KANSAS CITY - Let’s face it, Josh Allen has seen some totally insane things happen to his Buffalo Bills, and unfortunately, several of those have been awful moments he may never be able to shake from his memory.

So when Travis Kelce pulled off what would have been the wildest touchdown of the NFL season Sunday night, Allen sat there stunned on the Buffalo bench, as if he was thinking “What else could possibly happen to us?”

Arrowhead Stadium was in full eruption with 1:12 left to play when Kelce got wide open over the middle - what else is new? - and hauled in Patrick Mahomes’ pass. And then something nutty and unscripted happened. After running a few yards he saw Kadarius Toney cruising down the left sideline with no one near him so Kelce fired a lateral to him and Toney took the ball the final 20 yards or so to the end zone for an apparent go-ahead touchdown.

But wait a second. Yellow laundry back behind the play. As it turned out, Toney rather incredibly had lined up with his foot just over the line of scrimmage which, as you know, is not allowed. Offsides, which is a rare call for an offensive player. The touchdown was wiped out and when the Bills’ defense forced incompletions on the next three Mahomes passes, Allen’s job became much simpler.

Rather than needing to direct a game-winning TD drive, all he had to do was kneel twice to secure the Bills’ massively important 20-17 victory.

“Well, I originally thought it was on us,” Allen said of the penalty. “I didn’t know what the flag was, it’s not a flag they usually call. I was just getting up and getting ready to go score. We were gonna have (1:12) left, I think we had all three timeouts left, maybe two, but that was what was going through my mind.”

It was a colossal break for the Bills, one that allowed them to stay right in the middle of a wild AFC wild-card playoff race that features six teams tied with 7-6 records.

There is still much work to be done if the Bills hope to break free from that logjam and earn their fifth straight postseason berth, but that endeavor would have been next to impossible had they not left Arrowhead with a victory.

“Absolutely,” center Mitch Morse said when asked if the team realized its season was on the line. “We understood that to give ourselves the best position, we have to kind of take a playoff mentality right now.”

Here’s how I graded the Bills:

PASS OFFENSE: C

Things started so well for Allen as he produced touchdown drives on Buffalo’s second and third offensive possessions and he was smoking hot. Joe Brady’s game plan was clicking and Allen looked like he was on the way to another iconic performance.

But then it just stopped. His second-quarter interception, one of the worst he’s thrown all season, completely flipped the game and from then on, it was a major slog as the Bills never found the end zone again. Allen, who was under pressure way too much, had 149 yards passing and two TDs (one passing, one running) in the first half but he finished with only 233 yards and the Bills made only eight first downs after halftime.

Stefon Diggs may have had his worst game as a Bill with just four catches on 11 targets for 24 yards with at least two drops. Gabe Davis put up another donut, Dalton Kincaid caught five passes but they went for a mere 21 yards, and Dawson Knox returned to catch three for 36 yards. Interestingly, the biggest plays came from RB James Cook - five catches for 83 yards including a 25-yard TD - and little-used Deonte Harty’s whose lone reception went for 25 yards on a third-and-6 that kept alive the fourth-quarter drive to the go-ahead Tyler Bass field goal.

The offensive line had a bad night in pass protection. Allen took three sacks and pulled off Houdini escapes to avoid probably five or six others. Chiefs superstar DT Chris Jones and the rest of the Chiefs’ front seven - and I say seven because Chiefs DC Steve Sapgnuolo dialed up blitzes all night - were a constant nuisance for Allen.

RUN OFFENSE: B-

The offensive line did have a had a pretty good performance run blocking, though, as the Bills averaged 4.2 yards per carry using a variety of zone runs and stretch plays to the edge.

While Cook was big in the passing game, he also churned out 58 yards on 10 carries because the offensive line created space for him and Cook showed good vision and awareness to rip off productive runs. I think the Bills could have utilized Cook a little more, but the issue is that he remains a poor pass blocker so he has to come off the field for Latavius Murray and that takes away potential touches for him.

Still, I’d like to see less of Murray and more of Ty Johnson because he gives the Bills more juice than Murray on run plays. Murray nearly wore goat horns when it looked like he dropped a pass where Allen made an incredible play, but the refs gave him the catch.

PASS DEFENSE: B

It remains one of the great mysteries in the NFL, how Kelce, still one of the best tight ends in the game, can run downfield and not be covered, but many teams have allowed it to happen, and the Bills are always guilty of that. He had another solid game with six catches for 83 yards, and if Toney hadn’t been offside, Kelce would have had another 100-yard game against Buffalo.

Mahomes threw for 271 yards, but as we’ve seen all year, he’s being killed by the poor play of his receivers and it happened again. The Toney gaffe was epic, and there were also a couple key drops, plus some situations where the star QB had nowhere to throw because no one was open. The Bills did some bending, but to be able to close the game out at the end was a major feather in their cap in a season where that has been a problem.

A.J. Epenesa made a great play to intercept an early Mahomes pass, though he got hurt and never returned. And Christian Benford caused a fumble which Taron Johnson recovered late in the third to thwart a KC possession.

RUN DEFENSE: B+

The Chiefs not having RB Isiah Pacheco certainly had to hamper their offense. He’s a tough runner and a decent pass catcher, and without him, they had to rely on Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Jerick McKinnon who were ordinary at best.

They combined for just 58 yards and McKinnon scored a touchdown, but the Chiefs finished with only 82 yards as the Bills did a nice job of limiting Mahomes’ ability to get to the edge and run. He had only one scramble for eight yards.

Taron Johnson was stout against the run and led the Bills with nine tackles while Tyrel Dodson and Terrel Bernard had eight each. Keeping the Chiefs in tougher down-and-distance situations by playing well on early downs was important for the defense.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B

Tyler Bass made all four of his kicks - two extra points, two field goals including the winning 39-yarder with 1:54 remaining. The Bills needed all eight of his points, so that was a nice game for him in a season where he hasn’t been Mr. Automatic.

Punter Sam Martin is having a terrible season and he hurt the Bills again in the fourth quarter with a 40-yard punt that flew down the middle of the field, with no hang time. Put in that bad situation, the coverage team allowed Richie James a 25-yard return to the Chiefs 41 so Martin had a net of 15. The Chiefs then drove to the field that tied the game at 17-17. He finished with a 34.3 net average on four punts which is way below average.

COACHING: B-

Brady may have a bright future in the NFL, maybe with the Bills, but his second half play-calling was a nightmare, and the last drive that led to Bass’ go-ahead field goal was a master class in stupidity. With 2:17 left, he decided to call three straight passes, two of which fell incomplete, and after Bass’ kick, it left Mahomes with 1:54 and two timeouts. The Bills were lucky to survive that.

McDermott used his timeouts wisely at the end of the first half, knowing the Chiefs were going to either score a touchdown or a field goal. That left Allen with 1:19 to work with, but the final possession was a bit of a mess, too, and all the Bills ended up with was a failed Hail Mary attempt. I really didn’t understand Brady’s process there, or perhaps Allen’s decision-making.

On defense, the Bills completely stymied Mahomes on Kansas City’s first four possessions, but then the Allen interception gave them at the end of the first half and they capitalized with a touchdown drive. However, they held the Chiefs to 10 points in the final 30 minutes and got the huge stop - with a little help from Toney’s penalty - to end the game.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills report card: Buffalo beats Chiefs thanks to Kadarius Toney gaffe