‘Wide right’ haunts Bills again, 33 years later: Last-minute field goal miss dooms Buffalo vs. Chiefs

Wide. Right. They are “the two most dreaded words in Buffalo,” as Jim Nantz put it Sunday night. And they returned with a vengeance to close the Bills’ divisional round matchup with the Chiefs. As if falling to Patrick Mahomes and Co. yet again weren’t painful enough, Buffalo relived its infamous history in the closing minutes of Sunday’s contest, a 27-24 defeat punctuated by a wayward field goal.

Down three and driving into Chiefs territory, the Bills deployed Tyler Bass for a 44-yard game-tying try with 1:47 in the fourth quarter, only for Bass to send the ensuing kick right of the goalposts. After claiming possession, the Chiefs proceeded to move the chains with two runs, quickly running out the clock to secure their sixth straight trip to the AFC championship.

Bass isn’t the only Bills player at fault for the defeat; star quarterback Josh Allen misfired on some late throws, No. 1 wide receiver Stefon Diggs dropped a deep ball in crunch time, and Sean McDermott’s defense couldn’t contain Mahomes or Isiah Pacheco when it mattered most. But a last-minute field goal whiff hits differently in Buffalo, not only because Bass was just a week removed from two other kicking gaffes — a blocked field goal and shanked 27-yard try against the Steelers — but because of the deeper history.

Thirty-three years before Bass’ miss, which the kicker insists wasn’t the result of a poor snap or hold, Scott Norwood etched his name in Bills and NFL history for a similar slip-up. It was Jan. 27, 1991, with Buffalo up against the Giants in Super Bowl XXV, trailing 20-19 with eight seconds left. Norwood, a former All-Pro, set up for a 47-yard game-winning field goal, only to boot it — you guessed it — wide right.

Norwood’s miss came on a bigger stage, but like this year’s blunder, it also set the stage for — or occurred during — a whole era of devastating Bills scenarios. The current Buffalo team, for example, has gone 48-18 from 2020-23, but won multiple playoff games in a season just once, in 2020. Three of the Bills’ four postseason endings have come courtesy of Mahomes and the Chiefs, and the last two have come by a combined nine points. It’s perhaps not quite to the level of Bills-fan despair from the ’90s, but the fact there’s even a comparison to be made underscores the sad reality.

Norwood’s original “wide right” didn’t stop the Bills from returning to the big game — three of them, in fact, as Buffalo notoriously advanced to four consecutive Super Bowls from 1990-93, going 58-19 including playoffs during that span. With a future Hall of Famer at QB in Jim Kelly, a Coach of the Year in Marv Levy, an MVP in Thurman Thomas and a Defensive Player of the Year in Bruce Smith, they had the makings of a dynasty. Except the infamous Norwood kick was just an appetizer for Super Bowl doom, preceding another three big-game losses to give Buffalo an unmatched 0-4 streak on the ultimate stage.

Who had it worse? Allen’s Bills are still hunting their first Super Bowl appearance. But first they’ve got to figure out how to get to an AFC title game again. If, of course, they can recover from the latest “wide right.”