By Alex “MereKat” LeMere
The Buffalo Bills suffer their second straight loss as the Kansas City Chiefs come into WNY and win 26-17.
The second straight week the Buffalo Bills have been featured on a primetime game and now it’s the second straight week we have failed to preform against an upper echelon NFL team.
This was a gut punch. It’s had only been 23 minutes since the game ended and I was not having a good time. The Josh Allen haters were crawling back out of the sewer, the Twitter couch coaches were flooding my timeline and the masses started to question if the first four games were a fluke or not. Honestly, my emotions are riding high and I’m upset. So I took a step back, re-watched the game and continued on with a level head.
GOOOOOD MORNING FOLKS! It’s actually the evening as I spent the morning watching the game over and disarming people on social media attacking all the wrong things about last night’s performance. Not a thing has changed since last night. If there were a drinking game that had you drink every time someone tweeted along the lines of “Fire Leslie Frazier”, “Tremaine Edmunds is bad” or “We miss Jordan Phillips”…I would be getting my stomach pumped right now.
This game wasn’t fun, the reactions to it are not fun and trying to diagnose the true problem last night….not fun. But let’s be real for a second here Bills’ fans. Josh Allen has still been awesome, actually the whole offense outside of the inconsistency running the ball has been great. If you would have told me in August the Bills would start the season 4-2 with matchups against the Rams, Titans and Chiefs I would have been more than satisfied. Now we’re ready to burn down 1 Bills Dr.
So take a step back and BREATHE #BillsMafia….losing to the defending Super Bowl champions by 9 is not the end of the world.
Let’s dive into this recap and try not to get PTSD:
First off, the setting for the game was just awful. Seeing an empty Bills’ stadium during a primetime game was sad and the awful weather conditions just made it miserable. Not the home field advantage we’re accustomed to in Buffalo.
The Bills received the opening kickoff and started out flatter then the Diet Coke you leave open in your cup holder overnight. The first play Josh throws behind an open Cole Beasley and followed it up with a terrible miss to a wide open John Brown. On third down, Allen escapes pressure and delivers a dart to John Brown which ricochets right off his facemask for an incompletion. The rain and wind was no help here, but Allen looked sloppy.
Another great punt by Bojo (who’s KILLING it) gives Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs their first opportunity on offense. You could see the rain affecting Mahomes here too as he overthrows Kelce bad on second down to force a third-and-2. No problem for KC though as Williams bounces a rush outside for a first starting a trend of the Chiefs’ backs taking advantage of our lack of contain. A few plays later Siran Neal, who needs more snaps, breaks up a pass intended for Kelce halting their drive.
Andre Roberts gives us a bit of a spark with a nice 24-yard punt return and giving the offense solid starting field position. Allen looked good evading pressure throughout the whole game but drops and bad throws off of the rollouts were a killer. On third-and-9, Allen puts his legs on display and dives up the sideline for a big first on a questionable spotting, but we’ll take it. Daboll was opening up the playbook here, running a flea flicker where Allen nearly hits Brown in the end zone but the ball is tipped away and a PI call is reversed. In range to score, Allen overthrows another ball to Diggs in the end zone and then just tosses it away on third down under pressure. Tyler Bass hits his career long FG at 48 yards and the Bills lead 3-0.
The Chiefs started out fast as Clyde Edwards-Helaire (I will refer to him as CEH by the way) gashed the Bills’ defense with a season long 31-yard rush. Mahomes started to pick apart the Bill’s secondary, who was giving a ton of cushion, underneath feeding Robinson and letting him use his speed. Travis Kelce throws a double move on Tremaine Edmunds and comes down with a juggling catch from Mahomes to cap a quick scoring drive. Kansas City takes a 7-3 lead with 3:05 left in the first quarter.
