Bills Are Cursed (Hour 1)

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Promo code ANYSTYLE24. Live from the playshow yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street, welcome on in to a Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the Free Odyssey app, and of course streaming on YouTube, youtube.com slash CBS Sports Radio, 855-212-4CBS, number to jump on in, 855. 212-4227. You could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Sal Cappaccio, Bill Sideline reporter going to stop by 40 minutes from now, another devastating end to the Buffalo Bill season. We will get the pulse on the team and what their future is going to look like with Sal.

40 minutes from now, got Moist Mike rocking and rolling with me, Stuart Kovacs as well, as we take you all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. So what a weekend of football. You know, I usually like to push back when people have like the same sayings and just try to go a different way, and for a while I always thought conference championship weekend was the best weekend of football in the postseason, but it definitely is divisional round weekend. And you see the two games that we got Saturday, the two games on Sunday, there was a lot of exciting, there was a lot of good football. Texans-Ravens gave you good football for a half, and then Lamar Jackson does what Lamar Jackson does, and that's be the MVP of the league, and he just went off in that second half where the Ravens sent the Houston Texans back to H-Town with an L after that was a remarkable season for the Houston Texans. And the night game, hey, there's conflicting emotions if you look at it from a Packers fan perspective, you should have won the game.

Now, you didn't win the game, so you have to separate those emotions, you could be upset, you could be frustrated with the loss, but you do have to step aside, and when cooler heads prevail, realize that that was the season that Matt Leflore showed that he could win without Aaron Rodgers, and also Jordan Love looks like he could be a franchise quarterback, and the San Francisco 49ers got good Brock Purdy when they needed to. And he rocked out with this Brock out, and he was looking pretty awesome on that final drive that did secure a victory for the 49ers, and as for yesterday, the Lions continue to be one of the best stories that you'll see. Now, they're marching to an NFC title game. For a second, you maybe thought, oh, that they would be playing in that game for a right to host the NFC title game, but with the Niners winning, that game will be in Santa Clara on Sunday as the second part of the conference championship weekend doubleheader. And we start with the Bills and the Chiefs, another classic between those two teams. It looked like it was going to be low scoring to start, then it started to heat up towards the end of the first half, and then you start the second half with a Chiefs touchdown, a Bills touchdown, and a Chiefs touchdown. It's like, okay, fasten those seatbelts, buckle in, this is going to be a high octane scoring type of game, and ultimately, you did have a victory by the Kansas City Chiefs by a final score of 27 to 24, but down the stretch of that game, there was a lot of sloppy football. Josh Allen gets the football back with eight or nine minutes remaining, and I was watching the game with three or four of my buddies in the city, and I turned to them and I said, Josh Allen has to bleed this clock, Josh Allen has to put the ball in the end zone, and even if he gets the ball in the end zone and he has 30 seconds remaining, that still may be more than enough time for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, but they were marching the ball. The next thing you know, there's two minutes remaining, and this game on second and nine and third and nine, when you're already deep in Kansas City's territory, as well as Josh Allen did play in the contest, he did not play well on those last two snaps. Because second and nine, he went for the home run shot, he went for the go make a big play, go make a heroic play, where you need to realize, and this was the part of Josh Allen that's so frustrating, as great of a quarterback as he is, is that Josh Allen in the second half of the season, once they did get rid of their offensive coordinator in Ken Dorsey, and promoted Joe Brady to be the offensive coordinator for the rest of the season, he was playing more conservative football. He was taking the layups, he was protecting the ball, he was dinking and dunking, and when you look back at the final two plays of that drive before you had the wide right once again for Buffalo, as that franchise is just cursed, and you had the missed 44-yard field goal attempt by Tyler Bass, if he would have just right away threw the ball to Stephon Diggs, in all likelihood, they get a first down, or you set up third and short, and the clock continues to go. But he went for the home run shot, and he almost had it, but almost isn't good enough this time of the year, and even on third and nine, and this could be me being a little bit overly critical, but you gotta give your team a chance instead of just throwing the ball out of bounds, right away he had Dalton Kincaid open for a window, I don't know if it would have got a first down, but it would have made it awfully close, and it would have set you up like fourth and three, fourth and four, if not, you may have been able to get a first down on some yak by Dalton Kincaid. So it was just moving along that drive, where you got to see Josh Allen, it was like, wow, he's putting together this drive, he is going to do this, he is going to get the ball in the end zone, and then you ended up seeing just him implode right in