offensive line to get those. Been getting them all year.”