Buffalo, needing a response, starts trying to get Singletary involved to begin the drive. Stefon Diggs gets his first catch after being missed earlier. Allen shows his running prowess on third-and-2, dropping the shoulder and pushing the pile on a QB draw for the first. The first quarter comes to an end and Josh Allen is just 3/10 passing for 21 yards, something Troy Aikman made sure to let us know. To start the second quarter, rookie RB, Zack Moss gets the first two carries and drives his way for a Buffalo first. Allen and Diggs nearly connect on a long TD but ran out of space and it’s broken up in the back of the end zone. Allen shows off his power and speed again, tucking it for another first down where Breeland attempts to take him down and literally bounces off. A few plays later, Allen really impresses me as he picks up on outside man coverage and an incoming blitz, audibled to get an extra blocker and put Diggs. A great read out of the young QB and leads to Diggs drawing a PI putting us at the KC 4-yard line. Allen takes full advantage and hits Diggs for a nice throw and catch for Buffalo’s first touchdown of the game. Buffalo capitalizes and takes a 10-3 lead.
This is where things really start to collapse for the Bills’ defense as CEH and the Chiefs’ rush attack was abusing out front seven. We weren’t letting Mahomes beat us through the air, but had no answers on the ground. KC grinds their way to the Bills’ 4-yard line with ease. After a CEH TD is called back on a hold, Mahomes floats a perfect pass to Travis Kelce who snags it in the back of the end zone for a toe tap TD. Buffalo’s defense seemed to have no answers for Kelce as he beats Poyer and Tre White. Kansas City retakes the lead 13-10 after Butker missed the PAT.
With just under five minutes before the half ends Buffalo was looking to regain the lead. With an early third-and-5, Allen tucks it and runs for the first and almost launches into the KC bench, but is caught by Chiefs’ LB Damien Wilson. I honestly though that was a really cool and overlooked move by Wilson. If Allen had fallen into that metal bench, things could have ended badly. Damien Wilson is good in my book and who knows if a lesser man would have caught him. On another third down, Allen delivers a dart to Diggs who can’t hang on but a defensive penalty gives us a first. Facing another third down the next set of downs, Allen’s pass is batted at the line and the Bills punt with 1:13 left.
Kansas City doesn’t show much urgency here and was looking to not make a costly mistake heading into the second half…but say it aint so, Travis Kelce gets stripped trying to fight into FG range by A.J. Klein and Buffalo recovers the ball with just 6 seconds on the clock. A prime chance for the Bills’ to try and tie the game heading to half.
The Chiefs show the Bills a prevent style defense to not allow a long TD play which leaves Diggs wide open underneath, and Allen delivers it right to him. Diggs was able to get a quick 15 yards and out of bonds with just a second on the clock and putting us in FG range. Out comes rookie Kicker Tyler Bass, looking to make the longest FG of his career and tie the game at 13. WIDE RIGHT. Like not just wide right, but so far wide it completely missed the net. I don’t want to pour on Bass here. He’s just a rookie, kicking in wind and rain with all the pressure on him…but that was big miss that was no where close from 52 yards.
Kansas City heads into halftime holding on to a 13-10 lead over the Bills, but it didn’t feel that close.
Halftime Grades:
Bills – B-… Only trailing three and blowing a chance at tie, I still didn’t feel like the Bills were going to pull this one off. Their defensive strategy wasn’t letting Mahomes and his speedy receivers beat us deep, but allowed CEH and the KC backfield to run all over us. Josh Allen was just 6/16 for 42 yards and a TD in a half he looked SLOPPY for the first time this season. He was missing open receivers, just throwing balls at nothing and seemed frustrated with the weather. Not a great half but to be down just three helped this grade.
Chiefs – A… The Chiefs were their own worst enemy in this half, letting the Bills extend drive with sloppy penalties a few times. Mahomes was holding back his arm but super efficient going 11/14 for 119 yards and 2 TDs. With CEH adding a ridiculous 10 carries for 94 yards, you’d think the Chiefs would have more than just two scores in this one. Eric Bieniemy was taking full advantage of a under-preforming Buffalo front seven all half.