front of your eyes, and not take the layup, and not take those layup throws, and that was extremely frustrating, and that was a game where I went in, and I was up until that point, I was three for three on the weekend, and I ended up not getting the final game right, but that game was there for the taking, and when you look back at Chiefs and Bills, that game was up for grabs, and I hate to say it, but it's just the truth, nine times out of ten, you don't find a way to knock out, you don't find a way to put the nail in the coffin on the home, and you just leave that casket open for a little bit, he is going to find a way to get the job done, and that wasn't even seeing a second half, where either of these offenses outside of the first three touchdowns that got this second half going, without them playing at an elite level, but you got to give credit to Kansas City, you know, we'll continue to delve into the Buffalo side of this, but you got to give credit to Kansas City, because this is a team that, and I've doubted them, and I rarely doubt the Kansas City Chiefs, but this year, with their lack of weapons, it's like, okay, who's going to step up and make a play, and you go back to the last two times these teams played, when Mahomes was bitching and complaining about the officials, and he was going berserk, I don't think it was because he was actually annoyed with the officials, I thought that was his way of just letting out frustration, and going after, you know, a certain group in the officials, so it could hide his true feelings about this team, when his receivers had the dropsies all throughout the year, but look at what happened yesterday, when needed to, Rashid Rice made big plays, Marcos Valdes-Scantling held on to the football, and Travis Kelce, who is starting to look like he was on the decline, and he was slowing down and dealing with injuries, well, in the biggest game of the year for Kansas City with their season on the line, Travis Kelce not only stepped up, but stepped up in an enormous way, and showed you why that connection of Patrick Mahomes and also Travis Kelce is just one of the more special connections ever, and also give credit to Steve Spagnola, because that defense for the Kansas City Chiefs, they have been good for a big stretch of this season, they've had some moments, but they've been really good for a big stretch of this season, and in that second half, they really did lock down, where it looked like early, Buffalo could do whatever they wanted, running the football, Buffalo was going through that Chiefs defense like a hot knife through butter, but they made enough adjustments to not stop, to not limit Kansas to Buffalo, but just do enough to slow them down and knock them off their rhythm, and championship teams make championship plays, and you saw Kansas City knows how to win, and you saw Kansas City is always going to have a chance, as long as you have 15, make more of the championship plays, but really, when I look back at that game, there's like four or five sequences that stand out to me, and I think you start after you had the idiotic fake punt call by Sean McDermott, where I thought Romo was actually right, because it happened to my team similarly, when you had Patrick Chung in a playoff game, up against the Jets with the Patriots, lost to the Jets by a circle like 2011, 2012, whatever it was in that divisional round, they called an audible at the line of scrimmage, and they ran a fake punt, which made absolutely no sense, so Romo kind of said, oh well, there was only ten men on the field for Kansas City, so maybe they checked into that, maybe DeMar Hamlet of all people checked into that, but after the game, Sean McDermott just admitted, that they were just trying to be aggressive, they were trying to catch Kansas City off guard, well, you could be aggressive, but then there's also being stupid, and that was a stupid play call, that was a stupid decision by Sean McDermott, because no way in that moment, should you take the ball if you're going to go for it, out of Josh Allen's hands, you just can't do it, like I would rather go for it on fourth and five, with Josh Allen snapping the ball with eleven men on the Kansas City defense, than running a fake punt, and a fake punt run, five yards away, when the Chiefs defense only had ten guys on the field. So I didn't like that, but even with that, it did not kill Buffalo, because as the Chiefs are looking to go put the game away, and really take control of this game, you then had McCole Hardman make a mistake in a rule that always gets debated, in one of the few rules that actually benefits the defense, where McCole Hardman fumbled that football out of the end zone, and then Buffalo gets the ball back. In that moment, I tweeted this out, I said this in the moment, Buffalo had to go march down the field and put the ball in the end zone, and they quickly punted after that, because you survived, and momentum could change in football so quickly, but you made an enormous mistake, it did not burn you, then Kansas City made an enormous mistake, and a team that is ready to go win a championship, a team that is ready to go slay the Kansas City Chiefs, has to go put a touchdown up on the board.

They couldn't do that. And then in the final drive of the game, we already talked about second and nine and third and nine, but what the heck has happened to Staphon Diggs? To start out that drive, they go deep. I know Josh Allen has a big arm, but he threw the ball nearly 60, 70 yards down the field. I'm not saying that that's an easy catch, but with how much Staphon Diggs talked this offseason, and all the problems he created, when the ball hits you right in the hands, you got to catch that.

