Fault never falls solely on one person when a team loses, but there were a few decisions that were incredibly questionable. During the AFC Championship Game, there was one thing that was working above the rest from the very jump — James Cook in the ground game.

For some reason, offensive coordinator Joe Brady went away from Cook far too often. The running back was far and away the most explosive option on the field for either team, finishing the game with 134 total yards and two touchdowns, despite doing his damage on only 16 total touches.

Not only that, but outside of the first drive of the second half, where the Bills called all run plays except for one short pass, Cook was far from the focal point of the offense. It’s baffling that that would be the case when Cook averaged 6.5 – six point five! – yards per carry.

With three and a half minutes left in the game, plenty of time to march the field in a legacy moment for Josh Allen and the Bills, with every opportunity to send Buffalo through to the Super Bowl, Brady didn’t call Cook’s number once.

It’s inexplicable. All throughout the game, especially in the second half, the plan of keeping the same personnel on the field so Kansas City couldn’t sub out, and attacking them on the ground, was working. They were ripping off chunk plays, staying ahead of schedule, killing clock, and leaning hard on the Chiefs’ defensive line.

Instead, when it mattered most, they abandoned the ground game. After Allen picked up a first down with his legs, Allen threw two incompletions, completed a pass to Amari Cooper on 3rd and 10 to set up 4th and 5, which saw Chiefs’ defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo dial up a complicated blitz an Allen heave it down the field where it fell incomplete off the arms of tight end Dalton Kincaid.

If the Bills were down by a touchdown with a minute left and no timeouts, sure. Abandon the ground game then. But with three and a half minutes and needing a field goal to tie, with all three timeouts in their back pocket, they could have called anything on the play sheet.

There are tons to take away from this outing, but Brady going away from what was working the best will be one thing that stings the most in the weeks to come.