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Von Miller helps show what Bills can be, but it means little right now – USA TODAY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – With the Arrowhead Stadium crowd silenced and the Buffalo Bills seizing the moment on Josh Allen’s bullet of a 14-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Knox, Stefon Diggs knew that it was way too early to celebrate.

After all, there was 1:04 on the clock. Patrick Mahomes was the other quarterback. And the Bills had been here before, seeing their lead in this place evaporate in January with 13 seconds left on the fourth quarter clock in the AFC divisional playoff.

It was not time to exhale.

Instead, as he made his way to the bench after the Bills took the lead again, Diggs uttered a message to one of his newest teammates, Von Miller.

It was short, sweet and to the point.

“Finish the game!” Diggs implored Miller.

Of course, Miller, a man with two Super Bowl rings, a Super Bowl MVP award and an NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honor on his résumé, was happy to help his unit oblige.

With Miller bringing the heat, Mahomes was intercepted by Taron Johnson to extinguish Kansas City’s hope for another comeback victory. The Bills (5-1), deflated when they left here in January, departed town this time with the AFC’s best record after a 24-20 win.

You could declare that Buffalo is poised to live up to the lofty preseason expectations and finally get over the hump and win a Lombardi Trophy.

On Sunday, they certainly demonstrated what the best team in the league can look like. They mowed down the Chiefs with balance – explosive plays on offense, a defense that stuffed the run and held a Mahomes-led unit to just 20 points, and more magic from Allen, who passed for 329 yards and 3 TDs, without a turnover – that suggests they can beat you in multiple ways.

Yet Miller knows. There are no champion rings won in October.

Buffalo might be the best team in the league, and Miller – who sacked Mahomes twice, hit him on a couple other occasions and notched two tackles for a loss — might be the difference that puts Buffalo over the top. But all of that is unofficial at this point.

Besides, chances are fat that the Bills will have to beat the Chiefs again in January if there’s going to be any ultimate glory to this season.

“We’ll see those guys again,” Miller predicted.

For now, Miller will take the chance to apply the 24-hour rule as the Bills head into a bye and the opportunity to leave one of the toughest venues with a win. He reflected briefly on the many times he came to Arrowhead with the division rival Denver Broncos and came up short.

“I’ve played here a lot of times on my former team,” he told reporters. “I don’t remember the last time we had smiles in that (visitor’s) locker room.

“They’ve built a great team over there. I’m sure it won’t be the last time we see those guys. I don’t want to give those guys any bulletin-board material or anything like that, so when we see them again, they’ll be twice as ready to play. None of that. It was a hard-fought game. And it came down to the end, just like we expected it.”

A rematch in the playoffs would be so fitting. The last two seasons for the Bills ended with playoff losses at Arrowhead Stadium, which is why Allen mentioned the hope for earning home-field advantage for the next round of playoffs. It’s also worth noting that Buffalo won the regular-season matchup here in convincing fashion last season, only to lose when it mattered most.

Still, the Bills will take the latest measuring stick. It seemed fitting that on Saturday night, they watched the final few minutes of a documentary on the 2008 USA Olympic Basketball Team – the so-called “Redeem Team” that was powered by Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade – as it won the gold medal by trouncing Spain and avenging the USA’s bronze medal finish in 2004.

Diggs said the big takeaway from the documentary was the manner in which a star-studded team banded together. Undoubtedly, that’s the vision that Diggs and his teammates have – especially with Miller now part of their band after joining a defense that last season ranked No. 1 without him.

That’s why Diggs, who had a monster impact against the Chiefs with 10 catches, 148 yards and a touchdown, went to Miller with his message at crunch time.

“Von is that guy,” Diggs said. “He’s a superstar … one of the players you need when it matters the most. He did that.”

Miller got to Mahomes twice, but had a hard time breaking it all down.

“Man, if I had the answer to that, I would’ve had 10 sacks today,” he said.

The nimble Mahomes scrambles inside against outside rushes and outside when the rush comes inside. At any point, he can throw – on the run, side-armed, whatever. Miller shook his head when pondering how to get a pass-rushing rhythm against Mahomes.

“I just know you’ve got to keep playing,” he said.

Bills coach Sean McDermott lauded Miller’s effectiveness in ways that didn’t show up on the stat sheet.

“You could feel him,” McDermott said. “Whether or not he was actually sacking Mahomes, he was affecting him … you could feel him out there the entire game.”

Miller expects as much – at the least.

“That’s why they brought me here,” he said. “That’s in my job description.”

It’s also looking very possible that Miller – who helped the Rams win Super Bowl 57 last season and sparked the Broncos to a Super Bowl 50 crown – could become the first player ever to win Super Bowls with three different franchises.

He also knows better to fixate on that in October. As he headed back to the locker room following his press conference, Miller mentioned the ebb and flow of his past Super Bowl seasons, which included Peyton Manning being benched during midseason and the Rams losing three in a row in November.

“When you start thinking about Super Bowls, it’s like drinking from a fire hydrant,” Miller told USA TODAY Sports.

Translation: These seasons are about sipping one-game-at-a-time cups.

“I think it’s good to keep that short-term mindset,” he added. “It keeps your eye on the prize and it keeps you humble.”

Which are surely key ingredients to the perfect formula for finishing.    

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