BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes will meet for their fourth playoff contest on Sunday when the Chiefs host the Bills in the AFC championship game.
If the heavyweight matchup is starting to feel like a regular occurrence, that’s because it is. Sunday’s game will be their ninth meeting in five seasons.
“It’s like a division game,” Allen said Wednesday, comparing the Chiefs matchup to the Bills’ twice-a-year meetings with the Patriots, Dolphins and Jets. “I feel like we’ve played them just as much as we’ve played guys in our division. With that comes familiarity, new wrinkles here and there throughout the game, but they know who we are, we know who they are. It literally just comes down to who executes well on Sunday.”
Both the commonality and the stakes of Allen vs. Mahomes matchups have drawn comparisons to the famed Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady rivalry of the previous era, a seemingly inevitable collision of the game’s best.
In fact, Manning and Brady are the only quarterback duo in NFL history to meet more frequently in the playoffs than Mahomes and Allen. They faced each other five times in the postseason — a record Allen and Mahomes are on pace to shatter.
“I had the chance to do the great majority of the matchups between Brady and Manning,” legendary CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz said ahead of the Bills-Chiefs game in November. “They met 17 times, all those AFC championship games, regular-season games. This is the modern-day version of that. And it’s a thrill.”
“I grew up watching those [Brady vs. Manning] games,” Mahomes said last January, “and remember how many memories I have from that. Hopefully we can play in these great games as well and give memories to the kids that come up behind us.”
The Allen-Mahomes matchup has already produced several classics, with none more iconic — or loathsome — than the game known as “13 seconds.”
Allen, however, is yet to beat Mahomes in the playoffs, taking up Manning’s end of his early rivalry with Brady. Brady won their first six matchups, including two playoff meetings in 2003 and 2004. The feeling that Manning was a regular-season star who couldn’t get it done in the playoffs was borne in part by those losses, coming in consecutive seasons in which Manning was named MVP.
“I lived that world,” Manning said this week. “My first 8 years, that’s what I lived. I know Josh hears that from time to time: ‘He does these great things, but...‘ Well, I’d love for him to get rid of the ‘but.’ I’d say to kind of relax and kind of let it come to him. I know he wants to get there, but don’t make that make you press and stress and force balls into coverage that you probably should throw away because you want it so bad. Sort of let it come to him — that’d be my advice to him.”
Manning finally got over the hump in the 2006 season, rallying from a 21-3 deficit to beat the Patriots in the AFC championship game, 38-34, en route to his first Super Bowl title. Manning went on to beat Brady twice more in the playoffs with the Denver Broncos, giving him a 3-2 edge in the postseason series (though Brady owned the regular season, 9-3).
Allen’s Bills have beaten Mahomes’ Chiefs in four consecutive regular-season games — including a 30-21 win in November that ended Kansas City’s unbeaten season — but Mahomes is 3-0 against the Bills in the playoffs. Another win Sunday would give Mahomes his fourth playoff victory over the Bills, tying the record for the most against single opponent in league history, alongside Brett Favre (4-0 vs. San Francisco) and Tom Brady (4-1 vs. Indianapolis). On the flip side, a loss would tie Allen with Aaron Rodgers (vs. San Francisco) as the only quarterback to be eliminated from the playoffs four times by the same team.
That’s a lot of history for quarterbacks that haven’t yet reached 30 years old … not to mention, the Chiefs are also going for their third straight Super Bowl title, which has never been done before, and they’re making their seventh consecutive conference championship game appearance, one behind the all-time record held by Brady’s Patriots. (The ’90s Bills are still the only team to win four consecutive conference championship games.)
But as far as Allen is concerned, the only history he needs to make Sunday is winning his first AFC championship, getting the Bills back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1993.
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Most Playoff Matchups Between Starting QBs
Since 1950, via NFL Research
- 5 — Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady (2003-15)
- 4* — Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen (2020-present)
- 4 — Terry Bradshaw vs. Ken Stabler (1973-76)
- 4 — Brett Favre vs. Steve Young (1995-98)
- 4 — Tom Brady vs. Joe Flacco (2009-14)
* Including 2024 AFC championship
Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady
Series: Manning 3-2
Brady served as Manning’s foil early in their careers, winning their first six matchups, including two playoff meetings in 2003 and 2004. The feeling that Manning was a regular-season star who couldn’t get it done in the playoffs was cemented in part by those losses, coming in consecutive seasons in which Manning was named MVP. However, Manning finally got over the hump in the 2006 season, rallying from a 21-3 deficit to beat the Patriots in the AFC championship game, 38-34, en route to Manning’s first Super Bowl title. Manning beat Brady twice more in the playoffs while with the Denver Broncos, giving him the edge in the series.
Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen (2020-present)
Series: Mahomes 3-0
In 2020, the Chiefs were defending Super Bowl champions and the Bills were making their first AFC championship game appearance since the Jim Kelly era. The Bills’ 38-24 loss was viewed as a stepping stone for a team on the rise that hadn’t quite ascended to the Chiefs’ level yet. That’s partially why the rematch in the 2021 divisional round was such a letdown: It felt like if the Bills could beat the Chiefs, no one else could stop them (though Joe Burrow’s Bengals certainly presented a formidable challenge). Allen played amazing, throwing two touchdowns in the final two minutes … but the Bills’ defense collapsed in the final 13 seconds and Buffalo never got to touch the ball in overtime, prompting a rule change the following season. The Bills finally got the Chiefs at home in their third playoff meeting in the 2023 divisional round. The Bills held a 24-20 lead through three quarters, but the Chiefs pulled ahead early in the fourth and the Bills missed a tying field goal in the final two minutes. The Bills are hoping the fourth time is the charm.
Terry Bradshaw vs. Ken Stabler 4 (1973-76)
Series: Tied 2-2
It’s impressive that these two met four seasons in a row in an era before expanded playoffs. Stabler won the first meeting, Bradshaw won the next two and went on to win the Super Bowl both times, and Stabler won the final matchup before also winning the Super Bowl.
Steve Young vs. Brett Favre 4 (1995-98)
Series: Favre 3-1
Favre’s Packers knocked Young’s 49ers out of the playoffs three years in a row before Young finally get a win in their fourth meeting. This series isn’t exactly analogous to Mahomes-Allen because Young was at the end of his career, already a multi-time Super Bowl winner before their first meeting, while Favre was in his prime.
Tom Brady vs. Joe Flacco (2009-14)
Series: Tied 2-2
Is Joe Flacco elite? No, but it was worth considering in the 2012 season after Flacco’s Ravens beat Brady for the second time in the playoffs and went on to win the Super Bowl. Brady evened the score in 2014.
What about Jim Kelly?
The most common playoff opponent for Bills’ Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly was Miami’s Dan Marino — they had three meetings and Kelly won all three. Kelly faced Dallas’ Troy Aikman twice (0-2) and Jeff Hostetler twice (lost to his Giants in the Super Bowl, beat his Raiders a few years later).
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Nick Veronica is a Buffalo native who joined the News 4 team as the Digital Executive Producer in 2021. He previously worked at NBC Sports and The Buffalo News. You can follow Nick on Facebook, Twitter and Threads. See more of his work here.
Data from NFL Research and the Associated Press was used in this report