Expect either Chiefs, Bills in Super Bowl after Sunday’s matchup

A marquee game on the Week 11 docket is Sunday’s clash between AFC stalwarts Kansas City (9-0) and Buffalo (8-2) at Highmark Stadium. Since the Chiefs and Bills joined eight other AFL teams in merging with the established NFL in 1970, only four other games have matched teams with eight-or-more wins in Week 11 or before.

But here’s why Sunday’s showdown (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS) is even more exciting. In each of those four prior games, one of the clubs went to the Super Bowl.

Jared Goff, Sean McVay and the Rams beat a second-year Patrick Mahomes in 2018 before advancing to Super Bowl LIII opposite the Patriots. In 2013, Peyton Manning and the Broncos beat Andy Reid and the Chiefs en route to Super Bowl XLVIII against Seattle. In 1978, Pittsburgh lost to the Rams but still advanced to a Super Bowl XIII triumph over Dallas. And in 1977, Denver topped the Baltimore Colts before lining up against Dallas in Super Bowl XII, the first of eight Super Bowls at the Superdome and 11 in New Orleans, site of this year’s game.

Since 2018, when the Bills drafted Josh Allen and the Chiefs made Mahomes their full-time starter, no other starting quarterbacks have won more regular-season games. Mahomes over that span is 82-22 (.788) while Allen is 71-32 (.689).

Also among a plethora of storylines, the Chiefs moved up in the first round of the 2017 draft, trading with the Bills for the ability to select Mahomes 10^th overall.

Mahomes is 4-3 all-time against Allen, including three epic playoff classics, one of which changed NFL postseason overtime rules. They split their two meetings last year, Allen and the Bills posting a controversial, 20-17 regular-season win in Week 14, before Mahomes and the Chiefs took the last laugh with a 27-24 divisional playoff victory en route to a second straight Super Bowl win.

Kansas City knows it needs more than a last-second blocked field goal to go into Buffalo and remain the NFL’s only undefeated team.

For more information on the Chiefs and Bills, visit the Kansas City and Buffalo team pages at ProFootballPost.com.