And we always say this all the time on this show, we channel enter Bill Belichick, who once famously said, stats are for losers. Is that any more true than with Staphon Diggs this year? And Diggs has been a very good wide receiver, he's been a top five receiver, top ten receiver for a while, but in year nine now, and just completing year nine, he's clearly on the decline, and I don't even know if he's going to be in Buffalo next year. I know he still has his contract, I know there's dead cap and all that, but he was basically irrelevant the last two months of the season. He hasn't had a touchdown since week 12, he hasn't had a 100-yard receiving game since week 6.

Think about that. And not only that, you look at his numbers, oh he has 107 catches, 1,183 yards and 8 touchdowns, and that's a pretty damn good receiving season. Even in an era where it's offense, offense, offense. But for him to drop that ball there, and who knows how the game would have played out, you know, anyway, because there's still such an enormous amount of time left, and there's never a moment where Mahomes looks at the clock and he goes, I can't get the job done, but that's just an egregious error, and an egregious drop by Stephon Diggs, and then you clearly go from the last three sequences when he should have hit Diggs, and he went for the home run shot in Josh Allen, and then third and nine, he basically had a chance, a small window to hit Dalton Kincaid, and he did not, and then the ball gets incomplete, and when Tyler Bass is walking out there for the field goal in that win, did anyone think he was actually making it? But that's just such a Buffalo way to lose the game, where you end up putting that ball wide to the right, and it's just another one of those moments where it's a few words or less that every Buffalo Bills fan will remember, will understand, and it's never one of those moments where they're on the right side of it. And I'm not usually someone that believes like a team is cursed, but this Buffalo Bills team has to be cursed.

They really do. Losing four Super Bowls in a row, and then you have this era where they found a way to get to an AFC title game. All right, you lose to Kansas City in January of 2021, but they're going to find a way to get the job done. You take a 13-second lead.

We all know the breakdown from that the next year. You lose to Kansas City on their home turf. Then last year, you were lucky to win a wild-court game up against Skylar Thompson, and then you just get smacked and abused by the Cincinnati Bengals, and then in this game, you had Kansas City. You're throwing haymakers back and forth, and your offense looked like they were about to bring you to some success, and they were about to give you the lead, and then your defense, who was just decimated with injuries, was going to have to still make a stop, even if Bass makes that field goal or they put the ball in the end zone, and you had to settle for the field goal, 44 yards, and right when the ball is kicked, you're like, oh, that's going to be right down the middle, and then it went all the way to the right. That's just miserable, and Buffalo, it's impossible now to believe.

They'll be there year in and year out, but it's tough for me to say that they're going to break through because I don't know what you could expect moving forward out of Staphon Diggs. You had two of your better defensive players, Matt Milano and Tredavious White, both got hurt this year, and White is now multiple injuries in his career, and as great as Josh Allen is, and I do believe that Josh Allen can one day win a Super Bowl, but you have a window, and you never know when you're going to be able to recapture that, but it does feel like now Buffalo is one of those teams where throughout the parts of the season, it was like, oh, they're really shutting down right in front of your eyes, but then they sucked you back in, and yesterday it's up, same old result and no progress, and they only continued to stay the same or regress from where they were in January of 2021. That's just a miserable, miserable defeat, and sure, probably Mahomes, it's easy for everyone to say today, even if they make the kick, Mahomes probably marches right down the field, but at least you want to see that happen compared to having Tyler Bass miss that field goal all the way to the right. I feel bad for Bills fans today.

Kansas City fans, you're a lady, you're jumping up and down like fat kids in candy stores. I know Santa's jumping up and down right now, but he's a Fugazi cheese fan anyway. He became a cheese fan this year. He's really a fan of the New York Jets, but I'm happy for most cheese fans, but I just feel miserable today for Buffalo Bills fans.

And Lamar Jackson, please, do us a favor next week. I don't like to see Samter happy. I don't. When it comes to football, you know, outside of the studio, Samter being a dad, beautiful baby girl, I love seeing Samter happy when it comes to personal, family, things like that, but when it comes to this Fugazi fandom of the Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar Jackson, next week, the Lions, they may be America's team, but Lamar Jackson this weekend in Baltimore, Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern, I am now calling him America's quarterback because we need Lamar Jackson to get the job done up against the Kansas City Chiefs. So radio row in the Super Bowl week doesn't turn into a whole week of Taylor Swift and Stu getting all annoyed that he's not then making the trip to Las Vegas to see his BFF in Taylor Swift. I do not need to hear that stuff for a week.

