If last week's build-up to Sunday night left you exhausted and in need of a one-week reprieve, we're sorry: This weekend features an AFC Championship Game rematch.
In a typical year, this would be one of the top two most anticipated games on the slate (it was No. 3 on my preseason list, thanks to the Brady-Belichick reunion last weekend). It still is highly anticipated -- it just comes with its fair share of questions to be answered.
The Bills are 3-1 and obliterating opponents, taking home each of their three victories by an average margin of 32.3 points. They seem to have only gotten better than they were in 2020 -- or they're the beneficiaries of a favorable opening slate. Time will tell on the latter.
They're certainly not receiving any advantage when they go to Kansas City this weekend, site of the death of their Super Bowl LV dreams. Just don't waste your breath reminding Stefon Diggs of that result.
"Nothing," Diggs said when asked what returning to Arrowhead Stadium meant to him, via The Buffalo News. "I've played there before. I've lost there before. When I was in Minnesota, we lost to them, actually on the last drive of the game. So I've lost there before. I don't look at it as going back to do X, Y, Z -- I'm trying to get a win."
That's the 2021 Bills in a nutshell, at least through one month of football. No win is too high and no loss is too low. Their train is going to keep chugging along and knock a few obstacles off the track along the way.
They might need something stronger to clear the Chiefs. Fortunately for Buffalo, they are rather explosive.
"It's Week 5," quarterback Josh Allen said, via NewYorkUpstate.com. "Everybody wants to make this big deal about the AFC Championship rematch, and I get that's what it is. But it's a new year and this team's different than last year, and their team's different than last year.
"But they're the gold standard what you would want to be as an AFC team, being to the AFC Championship the last three years and competing for Super Bowls is what they've been doing. So that's what every team wants to be and until somebody knocks them off in the playoffs, that won't change."
What also won't change -- in fact, it'll be even more intense thanks to the return of full stadiums -- is the hostile environment the Bills will be entering this weekend. Allen recalled Arrowhead Stadium being rather loud last winter -- and that was with just a fraction of the stadium's total capacity in attendance.
Diggs is letting it be known now: Noise doesn't bother him.
"I'm all about the hostile environments," Diggs said. "I'm pretty chill right now, but when it's time to go, I love everything about it. I love not being able to hear. ... It's kind of weird to say, but it's so loud that it's quiet. You don't got nothing but your thoughts and really just the man in front of you. It's a good feeling though."
An even better feeling? Getting a win, and whether Diggs admits it or not, Buffalo proving to itself it can take down the kings.