Kansas City received to start the second half and continued to try and hurt us on the ground. Darrell Williams blows up the gut of the defense for an easy first on third down. Chiefs’ backs having their way and converting third downs were becoming a trend this game. Buffalo nearly gets a huge break as Norman gets a bad Mahomes’ pass right to him and drops it forcing a Chiefs’ punt instead of a Bills’ INT. One bright spot that started to come to light this game was Justin Zimmer’s play on the interior of the defensive line after being recalled from the practice squad this week.
This is the drive where the Buffalo offense really started to sputter. We get a first off a nice run after receiving a screen by Singletary but that was it. Allen was forced to throw a couple away here while facing pressure, the weather and a hint of franticness. On third-and-6 Allen threw a bad ball behind an open Beasley leading to another Buffalo punt. For what seems like the first time this season we saw Allen visually getting upset at himself, understandably so as he was missing A LOT today.
The Chiefs start out the next drive, you guessed it, by continuing to feed CEH as he had this Buffalo defense at his mercy. With eight minutes left in the third quarter, the rookie RB had 130 yards on just 15 carries. DISGSUTING. Mahomes and the Chiefs offense continued to march right down the field. Mahomes had an awesome run, putting defenders in a blender, getting a first on third and 5. Forcing the Chiefs to a fourth-and-1 at the Buffalo 13, KC goes for it. Darrell Williams bounces it outside and untouched for an easy score. Tremaine Edmunds completely misread the play here and the losses on the defensive line start to loom large. Kansas City extends their lead by two scores, 20-10, over Buffalo with 1:18 left in the third.
Some ineffective Zack Moss runs, a Cody Ford injury and Mitch Morse penalty on fourth-and-1 stall the Bills’ drive quick and result in a sub-two minute drive. Bojo booms it again, and paired with a KC penalty, the Chiefs were pinned at their own 6-yard line.
Thought the defense was playing sloppy until this point? Bad news, it got worst this drive. On a second-and-5, Mahomes finds Robinson again for a 22- yard gain and Tre White gets himself an unnecessary roughness penalty to tack on 15 more yards. Two plays later Jordan Poyer makes a tackle for a loss on CEH but is flagged for ANOTHER 15-yard unnecessary roughness. Literally giving the most explosive offense in football 30 free yards in a minute. Not good discipline at all. KC continues to run a wide array of WR motions and RPOs that all end up with CEH taking it between the hashes and abusing our defense. Finally a few good stops hold KC to just a FG from Butker, who build their lead to 23-10 with just over nine minutes left in the game.
Once again with the weight of the #BillsMafia world on his shoulder, Josh Allen needed to get a quick score with the rain picking up, for us to have hope. A PI on Breeland gives us an early first and some dink and dunks gets us into KC territory. Allen steps up, finally, and hits Diggs for 14 yards and Beasley for 22 yards (longest Buffalo play of the day) on back-to-back plays to put us in striking distance. To our excitement, Allen hits Beasley in stride who dives to the goal line and gets Buffalo a HUGE score to put us within 6 points. Bills trail the Chiefs just 23-17 with 6:24 remaining.
After a terrible previous 54 minutes, Buffalo’s defense was looking to get a quick stop and keep us in the game. Yeah, didn’t happen. Mahomes finds a wide open Kelce once again, who makes a highlight reel catch for 20 yards. Zimmer flashes again forcing a HUGE fumble on CEH, but after a review, determine his knee was down. A real gut punch. After another (rare) good play from A.J. Klein the Chiefs found themselves with a third-and-12. It didn’t matter though as Mahomes finds Byron “One You Pop the Fun Don’t Stop” Pringle (who?) for 37 yards letting the air out of our comeback hopes. After a stop, we hold the Chiefs out of the end zone, but Butker hits a short FG to put Buffalo away. Chiefs take a late 26-17 lead over the Bills.
Hoping for a miracle and down two scores with just 1:56 on the clock, Josh Allen and the Bills take the field with their fingers crossed. This is where I lost my mind. Allen scrambles for three yards when we need to score fast. Then Diggs gets another penalty. Next play, Josh just fucking chucks the ball to no one. A bone-headed throw that encapsulated this game leads to a Chiefs’ INT ending the game.