I do not. So go Ravens. I am rooting for the Ravens. Kansas City, I love you. Your barbecue is absolutely sensational. Jack Stacks, one of my favorite restaurants to ever go to.

Those baked beans, the cheesy corn, the ribs, the brisket, the fired kiss wings, I absolutely love it. But I do not want to see your football team win this year. So go Ravens. And go Lions. Because I can't pull myself to root for the San Francisco 49ers.

So take your calls, 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. When we come on back, we will recap the 49ers Packers game. You can stream the NFL and Westwood One for free, sponsored by AutoZone. All season long, you listen to every Westwood One broadcast of the NFL Live on the NFL app asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports or on the Odyssey app. Get in the zone, AutoZone.

AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone. Get in the zone, AutoZone. Restrictions apply. Sal Capaccio is going to join us coming up at 3.40 p.m. Eastern. So in about 15 minutes from now, we will get into the 49ers and Packers in just a second. But let me hit the phones to start, 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. Let's go to Francois in Dallas next up on CBS Sports Radio. Go ahead. Francois?

Alrighty. Just like the Dallas Cowboys, Francois does not show up in the postseason as well. I will say we do have a student nod alert in the YouTube chat, youtube.com slash CBS Sports Radio.

There's this guy, Alex, that chimes in on the YouTube chat and he goes, Gelb, I know more about sports than you. He goes, why are you so hard on the Dallas Cowboys but you don't slam the Buffalo Bills? And all I said was, at least the Buffalo Bills have been to a championship game in the last 20-25 years. And he's like, the Bills have never been to a championship game. They've ever been to an AFC title game.

Well, they were up against Kansas City in January of 2021. So it just shows you what you deal with sometimes when you talk to Cowboys fans. And the other thing too, I think there's nothing more pathetic in sports.

Nothing more pathetic in sports. When your team can't get the job done and then the next week to try to make yourself feel better, you go after another team that ended up losing. Like it was the same thing with Eagles fans where the Cowboys choked and just got annihilated the night before up against the Green Bay Packers. And then once the Eagles ended up losing, it was like, Eagles fans were like, oh well it doesn't matter because Dallas lost. Or the Cowboys fans were like, oh I feel bad about myself because the Eagles lost. That's just so stupid to me.

It's really lame when I look at things. But anyway, let's get to San Francisco and Green Bay. I think there are two feelings from this game and both could be true.

But it is tough to separate them because you never know when you're going to get back. And you don't want to take these opportunities for granted in the postseason because I remember when the Mets got to the World Series. Surprisingly, they got to the World Series up against the Kansas City Royals. And when they lost the World Series in five games, I was like, you know what, it's still a very successful season.

They'll be back. Look at the pitching staff that they have. And for the Green Bay Packers, nobody went into the season.

Outside it may be Kenny Clark who joined me before the start of the season. And he said the Packers are getting disrespected and we're going to prove that this year. But I believe if you are a rational fan, no one really expected the Packers to do anything more than just be a playoff team. Like if you would have told me for the year, what's the apex for the Green Bay Packers? It would have been you make the playoffs probably as a wild-court team, maybe an outside chance, maybe an outside chance to win the division. So just the fact that the Packers were playing on division around weekend means the season is a success. But we've seen these crazy runs happen before in sports when you don't expect a team to be there and then they get an invite to the dance. And the next thing you know, they're in a NFC title game or they're in a Super Bowl playing for the Lombardi Trophy. So for the Green Bay Packers in that game up against the 49ers, you saw, even though we made two bad mistakes in Jordan Love, you saw a quarterback that looks like a franchise quarterback. And he proved that in the last month, month and a half of the season. You also saw a coach at Matt Lafleur where sometimes in sports, right, everyone's got to have an opinion. Everyone's got to be one way yes, one way no, and you've got to be all in yes, you've got to be all in no.

It's okay to say, I don't know. And with Matt Lafleur heading into the season, just like I said about Jordan Love, I don't know if the Packers have the right coach and the Packers have the right quarterback. I didn't know that before the start of the season. I was optimistic about Jordan Love because I like the way just simply how he handled himself in the locker room with Aaron Rodgers on his way out in a tough situation. And I think that the locker room really was galvanized because of the way that Love handled that. And we didn't have all the drama with Aaron Rodgers that made it easier to transition to Jordan Love.

