If only the Buffalo Bills could play the Kansas City Chiefs in the regular season.
With a 28-21 victory on Sunday, Josh Allen and the Bills have won five straight regular-season games against the Chiefs.
Great stats, except for the fact that they are 0-4 against Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City during the playoffs.
But there was a lot to like about the Bills on Sunday, and it could be the perfect plan to finally slay their postseason dragon if the two teams meet again in January.
Allen had perhaps his best game of the season, completing 23 of 26 passes, a team-high and career-high 88.5% completion percentage. He also ran for two touchdowns to break Cam Newton's NFL record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback.
Without a true No. 1 WR, Allen ran the ball to perfection. The reigning MVP completed passes to 10 different receivers and relied especially on his tight ends as Dalton Kincaid led the team with 101 yards and a touchdown. The Bills also added James Cook, who rushed for 114 yards.
Defensively, the Bills stepped up and held Mahomes to less than 50 percent of his hits for the first time in his career and gave him 15 hits.
Joey Bosa made key plays in big moments, and rookie corner Maxwell Hairston showed off his elite speed throughout the game and also made his first career interception.
It was a complete team win that improved the Bills to 6–2 while the Chiefs fell to 5–4.
The win also went a long way toward potential AFC playoff seeding, although the Bills also have a problem with the 7-2 New England Patriots in their division.
“They're the pinnacle of what you want from your team. They've been that way for the last eight years,” Allen said of the Chiefs after the game. “Any time you get a chance to play your best and come away with a win, you feel pretty good.”
There's no reason not to feel good after a win like this, but this will all be another distant memory if the Bills can't finally get past the Chiefs when it matters most.
Here are a few more key takeaways from Week 9's exciting list:
Bears snatch victory from the jaws of painful defeat
While Bills-Chiefs was the headline matchup of the week, the most entertaining game on Sunday came in Cincinnati.
The Chicago Bears looked good en route to their fifth win of the season, up 41-27 with just over two minutes remaining against the Bengals.
But that's when everything started to fall apart.
After a quick scoring drive led by Joe Flacco, the Bengals recovered the ensuing onside kick. At the ripe age of 40, Flacco then led another quick scoring attack with less than a minute left as the Benals grabbed a 42-41 lead.
It looked like it was going to be a very dark Sunday for Bears fans until Caleb Williams and rookie tight end Colston Loveland came to the rescue.
Williams hit Loveland for a 58-yard touchdown with 17 seconds left to end a game that had a little bit of everything in Chicago's 47-42 victory.
Now at 5-3, the Bears and first-year head coach Ben Johnson are directly in contention for the NFC North Division title.
Should the Bears be upset about Sunday's ugly win? Not according to Johnson.
“Don’t apologize for winning this league,” the head coach said passionately. locker room speech after the game.
Panthers and Vikings stun NFC North leaders
While the Bears pulled off a miraculous win, the two teams leading the NFC North weren't doing so well heading into Week 9.
The Green Bay Packers continue to be a tough team to figure out as they looked pretty sloppy in a 16-13 home loss to the Carolina Panthers. This is an especially confusing result considering the Packers played perhaps their highest-scoring game of the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers last Sunday night.
Green Bay may now have lost star TE Tucker Kraft for the season, who reportedly tore his ACL.
Let's also give credit to the Panthers, who are 5-4 and definitely in playoff contention. Especially with the way Rico Dowdle runs the football.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Lions suffered a crushing 27-24 home loss to the last-place team in their division, the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings' defense, led by coordinator Brian Flores, stifled Detroit's high-profile offense with a total of 30 pressures on Jared Goff, per Next Gen Stats.
While Vikings QB JJ McCarthy looked more than capable in just his third NFL start, not much was asked of him. But in his first game since Week 2, McCarthy threw for two touchdowns and rushed for another.
Based on Sunday's results, the NFC North suddenly looked like a four-man horse race. Just 1.5 games now separate the first-place Packers (5-2-1) and last-place Vikings (4-4), with the Lions and Bears in the middle at 5-3.
Stafford and Darnold get into MVP conversation
It's time to talk about what the two NFC West quarterbacks are up to this season.
At 37 years old and with a potential Hall of Fame career on the horizon, Matthew Stafford shows no signs of slowing down.
The Los Angeles Rams QB threw for four more touchdowns in Sunday's 34-10 win over the New Orleans Saints. He currently leads the league with 21 passing touchdowns in just eight games, and has 16 touchdowns and zero interceptions over his last five games.
But Stafford isn't the only NFC West quarterback playing at the top of his game: What Sam Darnold is doing with the Seattle Seahawks also deserves recognition.
Darnold put on quite a show against the Washington Commanders on Sunday night, finishing 21 of 24 for 330 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-14 win.
He didn't record his first incompletion until the second half after tying Warren Moon for the franchise record by completing his first 17 passes of the game.
Mahomes, Allen and Patriots QB Drake May make a strong case for MVP on their own, but with the Rams and Seahawks sitting at 6-2, don't be surprised if Stafford and Darnold figure more often in awards conversations this week.
This was the Pittsburgh Steelers defense we've been waiting for.
For a team that has fallen short of expectations in many ways this season, Pittsburgh's defense stepped up significantly on Sunday.
Facing the best offense in the league, the Steelers forced the Indianapolis Colts into a whopping six turnovers en route to a 27-20 victory.
They also sacked Daniel Jones five times and held Jonathan Taylor, the league's leading rusher, to just 45 yards on the ground.
It was a much-needed performance, and the win also gives the Steelers some breathing room in the AFC North that they may need down the road.
At 5-3, the Steelers are two games ahead of the 3-5 Baltimore Ravens, a team the Steelers have yet to play twice and look poised for a second-half win with Lamar Jackson's return.
Nothing special about Little's leg
I'd be remiss if I didn't praise Jacksonville Jaguars offensive lineman Cam Little.
Little set the NFL record for longest field goal with a 68-yard bomb late in the first half against the Las Vegas Raiders.
After blasting a 70-yard bomb in the preseason that didn't count in the official record books, it was only fitting that Little secured his place in NFL history on Sunday.