An uninspired performance ends with the Buffalo Bills falling 26-17 to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Fulltime Grades:
Bills – C… I’m not ready to say were frauds like some people. I still believe in this team and Josh Allen, but to play so poorly a second week in a row against a good team is disheartening. The running game was non-existent again. The defense held Mahomes to any huge plays with his arm but was still getting beat by Kelce when it mattered. Allowing *squints to make sure that I’m seeing this right* 245 YARDS ON THE GROUND IS EGREGIOUS. This team needs to make a move to be a real competitor come Winter.
Chiefs – A… Buffalo’s defensive strategy forced the Chiefs to run the ball today…and boy oh boy did they run the ball. 46 carries for 245 yards on th ground is how you just take the life out of a team like Buffalo. CEH and Darrell Williams had their way with Buffalo’s front 7. Travis Kelce showed why he’s one of the best tight ends in football more than once. Andy Reid severely outcoached McDermott here and the only reason it’s not an A+ is because they let Buffalo hang around when they had no right to.
The loss flat out sucks. If you told me in August that this team would be 4-2 after six weeks and have the division lead, I would have been happy with that 100%. To lose the way we have though, on national media against elite teams and just get manhandled in both, is really discouraging. There’s a bit of a damper on the hype Buffalo and Josh Allen were getting from the world a couple week ago, but I have faith in this team to get back on track.
We’re still figuring things out on both the defensive and offensive line and would hope a move is made for a front seven player. Injuries have plagued cornerstones of this team as John Brown and Tre White didn’t look 100% after missing last week, the defense looked lost again without stud LB Matt Milano and there is no way Tremaine Edmunds shoulder isn’t a bigger problem then they’re letting on. There’s work to do and I trust McDermott to get this train back on it’s tracks.
Kat’s Korner Takeaways:
- The whole front seven has been a HUGE issue without Matt Milano. The LBs are struggling to cover anything underneath or in the middle of the field and seemingly forgot how to read plays. The lack of any type of contain or edge betting set has been non-existent all season. Jerry Hughes is aging, Trent Murphy was benched, A.J. Epenesa barley sees the field. We really miss Star Lotulelei’s ability to eat up blockers and gaps and Shaq Lawson’s ability to set and hold contain from the edge against the run and in pass rushing situations. Along with the losses of Jordan Phillips and E.J. Gaines, Buffalo’s defensive game plan needs to be revamped.
- The Chiefs had very little issues converting important third down situations and extending drives all game. KC went 9/14 on third downs as well as a TD on a fourth down conversion. I think this was a combo of Mahomes’ elite decision making and poor scheming by Leslie Frazier.
- Buffalo’s rushing attack was ineffective once again this year as the team’s RBs had 15 carries for just 42 yards. Obviously the play calling has given Josh Allen more passes this year, but the rushing efficiency is abysmal. Part of the issue could be Buffalo has built an offensive line that excels in pass pro to keep Allen safe but struggle run blocking and getting any real lanes open for Singletary and Moss.
- Tyler Bass’s terrible missed FG before half loomed large. Not that it ended up mattering that much in the long run, but going into halftime tied at 13 would’ve been big and let the Bills play things out differently on offense in the second half. He’s a rookie kicking in the rain, yes, but those are kicks we’re going to be made and it might not be time for Bass yet as our starting kicker.
- Sean McDermott flat out saying we were focusing on taking away deep throws for Mahomes which would hamper the rush defense kind of pisses me off. Yeah, Mahomes was held to 225 yards through the air but he was still 21/26 passing with 2 TDs and 0 turnovers. Mahomes was hardly under duress in the pocket and allowed him to work underneath the safeties. CEH absolutely ate on the ground averaging a whopping 6.2 yards on 26 carries. Just disgusting. Go out there and play your game. Gimmicks don’t work against elite teams and coaches.
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