And guys probably enjoyed going to work more with fewer distractions, but it didn't mean that that was going to translate into success. And all I said about the Green Bay Packers all throughout the year was I don't care what the win and loss record was at the end of the year. And there are few times in sports you could just throw away wins and losses.

But at the end of the year, I just needed to have the answer to this. Do I think Jordan Love can be the guy in Green Bay? And I don't know whether it was the game up against Dallas, even in the loss up against San Francisco, because you see the ability, you see the potential, or in some games down the stretch, how you can't say right now and how you could say definitively right now that like the Packers don't have their guy. Like it looks like the Packers have their guy once again at the quarterback position.

Now just doing it for one year does not mean that you're going to go on to have a 10-year career, you're going to be a Pro Football Hall of Fame, you're going to win a Super Bowl. But you see the athleticism, you see the ability and the way that he could fire that football, and you see the leadership skills of Jordan Love, where it does suggest to me that he is the franchise quarterback moving forward for the Green Bay Packers, and give credit to LaFleur because that wasn't smooth sailing. You know their backs were up against the wall, and they found a way to get the job done to put themselves in a playoff position, win a playoff game, they were aggressive, taking the ball first and marching right down the field up against the Dallas Cowboys, and then they did just as good of a job the next week in putting themselves in a position to win, but the problem was the opponent you were going up against knows how to get the job done in the postseason, and they were a much better quality opponent going up against the 49ers than the week prior in the Dallas Cowboys, and the moment where Carlson missed that kick, you knew that the 49ers were going to get the game.

A guy went on my FanDuel app, and I saw the Niners were minus 105 on the live money line, and I said hammer that number because the Niners were going to end up winning the game. So yes, Love at the end of the game made a stupid decision, and all he had to do was get that team in field goal range and have a chance for Carlson to redeem himself, and who knows if he would have made the kick. You got to live to see another down, but it was very Fav-like, especially like Fav when he was on the Vikings in that NFC title game up against the Saints, where he made a throw that he shouldn't have, but that's what gunslingers do. That's what aggressive quarterbacks do, and you got to live with the good, and you got to be there when there was bad moments. So that was a game where really it looked like for most of it, the Green Bay Packers had victory, and then they snatched the feet from the jaws of victory. And also, just like we talk about Kansas City, the same way we could talk about San Francisco, I know this core hasn't won a Super Bowl yet, when you have chances to put them away, you better hit on your kill shot.

You can't misfire. Green Bay misfired, and Brock Purdy, who was clearly affected by the rain, I've never seen a quarterback snap the ball, then wipe his hand off while having the football still in his hand. That was wild, but when needed to, Brock Purdy stepped up, and he did what was asked of him, and then you had the big play of the McCaffrey touchdown. So you look back at that game, that was a phenomenal game. I know most people will say Bill's Chiefs was the best game of the weekend, but that was a wildly entertaining game with San Francisco and the Packers, and sometimes when you're going on a championship run, you need to win a game that it didn't look like you were going to win. It always happens at least one time in a championship run, and maybe that is what's going to really spark this thing for the San Francisco 49ers.

And Brock Purdy, when he needed to, back up against the wall, he got the job done. Now, I know that Deebo is 50-50 for this week with the shoulder injury. Deebo, it's crazy because there's so many guys you could look at at San Francisco and say that they're the MVP of the team. I would still probably say it's McCaffrey, but in that three-game stretch this year where the Niners lost back-to-back-to-back games, Deebo Samuel was out. Was out, was hurt. And once Deebo got hurt in this game, the Niners were never really able to get it going until the end, and I know he came back in the game, but then he left the game. At first we thought it was a head injury, then you find out that it was a shoulder injury, so the status of Deebo, and not like, I gotta think he's going to play this week, but how effective can he be up against the Lions? And then, you know, if you do get the job done against the Lions, I think most people believe the 49ers are going to beat the Lions, then it's okay, how really healthy can Deebo get with an extra week of rest before you go up against either the Kansas City Chiefs or the Baltimore Ravens? But the bottom line when you look back at this game, the Niners were lucky to win, but you'd rather be lucky than good this time of the year. And then also, when you look at it from a Packers side of things, there's two feelings.

One, you could be demoralized. One, you could be really upset and angry and P.O.ed about the individual game, but when you take a step back and you look at this season for Green Bay, it is an outstanding season. You exceeded all expectations, and you can now think that you have your coach and your quarterback to move forward together in the LaFleur love regime moving forward because they showed you a lot of good things, and they got better as the season did go on. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio.

