Bills end Chiefs bid at a perfect season
The Kansas City Chiefs (9-1) lose to the Buffalo Bills (9-2) in New York, 30-21 after Josh Allen proved to be more than they could handle.
The Kansas City Chiefs (9-1) hung in there as long as they could, but after getting outplayed by the Buffalo Bills (9-2) for the majority of the game, quarterback Josh Allen put the dagger in the Chiefs bid for a perfect season with just over two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. After Kansas City stuffed a third and two attempt, Buffalo decided to go for it on fourth down, despite being on the Chiefs' 26 where a field goal would have extended their lead from two to five.
On the fourth and two, Allen took off after bailing on the pocket, bouncing off Chiefs defenders and taking it to the house for a 26-yard touchdown scramble to set up a final score of 30-21. This marks the first time since the Super Bowl 57 win over the Eagles that the Chiefs defense has allowed 30 or more points. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes bookended the game with interceptions after throwing one the first minute into it and another at the end in desperation attempting to come back after the Allen touchdown. After the bid for a perfect season comes to a close, the Chiefs will now use this game as something they can grow from.
“You can use it as fuel,” Mahomes said. “Like I said, it's a good football team, so nothing to hang your head on losing to them. We feel like we can play better so we'll get back to work and try to use this as a spark so that we can be a better football team in the end. The undefeated thing was cool but that's not our ultimate goal, so we'll keep building towards that.”
Buffalo dominated in just about every facet of the game. They gained over 100 more total yards, were 10 percent better on third downs, won the turnover margin and controlled the ball for over eight minutes longer. The Chiefs' defense did what it has done all season and held Bills running backs James Cook to 20 yards, Ty Johnson to 18 and Ray Davis to 11 on 19 carries combined, but they simply did not have an answer for Allen. He once again proved most dangerous with his legs where he rushed for 55 yards on 12 carries, without a care for the big hits he took on.
“My hat goes off to (Bills head coach Shawn McDermott) and the Bills,” head coach Andy Reid said. “They did a nice job. They made plays when they needed to, did a nice job with that. It's a great game to learn from for some of our young guys. Two good teams play each other, the margin between winning and losing is small, man, and so and that starts with me. We can all learn from it and take something out of this and make us better down the road here so, we'll do that.”
Despite not having tight end Dalton Kincaid or his second-leading receiver, Keon Coleman, Allen still tossed for 262 yards. He found the endzone twice, once through the air and once on the ground. Khalil Shakir was his go-to target, hauling in eight catches for 70 yards, while Curtis Samuel was extra slippery for the Chiefs defenders, tallying 58 yards and a touchdown on five catches. When targeted, Amari Cooper was lethal too, gaining 55 yards on his two catches.
Samuel’s touchdown was a bit of a controversy on the internet as some thought it should have been offensive pass interference after Bills wide receiver Mack Hollins de-cleated cornerback Nazeeh Johnson on the “rub” or “pick” route. Of course, that still would have left third and fourth down and the KC defense could not seem to stop much on Buffalo’s scoring drives.
One of the keys to the game was going to be stopping Cook from catching balls out of the backfield, and Kansas City was ready for that. He caught five balls for just seven yards. It was the lack of pressure, or the ability to bring Allen down when they did get pressure that proved costly. The Chiefs finished with zero sacks and only hit Allen four times when he dropped back, despite Buffalo being without their starting right tackle.
Despite being outgained almost two to one in the first half, Kansas City actually had a one-point lead with just over two minutes to go before halftime, thanks to an interception by Chiefs safety Chamarri Conner. The Bills used those final two minutes to march down the field for a field goal, which gave them a 16-14 lead heading into the break. The game actually stayed 16-14 throughout the entirety of the third quarter after defenses on both sides made adjustments and dominated the period. The two teams then traded touchdowns to make it 23-21 before Allen’s touchdown rush to seal the game.
It was not as if the Chiefs’ offense was bad, or shut down in any way, but Buffalo certainly took Kansas City out of rhythm and beat them at their own game. They still had a 50 percent conversion rate on third downs and were three for three in the red zone. The Chiefs running 19 fewer plays and not being in control of the possession game proved to be an x-factor and forced them to be nearly perfect when they did have the ball. At the end of the day, the Chiefs only averaged .2 fewer yards per play than the Bills. Mahomes felt like the team maybe got a little too confident winning close games late.
“It's just kind of do or die,” Mahomes said. “You got to score or the game's going to be over and so we turned it on as an offense and we were able to get down there and score a touchdown, but it wasn't enough today. We got to have a better sense of urgency, or I have to have a better sense of urgency throughout the entire game.”
“I'm hoping that it is a benefit. I'm not going to say we relax but at the same time I feel like we were just coming away with these wins at the end of the game and I think it's going to spark us to have more urgency, especially at the start of football games. Especially with the offense, and that comes from me and turning the ball over on the first drive. (That is) something you can't do in big games like this and so the hope is that this is a spark for us that we can play better football going throughout the rest of the regular season and into the postseason.”
Mahomes completed nearly 70 percent of his passes and running back Kareem Hunt rushed for 60 yards on just 14 carries. Still, the lack of scoring in the third quarter proved to be detrimental because it put them in a position where they ran out of time at the end of the game to match the Bills' touchdown drives. With how successful Hunt was on the ground, I am sure they wanted to give him more than 14 carries, but the pressure Buffalo applied forced them to be unbalanced and got them off the field on key third and fourth downs.
“I probably could call some more runs when it was all said and done,” Reid said. “When we had opportunities. We did a did a pretty nice job with it, with the exception of the short yardage.”
One area that I am sure is not how the Chiefs drew it up was the fact that tight end Travis Kelce and DeAndre Hopkins were only targeted four times each. Kelce finished the game with two catches for eight yards, while Hopkins ended with three for 29. After a three-week hiatus with a hamstring ailment, JuJu Smith-Schuster returned to the fold as well, but it was more of the same for him. He hauled in his one target for eight yards.
It was a mixed bag for first-round rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy. Worthy actually led the team in receiving, but every single bit of his production came on the same drive. He absolutely dominated on that drive, catching four passes for 61 yards and a touchdown, but he also left the biggest game-swinging play out on the field. For the second time in three weeks, he failed to know where the boundary was and allowed himself to only get one foot in bounds where he was wide open on a deep ball. In a moment of truth, Mahomes put the blame on himself, saying he regrets putting the ball so close to the boundary. The Chiefs ended up punting on that drive instead of being in a prime scoring position.
“It's probably just me throwing it more in bounds to a guy that's wide open for a touchdown,” Mahomes said. “So, if I throw it in bounds, it's a walk-in touchdown and I got to be better there.”
Tight end Noah Gray had by far the most efficient day among the position groups. On five targets he caught four passes for 23 yards and two touchdowns, including one beautiful catch and throw along the back-right pylon. All-in-all, Mahomes finished 23 of 33, 196 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. It was his first game with an interception since week eight against the Las Vegas Raiders.
“When we’re rolling, we’re hard to stop,” Mahomes said. “It’s just you have to have consistency throughout the entire game.”
Kansas City is now 1-4 against Buffalo in the regular season since Mahomes and Allen started facing off in the matchup, with the Chiefs' last win coming in 2020. Of course, the Chiefs are 3-0 against them in the playoffs during that time and it seems likely that we could see this matchup again later this year. The only question now is where that presumable game would be. If Kansas City can go ahead and beat the Carolina Panthers (3-7) next week, the Chiefs will have a one-game lead with no tiebreaker over Buffalo for the one-seed in the AFC. The Bills will be on a bye, but kickoff in Carolina is set for noon CDT in week 12.
