Steve Spagnuolo fooled Josh Allen on the biggest play of the AFC Championship Game on Sunday night.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ guru defensive coordinator sent a blitz at Allen on a potential game-deciding fourth-and-5, getting immediate pressure. K.C. rushers did a good job disguising the blitz pre-snap and surprised the Buffalo Bills quarterback.
Allen drifted right into pressure but avoided a sack just long enough to heave a prayer downfield. Tight end Dalton Kincaid was open, turned back to see Allen’s chuck and made a desperation dive at the pigskin. However, the wobbler clanged off his arms.
The miss — a play Kincaid noted he should make — spelled doom for Buffalo, who fell to the Chiefs once again, 32-29.
A visibly distraught Kincaid said after the game that the missed opportunity “sucks a lot.”
“Josh got the ball off. He was pressured, and it was hanging up there and I just wasn’t able to catch it,” Kincaid said after the loss, via New York Upstate. “Right now, it obviously hurts a lot, and it’s going to linger for a while, but eventually, you’ve got to move on. And hopefully, you grow from this, and I believe that will be the case, but for the time being, it’s going to hurt a lot.”
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Kincaid took the onus for flubbing the Bills’ final offensive play of the 2024 season, but fellow tight end Dawson Knox said no one is blaming the second-year player.
“It would have been an absolutely incredible play if it happened, but there’s not a single person in (our locker room) that’s gonna put the blame on him,” Knox said.
Likewise, Bills head coach Sean McDermott said the team is confident the young tight end will bounce back from the emotional loss.
“He gave it everything he had. I love Dalton Kincaid,” McDermott said. “Sometimes those work out. He makes more of those than he doesn’t. He will make the next one.”
Unfortunately for Buffalo, the next one won’t come for seven months.