We'll take a timeout. When we come on back, we will go to Buffalo. Sal Capaccio is the Bills sideline reporter, works for WGR in Buffalo. He's going to join us to talk about another deflating, awful, putrid defeat for the Buffalo Bills in the postseason.

Update time first. Here's the act man, Rich Ackerman. It's time to ask the pros. Were you the listener who gets to ask us a question? It's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at CBS Sports Radio or at Zach Gelb using the hashtag Ask the Pros. Be listening later in the show when we might answer your question. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts.

Where your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Let's recap the Bills Chiefs game, also the Bills deflating loss to end their season with Sal Capaccio, who is always their great longtime sideline reporter, and he's kind enough to join us right now. Sal, thanks so much for doing this. How you been? I've been well. I guess when you reach a decade, it's a long time.

So I feel a little bit old, but I appreciate you having me, buddy. Yeah. So, you know, there's an intelligent analysis that we could do and then there's like a fan analysis of this. And just as someone that didn't really have a dog in the fight, you know, I did think the Bills were going to win the game. I just look back at that game and I and you think about all these tough losses for the Bills throughout the years. And it's just impossible for me to say as a fan how the heck the Bills aren't cursed as a franchise.

I hear you. We feel like it today. It's just another gut punch to Buffalo sports, you know, I mean, except in the AFL days before the NFL merger, the last couple of NFL championships and, you know, the lacrosse team in town, which is great.

So I want to give them respect, except for them. We never really had it. We never had a world championship here in football or even had an NBA team for a hot minute and hockey. The Stanley Cup never. But we've gotten close and no goal happened. And they didn't have a Stanley Cup and wide right in the Super Bowl, four straight losses.

And then you see how some of these seasons have ended here. So I totally understand anybody thinking that, especially here in Buffalo today. We know how demoralizing 13 seconds was, but with this game being at home and looking like they were on the eight minute drive and they were going to put the ball in the end zone and then it ends up having a wide right kick. Was this one actually tougher than 13 seconds when you're walking off the field yesterday?

You know, I don't know. It's maybe every fan will have a different answer for me. It wasn't I think 13 seconds was a little worse. This was more of a they had a shot. You know, you drove down there was anticlimactic. And also, let's remember, if they make it, you know that Patrick Holmes has like a minute and a half. I don't know if there was a lot of confidence that they would stop, you know, the Chiefs.

I think you think back a couple of years ago when there's 13 seconds left. I mean, I was literally making plans on who was interviewing after the game on the field. That's what I was doing. I was asking Tracy Wilson, who are you getting because TV gets their person.

Then who do I get for radio? And that's what we're doing. And that just happens so quickly and should never have happened. This was more of a wow. I mean, I can't the season's ending like after all that the season's over.

It's ending and then that was it was tough to deal with and it's tough to take today. Obviously, Sal Capaccio here with us. Longtime bill sideline reporter. How do you look back at Josh Allen's performance yesterday? Well, he was a beast. I mean, Josh, he plays his best in the playoffs and he has and he's had a MVP type season. He's going to probably finish second in the MVP voting Lamar Jackson, maybe third.

I think Lamar is going to win it is why I say that. He's had an amazing season and he was even stepped up a level here in the playoffs. His playoff numbers are incredible. Look at him over the last two weeks what he's done against Pittsburgh and against Kansas City. No turnovers at all. No interceptions. He did have the fumble that the Bills wound up actually recovering yesterday. The yardage he's accounted for both rushing and passing, but that's Josh in the playoffs.

It's one of the things that gets me upset about when people talk about and I get it. Like we're in this business act where we know that the quarterbacks the guy and if you don't win, it's while the quarterback can't win this or you can't beat this guy. But I just think that's unfair to Josh Allen who's played incredible in the playoffs. We're in some numbers today of all quarterbacks all time with at least 20 touchdown passes in the playoffs. Josh Allen has the lowest interception percentage of any of them.

That includes Brady that goes my homes that includes Manning everybody. I mean, this guy just is incredible in the playoffs and I thought he carried the team on his back yesterday. In crucial moments, obviously, but unfortunately just it didn't happen at the end. And I think the two points of contention that you could have when you criticize Josh yesterday just in the two sequences of the game was after the idiotic fake punt. And then they survived it with a fumble and that going out of the back of the end zone to not get points on the board off of that.

That was tough, but that could be a team issue. But the one that I really take issue with was that second and nine throw right before two plays later, right? You had the missed kick by Bass. Why do you think he did not go to Stefan Diggs when you were watching it?

