Complete Win

Bills beat Chiefs for fifth straight time in the regular season, 28-21.

I have to start this by saying; I am so glad that I was wrong in my prediction from the Week 9 Preview piece. I vastly underestimated this team’s ability to stop any offense, let alone one that is as high powered as the Kansas City Chiefs.

This was a complete win. The section of this piece that I normally entitle The Bad is going to be much shorter than it has been in my first two recaps. The offense moved the ball with relative ease. The defense got pressure on the front end and the secondary came together when it mattered most. It’s easily their most impressive win of the season, and gives the fan base more hope than they’ve had since before the Patriots loss. Let’s start where it matters most – with what helped secure the W.

The Good

Let’s start with the defense. The front four had their best game of the season. By a lot. After the game, it was said that they made a point of staying in their rush lanes during practice in the week leading up to the game. It worked. Pressuring Mahomes on over 50% of drop backs, hitting him more than he ever has been hit in his career, and holding him to his lowest completion percentage of his career. They are directly responsible for making the Chiefs offense look clunky.

But, it wasn’t because Mahomes didn’t have time to throw. There were plenty of opportunities where he had more than enough time to get a pass off. The Bills secondary stepped up to shut those opportunities down, though. Adding Maxwell Hairston and Jordan Hancock into the secondary has breathed new life into the defense. The secondary looks faster, more athletic, and more cohesive overall as a result. This contributed massively to the defensive success in this game. And it’s something that Bills fans will be clamoring to see more of in the future.

The offense. James Cook did James Cook things. The guy is an animal. From where I was sitting, you could see the holes in the line clearly. There were times where there were no holes visible, and somehow Cook still found space for five extra yards. Another super impressive outing by Cook.

Allen came to life. Not completely to MVP form, but good enough considering his weapons. He and Dalton Kincaid continue to build their relationship, resulting in Kincaid blossoming into the player that we’d hoped he’d be when the Bills drafted him. Allen looks his way often, and it’s clear that him and Khalil Shakir are his first two options every time he drops back. He seemed significantly more comfortable than he has in weeks past when he drops back. Which is extremely impressive to have happen in what has so far been the biggest game of the Bills season.

The Bad

Allen is still turning down running options. He is definitely holding it back. There were multiple times throughout that game where he had a scramble option and turned it down. The worst of which being on a fourth and three early in the game where the running lane opened, and he instead threw a ten yard in, that resulted in an incomplete pass and turnover on downs. It’s not a stretch to say he’s saving it for the playoffs. But the opportunities are there now.

Part of that comes from the fact that the receivers are still struggling. The few times that Allen did scramble outside of the pocket, he was having trouble seeing anybody open. From witnessing it in person, I will say it’s because the receivers were blanketed. It’s still abundantly clear that the Bills need help at that position more than any other.

The coaching staff had a few questionable decisions as well. I should be clear here; overall, I thought they had a great game. However, recent games have made the few mistakes that they did make stand out more than normal. It’s because they keep making the same ones over and over. Two of them that stood out most to me were the timeout before the field goal, and a third and ten screen to Shakir that went nowhere. Both are trends for this staff. Taking unnecessary timeouts because his team wasn’t ready in situations where that won’t affect the outcome of the game is something that McDermott has been notorious for. Similarly, screen passes in situations that don’t warrant a screen pass is something that Brady has been notorious for. We can keep hoping they fix it, even though they likely won’t.

My Take

This win was huge. Especially after a Colts loss the Steelers. It not only keeps us squarely in the division race, but squarely in the race for the one seed as well. I still need to see some movement before Tuesday’s trade deadline. Receiver is the glaring need. Last week, I had safety as the secondary need. I’m downgrading that once again. I’d like to see a defensive end or defensive tackle after the injuries to Ed Oliver and Michael Hoecht. Keep the pressure on the opposing quarterbacks, and watch your young secondary go to work.