ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Fifteen games and 327 days since the Chiefs last lost, on Sunday at Highmark Stadium they finally got stranded in a jam they couldn’t solve or escape.
Punctuated, and nicely symbolized, by Josh Allen’s rugged 26-yard touchdown run through the Chiefs in the waning minutes, the Buffalo Bills (9-2) snuffed out the Chiefs’ 9-0 start with a 30-21 victory.
In the process, the Bills put an emphatic end to one of the top 10 winning streaks in NFL history and revived the race for the top seed in the AFC.
They thrilled the long-suffering fans who relished the moment and likely lent comfort and hope to the rest of the NFL, who perhaps will tell themselves that this game says the Chiefs finally were exposed.
And they surely opened the floodgates for doubters and haters of the team that has become the scourge of the league with four Super Bowl appearances and three titles in the last five seasons.
But here’s what the Bills didn’t do no matter how great their fourth straight regular-season win over the Chiefs was:
They didn’t demystify or purge the abiding dynamic of the Chiefs having shattered them in three straight postseason games, including the agonizing 13-second game and last season’s 27-24 defeat on this very field after Tyler Bass missed a late field-goal attempt.
And they didn’t so much derail as alert the Chiefs, who are going to prosper by this loss because they didn’t suddenly go from a dynasty to dinosaurs.
That’s why fans should be exhaling instead of sighing.
Not that the Chiefs wanted this result.
And not that the Bills aren’t to be respected: They are really good, and maybe this is the year they get by the Chiefs in the postseason if both stay on trajectory to meet in the playoffs.
Here’s the thing, though.
This mission never has been about going undefeated.
After all, that’s happened just once in NFL history, as has been well-documented about the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Halley’s Comet, last visible in 1986 and due back in 2061, comes around more often than an undefeated NFL season.
And the fact that the Chiefs had taken it this far — the fourth-longest streak this century and six behind the record held by the Patriots — was only incidental to the daunting-enough real quest.
