Five things that stood out about the Kansas City Chiefs’ loss to the Bills on Sunday
In a span of 679 days, with a Super Bowl trophy sandwiched in the middle, the Chiefs lost a grand total of two regular season games. They packed two championship appearances into that stretch.
An about-face now.
The Chiefs lost for the third time in the ensuing 21 days, a thorough 38-20 beating from the Bills on Sunday Night Football.
And thus, they departed Arrowhead Stadium late Sunday — OK, really late Sunday thanks to a 62-minute weather intervention — in the same spot the entered it.
Last place in the AFC West.
Here’s what immediately stood out about the game:
1. Mahomes was very unMahomes-like
The offense opened with one of the least attractive 17-play drives you’ll ever see. For starters, the Chiefs gained only 56 yards on the drive, which resulted in a field goal. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed only 2 of 8 passes during the possession — one of the incompletions a bad and uncharacteristic miss to a wide open Travis Kelce.
Merely a sign of things to come.
Mahomes never really looked himself, inaccurate on throws he often hits. Several throws came up short. He turned it over three times, including once when he just plain dropped a snap. Mahomes now has six interceptions this season, even if both arrived Sunday were more of the fluky variety.
To be fair, he didn’t have a lot of help from his receivers. Mecole Hardman dropped two passes. Tyreek Hill dropped two more, including one that fell right into the arms of Bills safety Micah Hyde for a pick-6.
2. Oof, Daniel Sorensen
Chiefs safety Daniel Sorensen is going to want to toss this film.
There’s getting beat on play, and there’s the coverage he had — or didn’t have — on Dalton Knox’s 53-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter. Sorensen hung with Knox for nearly 25 yards on his route, but then abruptly darted to the sideline rather than continuing to trail Knox on the route ... for whatever reason. Josh Allen spotted it immediately, lofted a pass on the run, and Knox cruised into the end zone without a hitch.
That wasn’t it, either. Earlier, Stefon Diggs completely twisted up Sorensen in a zone coverage and got wide open for a 61-yard reception.
There was a commonality in both plays, though — Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu standing with his arms outstretched, wondering what had had happened.
3. The Bills’ promise
Two days before the game, Bills safety Micah Hyde explained the strategy his defensive planned to implore:
“We gotta make them nickel and dime us the whole way down the field and try to force some takeaways or field goals. I think that’s how we’re going to get out of KC with a win,” he said, according to the NFL Network.
They made good on that promise.
The Bills dropped extra guys in coverage, and many of them deep into the secondary. Mahomes spent the majority of the night in search of open receivers only to find few. It’s a defensive scheme in which the Chiefs are accustomed to seeing — and after their performance Sunday night, they can expect to see plenty more of it.
4. The big play.
The finally score is going to illustrate zero improvement from a defense that’s struggled all season. The Chiefs actually forced four punts (after zero last week) and a field goal. On one occasion, they forced three straight punts — which would’ve been four straight stops if not for a roughing the passer penalty call against Frank Clark that negated an interception.
Through three quarters, the Bills had all of 11 first downs.
But they were killed by the big play.
The Bills totaled six plays in the first half alone that went for at least 22 yards.
5. The hurry-up.
The 31st-ranked defense in the NFL can’t pinpoint just a singular predicament, but it sure has picked a place to start.
The assignments.
The Chiefs have so often found themselves out of place this season, and as a result, teams are hurrying to the line of scrimmage to further compound the problem.
The Bills prolonged the trend. On the initial third down of the game, they went without a huddle, and Josh Allen broke free for 22 yards on a designed run to the left.
Until the Chiefs can solve a fundamental problem, they’ll continue to see plenty of this.
This story was originally published October 10, 2021 at 11:41 PM.