You know, even in person on TV, I'm like hit Diggs, hit Diggs, hit Diggs. And then he went for the big home run shot for the touchdown. Because Shaquille, because Khalil Shakir was open in the end zone for a touchdown. He got hit as he was throwing it. It would have been a touchdown.

He got a score. I mean, he was there. That's the throw. And if you watch actually the all 22, Stefan Diggs might not even got the first down.

It actually looks a little different when it's actually widened out that there were two guys bearing down on him. But that's why Josh Allen's Josh Allen. I mean, he had him open. He makes that throw usually nine out of ten times. The one time he didn't, he had Chris Jones coming in on Deon Dawkins sitting on his lap, basically. He even said, I couldn't get into the throw a little bit.

If you look at the actual replay, you see that Josh just couldn't lean into it, which is why he short armed it. But if he does, it's a touchdown. And now the Chiefs have to go down and score a touchdown.

And now it's so funny to me when people say, well, you should have just got the first down, believe the clock. There's no guarantee you're going to score. You got to score. You got to get a touchdown. And he went for a shot. Khalil Shakir was open.

I find no issue with it. Talking to Sal Capaccio right now. Let's get into Steph Diggs. You look at the stats this year. One hundred and seven catches.

One hundred and eighty three yards. Eight touchdowns. You're like, OK. He had a good season. But then when you know that he hasn't had a hundred yard game since week six, hasn't had a touchdown since week twelve.

What do you look back on with Stefan Diggs to maybe get a better understanding on why he's not had the usual typical Stefan Diggs season that we've been accustomed to? Yeah, it's a good question. We're asking the same thing.

We've been asking the same thing here for several weeks. And I think there's a probably a mixture of a lot of things going on. And that is that, you know, teams know he's their number one guy. So a lot of times they're going to shade to him.

And they don't always double cover. But I think they're going to focus a little bit on him. But I also think, excuse me, that Stefan has had issues separating. He really hasn't been able to get open one on one. They've manufactured ways to get him the ball in the backfield, out of the backfield, in the slot.

Now, I would say, though, Zach, if you look at I think every single game for the last five, maybe six, every one of them, Josh misses Stefan or Stefan doesn't come up with a pass on a long deep ball, including yesterday. I mean, he should have caught that ball. You talk about when they get the ball back with eight minutes left. I mean, Josh Allen put a dime out there. Stefan Diggs should have caught it. You know, that's nothing on Josh Allen at all. That's something that Stefan Diggs needs to come up with the ball.

But there's been one of those every game for like the last five weeks, six weeks. Pittsburgh, he was wide open. And Josh just basically got it, had it tipped. Before that, he was wide open. He overthrew him. And I think against Miami it was.

So, yeah, I don't know. And his father's time catching up a little bit. He was his age 30 season.

He'll be 31, the separation. And I also think that, you know, the Bills just don't have a lot of weapons to get a lot of separation. So teams have kind of just packed it in a little bit and said, all right, there's not as much room to operate out there. Because I think all in all, the Bills are having trouble separating at those spots. I know it started off a weird way this year. And then towards the end of the season, they just weren't on the same page. Do you think he's definitely back next year in Buffalo?

I would never say definitely. I would tell you this. Two things. One that's different from last year. Last year there was a lot made of what happened against Cincinnati and the demonstrative actions, if you will, on the sidelines. And how he was interacting with Josh. And then he stormed out. Didn't, you know, talk to reporters. Now, he didn't talk to reporters. It's kind of normal for Stephon.

He doesn't anyway after a lot of games. But I was one of the last reporters in the locker room last night. He was still there.

There was like five guys. He stayed around. He was in there. And he didn't talk to us. But he was there.

So it didn't end that way. But the other thing is, Jack, I mean, his contract is very prohibitive. They can't release him or trade him unless he and management come to some resolution on reworking the contract. There's no way Brandon Bean is going to cripple his team any more than it already is with the salary cap. And there's no way they can do that by trading or getting rid of stuff that would happen. And they would take on way too big of a salary cap unless they rework the contract. Talking to Sal Cappaccio right now, you know, I know there's a difference in what will happen and what should happen. I do believe, though, that next year, Sean McDermott will be this team's coach. Would you be surprised if they moved on from Sean in the next few days?

Yeah, I'd be surprised. I understand. We take calls all the time about, you know, I'm just listening to him today and I'm, you know, going to get him more tomorrow and everything that there's a segment of fans who believe they should, who believe they've reached their ceiling. He did a good job.

