Chiefs vs. Bills: AFC Championship preview, prediction, what to watch for

An inside look at the Chiefs-Bills AFC Championship battle in Kansas City, Mo.on Sunday night:  Chiefs TE Travis Kelce vs.

Bills secondaryBills starting safety Taylor Rapp, who had to be carted off the field last week with a hip injury, is out for the game, which means rookie Cole Bishop starting in his place.Kelce will be at least some of Bishop’s responsibility, which will be something to watch.

Bishop struggled in pass coverage this season, allowing 18 completions on 25 targets and a 127.4 pass rating when targeted.Kelce, in the Chiefs’ three playoff wins over Buffalo, has 26 catches for 289 yards and five TDs.He was, however, held in check in the teams’ regular-season meeting, catching just two passes for 8 yards.

The Bills often played bracket coverage on Kelce with two defenders in that game.Kelce will also see a lot of safety Damar Hamlin as well as Buffalo cornerbacks.“He’s going to go down as the greatest tight end to ever play the game,” Buffalo defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said this past week.

“We’ve got to try to put a plan together as best we can to make sure that we at least keep him contained.”Good luck with that.It’s Buffalo’s time.The Bills have the more complete team, and they seem to have figured out how to close out games, which has been a previous issue for them in the postseason.

Josh Allen finally overcomes Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs, and maybe the Bills finally win a Super Bowl after all these years.Bills 30, Chiefs 28Special treatment? There’s been much hand-wringing of late about the referees’ kid-gloves handling of Patrick Mahomes when it comes to throwing flags for roughing the passer and late hits.The Texans were penalized twice for hits against Mahomes in last week’s divisional round game that easily could not have been called.

Both extended Chiefs scoring drives.“We knew it was going to be us versus the refs,’’ said Texans DE Will Anderson Jr., who was flagged for a very questionable...