One of the many discussed aspects of the Bills’ gut-wrenching loss to the Chiefs in the divisional round last month was the club’s decision to send the kickoff with 13 seconds left into the end zone for a touchback.
That allowed Kansas City to take over at its own 25-yard line with all three timeouts without any time taken off the clock.
Of course, the Chiefs then got a 19-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes to Tyreek Hill. And then Mahomes connected with tight end Travis Kelce for a 25-yard reception to Buffalo’s 31.
Kicker Harrison Butker sent a 49-yard field goal through the uprights, Kansas City won the coin toss, and the Chiefs won 42-36 with Mahomes’ 8-yard touchdown to Kelce.
Bills special teams ace Siran Neal just signed an extension with the club and had a press conference on Thursday. He was asked to describe what happened on that last kickoff by a reporter who noted that fans are curious about what led to that result.
Neal’s response?
“Well, be curious,” he said, via Matthew Bové of WKBW. “We don’t have to discuss anything with the outside world if we don’t want to. And you know what’s crazy? We don’t even discuss it with each other. That was a play that happened back then. We’ve moved on from it.”
“There’s a lot of things in that game that we could’ve done differently to get the outcome of that game.”
Neal added that the Bills’ front office has put together a team of players with good personalities. And that is part of why he’s confident the club has already moved on from the loss.
“We don’t have to talk about it. We’re more of a being-about-it team,” Neal said. “And that’s something — I’m gonna say it right now, we’re not going to talk about it. That happened already. It is what it is. And we will not share information about that. Or we’ll keep it inside this building. That’s in the past, there’s more to come. We’re just not gonna do it.”
Whether the Bills are, in fact, able to move past the devastating loss will determine a lot about how far the team can go in 2022.