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Kansas City and Buffalo embark on another playoff battle, competing to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LIX

Among the sports viewership nerds, there is a fascinating topic being discussed this week:

Can the Buffalo Bills–Kansas City Chiefs game set a record for the most-watched AFC Championship Game in history?

The record to beat: 55.47 million viewers.

You don’t have to go far back for data on the record. That was the viewership for last year’s Chiefs-Ravens game, a 17-10 Kansas City win with stars across the field and the most famous pop singer in the world sitting in a suite at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

Last year’s game topped the previous AFC Championship record of 54.85 million viewers for the 2011 AFC Championship between the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Read below for the case for and against Bills-Chiefs making AFC Championship Game TV history today.

During the postseason, The Athletic is polling a panel of coaches and personnel executives to get their weekly playoff predictions before each round kicks off. Picks are not taken if a voter’s team is involved in that particular game.

Expert picks: Chiefs 7, Bills 6

This has been the NFL’s most exciting rivalry over the past half-decade, and it fittingly drew the most tightly contested vote during the playoffs from our panel.

The outcome boils down to a key determination: Is Patrick Mahomes inevitable, or has Josh Allen become invincible?

The Chiefs have won all three playoff meetings with the Bills over the past four years, including the AFC Championship Game following the 2020 season. But since 2021, the Bills have gone 4-0 against the Chiefs in regular-season meetings.

It’s not that the Chiefs have been decisively better than the Bills as both organizations rose to prominence. But it’s undeniable the Chiefs have displayed the superior clutch gene because they’ve swept the matchups on the more important stage.

“Should be a phenomenal back-and-forth game,” a coach said. “It will go down to the wire.”

Read more of what our NFL insider panel had to say below.

Trent McDuffie on Josh Allen: “Really strong arm, can really just do it all. This year, you can see his confidence. We know it’s going to be a big challenge.”

When the Bills and Chiefs meet in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, there likely won’t be anyone getting caught off-guard. That’s because of the sheer volume of games they have played against each other with Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes as the starting quarterbacks.

As rivals outside the division go, it’s hard to find a better one than these two AFC behemoths. Over the last five seasons, they have played each other eight times in the equivalent of a half-decade-long heavyweight fight.

Five regular season contests, in which the Bills have gone 4-1, and three playoff games, in which, famously, the Chiefs have gone 3-0. Because of the postseason success, the scorer’s table would clearly rule in favor of the Chiefs. But the Bills have reason to be optimistic that this will be the year, at long last, they get past the Chiefs in the postseason.

“It’s like a division game,” quarterback Josh Allen said. “With that comes familiarity. New wrinkles here and there throughout the game. But they know who we are, we know who they are. It literally just comes down to who executes well on Sunday.”

The last five times these teams have played, it’s been an instant classic, with a sixth likely on deck. Here’s our AFC Championship week Bills notebook.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The tape measure, scissors, some rubber bands, chopsticks, pliers, a spare charging cord, the sewing kit, matches, that knife that doesn’t match the silverware.

The utility drawer is unpretentious. Slide it open and you can almost smell the usefulness — some mixture of battery acid, copper and pencil lead. These aren’t display items. No polish is necessary. They’re just waiting to be used for the household good.

Such are the Buffalo Bills’ wide receivers. Starting virtually from scratch last offseason, the team resisted expectations and fan demand by assembling an assortment of stuff. They didn’t shop for the extravagant appliance or flashy gadget. They gathered a bunch of practical utensils.

Regardless of the task in 2024, Josh Allen has found a tool that simply gets the job done.

Read more on the collective of Bills WRs helping Josh Allen’s MVP bid this season: