KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Bills wide receiver Gabriel Davis turned plenty of heads Sunday, including seconds after he turned his own.
Late in the game, as the second-year wide receiver headed toward the end zone, he looked to the left, turning his body for a split second before snapping back and racing forward. Kansas City cornerback Mike Hughes maybe snapped an ankle, falling in place trying to defend Davis.
Davis instead became the first player in NFL history with four receiving touchdowns in a playoff game Sunday. But there was no celebration of a mark that came in a loss.
The connection between Josh Allen and Davis kept the Bills alive late, but they would eventually fall in heartbreaking fashion to the Chiefs 42-36 in overtime in Kansas City.
“It's hard to be able to celebrate that when something like that happens,” Davis said, “because at the end of day, this is a team game. You want your team to keep going, to keep playing, to win the Super Bowl and move forward.”
Davis’ first catch Sunday night came with a minute left in the first half. He finished with 201 yards on eight receptions.
“That’s video game numbers,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said.
Allen threw for 329 yards, and all four of his passing touchdowns went to Davis. Two of Davis’ touchdowns and 86 of his yards came after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter.
Coach Sean McDermott felt those late game heroics were coming.
“I looked at him on the sideline and I said, ‘Hey, you’re gonna make the play,’” McDermott said. “And he darn sure made two big-time plays for us down the stretch there.”
The Bills were facing fourth-and-13 coming out of the two-minute warning. That's when Davis torched Hughes on his way to a 27-yard touchdown. The Bills went for two, and Allen connected with wide receiver Stefon Diggs, putting the Bills up by three with 1:54 left.
“I feel like it was one of those things that if it felt like whoever had the ball last was gonna win the game,” center Mitch Morse said.
Sure enough, the Chiefs answered with a touchdown 52 seconds later. The Bills got it back again, down four with 1:02 left.
On the 49-second drive, 59 of the Bills’ 75 yards were through Davis. On first-and-10 from the Kansas City 19, he found the end zone again.
“Whoever had the opportunity to make a play, we were gonna make it, and I had a lot of opportunities,” Davis said.
Before Davis’ spectacular fourth quarter, he had opportunities earlier in the game.
In the third quarter, when the Chiefs took their first two-score lead of the game, Allen and Davis needed just one play to answer. After a touchback, Allen launched a pass deep over the middle to Davis.
Per Next Gen Stats, it traveled 57.1 yards in the air, and had a completion probability of 31.7%. The 75-yard completion was the longest touchdown pass of Allen’s career and the longest play from scrimmage of the Bills’ season.
While Davis erupted, Diggs had just seven receiving yards. Allen said that stemmed from how Kansas City defended them.
“I think they had a good plan doubling him, especially on some of these third downs, rolling the safety over the top, playing two high and usually, when you try to take away somebody and put two guys on (No.) 14, it opens up things for the other guys,” Allen said. “Gabe had his opportunities tonight and he made some outstanding plays.”
McDermott agreed.
“(Diggs is) obviously one of our best players and we’ve got to make sure we’re getting him the ball,” McDermott said. “But at the end of the day, we scored to take the lead with 13 seconds left so there’s a lot we can talk about, but we put ourselves in position to win the game.”
The Bills were in that position because of Allen and Davis.
Davis broke nearly every one of his single-game highs. All season, he’s talked about capitalizing on his opportunities, no matter how few he had.
During the regular season, he had 35 catches for 549 yards and six touchdowns. On Sunday, he proved that he had earned a bigger role in the offense.
"He's gone through a roller coaster this year," tight end Dawson Knox said Monday. "From being a huge touchdown scorer contributor, to being a guy that's getting 10 snaps a game. It's been very, very up and down for him so to have the results that he had at the end of the year is just a huge credit to who he is as the guy, who he is as a player and the work he puts in."
Davis will have more time than he wanted to think about what his role will look like next season after Sunday’s bitter loss.
“It's just gonna leave that bad taste in our mouth,” Davis said. “I know that it'll be something I'll be thinking about until the next season starts again, because there's still gonna be games going on, and the Super Bowl’s gonna be played, and you're gonna see it on TV and know you should have been in that position.”
