NFL PLAYOFFS : Emotional Tide Takes Big Turn : Pro football: The Bills once were the sentimental favorites, but the Chiefs’ Montana has taken that role.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. —  It’s the team America has seen enough of against the team America would love to see more of.

It’s the favorite according to the odds against the sentimental favorite.

It’s a team that has been to the last three Super Bowls against a team that hasn’t been to a Super Bowl in nearly a quarter of a century.

It’s Jim Kelly, the quarterback who has won everything but a Super Bowl, against Joe Montana, the quarterback who has won four of them.

It’s Thurman Thomas against Marcus Allen, Bruce Smith against Neil Smith, mellow Marv Levy against fiery Marty Schottenheimer.

It’s the Buffalo Bills against the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC championship today at Rich Stadium before a sellout crowd.

The winner goes on to next Sunday’s Super Bowl in Atlanta. The losers stay home.

And that’s where many of the nation’s football fans would like to see the Bills remain.

Once, the Bills were sentimental favorites themselves. They were a long-suffering franchise from a much-maligned city who had finally gotten their moment in the spotlight against their big brothers across the state, the New York Giants.

But Buffalo lost by a point to the Giants in Super Bowl XXV, lost by 13 points to the Washington Redskins a year later in Super Bowl XXVI and lost to the Dallas Cowboys by 35 points last year in Super Bowl XXVII in Pasadena.

Enough already.

Imagine, Buffalo’s detractors say, what the next margin of defeat might be on that plummeting curve.

Coach-turned-broadcaster Mike Ditka called the Bills’ return to their fourth consecutive AFC title game and fifth in six years “boring,” and that pretty much sums up the lament of many of the nation’s football fans.

But not here. Here the feelings lie somewhere between pride and paranoia over Buffalo’s return.

“Like it or not, we’re here,” Kelly said. “There no pressure on us because we’re the team nobody wanted here. We’re the team nobody predicted would be here, but we’re a lot harder to get rid of than that.”

For a while this season, it didn’t look as if it was going to be that hard. The Bills were struggling on offense, of all places. The no-huddle offense that had led the AFC in scoring in each of the previous four seasons was having trouble getting into the end zone.

The low point came in early December, when the Raiders beat the Bills, 25-24, in Rich Stadium. It was Buffalo’s third loss in four games. Players were publicly criticizing the offense and each other.

But from that valley of despair, the Bills have been heading steadily upward.

Buffalo had four regular-season games left after the loss to the Raiders, and the Bills won them all to finish 12-4 and win the AFC East title.

What changed?

“I think every team has highs and lows,” said Levy, the coach. “We functioned for a period of time with a few injuries. As the season goes on, you keep operating the same offense and you get better at it. There was nothing revolutionary that took place.”

What also changed was the calendar. It was getting to be Buffalo’s time of year.

Say what you will about the Bills’ performance in the Super Bowl, this is a team that has excelled in the postseason. Buffalo has won eight consecutive AFC playoff games, including last year’s 41-38 overtime victory over the Houston Oilers, the greatest comeback in NFL history.

The Bills have won seven AFC postseason games in a row at Rich Stadium. Indeed, they have never lost an AFC playoff game on their home field, their last postseason loss at Rich Stadium coming on New Year’s Day, 1967, against the Chiefs, of all teams, in a championship game of the old American Football League.

In beating the Raiders last week, the Bills rallied from a 17-6 second-quarter deficit, their comeback highlighted by two Kelly-to-Bill Brooks touchdown passes.

The weather today will be cold, but nowhere near last week’s subzero wind-chill.

The last time Kansas City got this far into the postseason, it was 1970. Led by quarterback Len Dawson, the Chiefs went on to win Super Bowl IV that year, beating the Minnesota Vikings, 23-7.

Super Bowl fever was again evident around Kansas City last April when the Chiefs acquired Montana from the San Francisco 49ers.

He hadn’t played much in two years because of an elbow injury. He was going to be 37 before this season began. But he was still Joe Montana.

Also added to the new mix was free agent Allen from the Raiders. In Montana’s case, the question was whether he could shake off any lingering problems because of his injury. In Allen’s case, the question was whether he could shake off the rust.

Schottenheimer had envisioned using Allen about 50% of the time this season. Because of other injuries and because Allen flashed his old brilliance when given the chance, he wound up playing about 65% of the time.

And he quickly showed that his feud with Raider owner Al Davis might have robbed him of his playing time, but not his skills.

Allen was Kansas City’s leading rusher, gaining 764 yards in 206 carries, surpassing his cumulative totals for the past two seasons. He also scored 15 touchdowns, triple the five he totaled in his final two seasons in Los Angeles.

The Chiefs wound up 11-5, winning a divisional title for the first time since 1971.

It hasn’t been easy in the postseason. Kansas City had to go into overtime to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-24, then the Chiefs scored 21 points in the last nine minutes last week to beat the Oilers in Houston, 28-20.

Kansas City has already beaten Buffalo once this season, defeating the Bills, 23-7, in Arrowhead Stadium at the end of November.

The Chiefs’ defense was on target that day, getting four sacks and three interceptions.

But that was the regular season. This is the playoffs, in which the Bills have given up a total of 20 points in the last three AFC title games.

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP

TODAY’S GAME

* Opponents: Kansas City vs. Buffalo.

* Site: Rich Stadium, Orchard Park, N.Y.

* Time: 9:30 a.m. PST

* Records: Chiefs 13-5, Bills 13-4.

* TV: Channel 4.

* Radio: KNX (1070).