He changed the culture. But it's time for a new voice and a new direction with a team that hasn't gone over the hump to conservative, defensive, whatever you want to say. I'll tell you that I just don't think this ownership would do that. Now, anything is possible.

Of course, I've been in this league long enough to know and covering the league long enough. But Terry and Kim Pegula, I don't think that they have an appetite to change Sean McDermott because they have what every owner pretty much dreams of, which is synergy between their GM, their head coach, their front office and a contender that goes along with that. And I just don't think that they're they want to upset that because they have been very successful together, even though they haven't, you know, climbed over the Kansas City mountain and gotten to where they want to be. Anything is possible.

There's no doubt about it. But short of Sean McDermott saying that for some reason he didn't want to be the head coach, I would personally find it hard to believe that they would move on. He did just get a contract extension right before the season.

Now, of course, you can still move on from someone. But I think that was just the owner showing, hey, I have faith in this guy and I know things haven't been perfect, but, you know, we're going to stick with it here. Four post seasons ago, this team was in the AFC title game. Since then, they've been stuck the last three years in the divisional round. When you kind of take a step back in the immediate aftermath of yesterday, what needs to change with this team so they could find a way to finally break through while this window is still somewhat open?

Maybe someone needs to knock out the Chiefs before they get to the Bills. That's what needs to change, to be honest with you. I don't know. It's a good question.

We were at locker clean out today. We asked the players the same thing. And the other answer is you got to make more plays than the other team. You got to you know, you got to make the play that's there. And if you don't, I, I do think though, you have to take a hard look at the weapons. And then we talked about stuff on digs, Gabe Davis, a free agent.

They don't have separators right now. They did a good job bringing in Dalton Kincaid. He's going to be a really fantastic player. James Cook does a nice job out of the backfield. You know, they can get a play here or play there, but they didn't have much of a downfield passing game. And you have a quarterback here who we saw, you know, we know what he can do throwing the football. And I think that that is something that needs to change. I think they need to bring in or find a way to have people and weapons who can separate, give Josh Allen the opportunity to throw the ball downfield, not lean on him to run as much, even though he's great at it. And we love seeing that it helps the team, obviously. But, you know, if he can put the ball on his arm and find guys downfield more like they did in that AFC championship year, you know, you think about the weapons they had and they had set fundings, but they also had John Brown and Cole Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders.

And it was just really tough to start stop the weapons, catching the ball on that offense. He is Sal Cappaccio, Bill's sideline reporter. Sal, always appreciate the time. Thanks for doing this. You got it, Zach.

Thanks. There you go. Sal Cappaccio joining us right here on CBS Sports Radio after another opportunity for the Buffalo Bills and a job where they come up just short. And that's been the arch nemesis. It's Kansas City, right? You look back at New England when New England was going on their run for 20 years. How many teams were not able to get over the hump or they were not able to go where they wanted to go because of Brady and because of Belichick.

And it's the same thing in the early goings of the relationship and the synergy that Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid do have. And it's like you can't. I know everyone's going to trash Josh Allen today. Everyone will.

And until you win, people are going to pile on. And it's tough to argue it. You know, Josh Allen had a good game yesterday. It was just a good game where at the end of the game, he did not step up.

He did not deliver. And I understand what Sal's saying where, OK, you did have a guy in the end zone. I thought right away the first throw should have been to Diggs because Diggs was open for a little bit. Now, maybe not doesn't get the first down, but it sets up third and short. Sure, Chris Jones made a heck of a play to so that Josh Allen really couldn't step up and fire that football and was still close to going. But I look back at that game, that second and nine sticks out to me. And then also the Diggs drop to start that drive.

And who knows how the game would have played out. But I go back to that sequence. I know it's early in the fourth quarter where you you you fake the punt.

You don't get it, which is dumb. And then you get a gift with McColl-Hardman fumbled the ball the end zone. You can't just give the ball back to the Chiefs right after that. You had to go on a drive that whether it was methodical or whether it was quick, it resulted in a touchdown to really take control and a firm grasp of that game. And Buffalo had the coffin a little bit shut. Right.

And then it started to open. And any time they had a chance to try and slam that coffin shut up against Kansas City, you know that the Chiefs defense and then also Patrick Mahomes just ended up making the plays. But Josh Allen's the top five quarterback in this league. But it'll only be the yeah, but until he finds a way to go hoist that Lombardi Trophy and get through Kansas City.