ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The best football player in the world rocked left to right, his hands fastened on the pads across his chest.

The Chiefs trailed by one possession with two minutes left against the Bills here in New York, a spot so uncomfortably familiar to the home team that its quarterback later said, “I’ll tell you what — they like their odds in that situation.”

Oh, but one tiny disclaimer.

That situation comes with quarterback Patrick Mahomes gripping the football rather than the front half of his shoulder pads.

The best football player in the world watched the most important play of his team’s season the same way you and I saw it — as a bystander unable to do a darn thing about it. And when that guy is unable to influence the outcome, well, the outcome can change.

The Bills beat the Chiefs, 30-21, at home Sunday, ending Kansas City’s perfect season while putting the AFC’s No. 1 seed back in play.

Because they removed Mahomes from play Sunday. For a snap. And, in turn, from the game.

Facing fourth-and-2 with a two-point lead late in the fourth quarter, a decision confronted Buffalo coach Sean McDermott: Kick a field goal, or leave the offense on the field? That’s one way to look at it.

Here’s another: Which superstar quarterback would you prefer determine the game? Your guy or that guy?

McDermott stuck with his own. You know the rest. Bills quarterback Josh Allen broke through the Chiefs’ defense for a 26-yard touchdown scramble, a remarkable play that sent Highmark Stadium into a frenzy. It felt like the aftermath of a Super Bowl dash here, and that’s a compliment, not a criticism. The play warranted the reaction.

But let’s backtrack about, oh, nine seconds before Allen crossed the goal line. Backtrack to when, instead of a celebration, he must have been muttering something equivalent to, oh, crap.

When Allen gathered the snap in a shotgun formation, he had only one option in mind, and it wasn’t remotely close to the way the play concluded. The Bills ran a couple of diversion routes — eye candy, Allen termed it — on the left side of the field. The playbook instructed him to throw to his right, hitting Khalil Shakir on drag route specifically designed to beat man-to-man coverage.

The problem? The Chiefs didn’t run man-to-man coverage. They fell into a zone.

They fooled him.

How’s this for an awkward fit into the narrative of a lucky season: The Chiefs got beat on a game-sealing fourth-down conversion because they perfectly executed a coverage that took the quarterback by complete surprise.

The swindlers, not the swindled.

“We really had a plan for man (coverage),” Allen said. “Could’ve checked out of it — they had a pretty good man look (pre-snap), but they dropped to zone.”

Allen snapped the ball thinking the Chiefs were in man, in other words, and his homework probably led him there. On third- and fourth-and-shorts this season, and most every other situation for that matter, the Chiefs utilize physical man-to-man coverage. They think they can beat you straight up, and they’re usually right, though the cornerback opposite Trent McDuffie is becoming a thing.

But Allen’s legs are a worry. When you play man, you’re asking your defenders to turn their backs to the play, and that can cause some issues when the quarterback moves out of the pocket like a running back.

So Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo thought he’d switch it up and go with zone. There could be two benefits. Surprise the quarterback. Stop the run.

Check.

And uh-oh.

The Chiefs blanketed the Bills’ receivers on fourth down, including Shakir — mesh concepts on drag routes tend to have little effect on zone coverage. The idea is to create picks in the secondary, and if you need an example, watch Mack Hollins pick Chiefs cornerback Nazeeh Johnson on a third-quarter touchdown. All teams do it.

Sinking into their zone, the Chiefs had the play stopped cold — for the exact same reason they stopped an earlier fourth down when Chamarri Connor intercepted Allen, as my colleague Jesse Newell spotted. They just plain got him.

But there’s something you should keep in mind when you’re determining which superstar quarterback to leave on the field.

He might make a superstar play.

He might improvise a superstar play.

“That’s the NFL for you,” Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “Spags made a great call. He kind of switched up what we did on third-and-short and fourth-and-short, and I think that kind of confused Josh Allen. We played as perfect coverage as you can get. But he’s just one of those players who can make a play.”

All while another one of those — the very best of ‘em — stood on the sideline.

The reality is an undefeated season was always a long shot. The other reality is the Chiefs have been just fine losing this game in the past.

But it’s not without relevance to the outcome, nor how the Bills earned it. There’s an eager anticipation for the day when a higher percentage of coaches see the logic of having your best player part of the equation with the game on the line. There’s an extra advantage when you put one like Mahomes on the sideline.

Which, I’ll admit, there’s a bit of a correction to something I mentioned earlier. Mahomes didn’t watch that play from the sideline exactly the same way you and I saw it.

Everything I mentioned — the tricky coverage, the fooled quarterback — he saw in real time.

“I’ve seen the play they ran,” Mahomes said. “I saw it on the field — that (pass) was not really an option. That’s just a guy making a play in a big moment.”

Takes one to know one, right?

And on Sunday, it took one aspect more: The coach to pick the right one.

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