How the Kansas City Chiefs divided up the playing time in ugly loss to Buffalo Bills
A battle for AFC superiority between the Chiefs and Buffalo Bills didn’t go Kansas City’s way at Arrowhead Stadium Sunday night.
Losing 38-20, the Chiefs (2-3) have sunk to the bottom of the AFC West through five games.
Four Chiefs turnovers, seven penalties and a defense with no answer to Buffalo’s Josh Allen-led offense were contributing factors. The Bills totaled seven big plays, defined as 20 yards or more, and scored on plays from 53 yards and 35 yards.
Buffalo also averaged an astounding 8.1 yards per play. The Chiefs have now allowed 30 or more points in four straight games, three of them losses, and have turned the ball over an alarming 11 times.
Here’s a look at the Chiefs’ snap counts from Sunday night’s game.
QUARTERBACKS: Patrick Mahomes (86), Chad Henne (did not play)
Mahomes completed 33 of 54 passes for 272 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions, for a 70.9 passer rating, the second-lowest of his career. Mahomes also lost a fumble.
Over the past four games, Mahomes has thrown six interceptions.
RUNNING BACKS: Darrel Williams (37, 9 on special teams), Jerick McKinnon (27, 12 on ST), Clyde Edwards-Helaire (22), fullback Michael Burton (2, 14 on ST)
Edwards-Helaire suffered an MCL sprain in the third quarter and finished with just 13 yards rushing on seven carries. He was placed on injured reserve Tuesday.
Williams, who will see more action as the Chiefs’ No. 1 back with Edwards-Helaire out, rushed for 27 yards on five carries, adding 18 yards on three catches. McKinnon rushed once for 2 yards and caught two passes for 13 yards on a season-high 27 snaps.
As a team, the Chiefs totaled 120 yards rushing on 23 attempts. Mahomes led the offense with 61 yards on eight carries.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Tyreek Hill (73), Demarcus Robinson (65), Mecole Hardman (59, 4 on ST), Byron Pringle (26, 12 on ST), Josh Gordon (9), Marcus Kemp (4, 25 on ST)
The Bills’ safeties mostly stayed back to take away the deep ball, forcing the Chiefs to throw short and intermediate routes.
Hardman, who was busy running the short routes, totaled nine catches for 76 yards on a career-high 12 targets. The third-year pro accounted for the Chiefs’ lone big play in the passing game: a 26-yard catch.
Hill totaled seven catches for 63 yards, while Pringle made two catches for 11 yards and a touchdown. Robinson had one catch for 8 yards.
Gordon’s playing time will likely increase in the coming weeks as he becomes more comfortable in the offense. He had one catch for 11 yards Sunday.
As a returner, Pringle had three kickoff returns for 92 yards, averaging 30.7, but fumbled and lost the ball on one that he chose to take out of the end zone. Pringle revealed after the game that Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub had given him the green light to be aggressive.
“He just leaves it up to me and I just come out,” Pringle said. “I come out and be aggressive, so the other team knows I am not afraid of them.”
TIGHT ENDS: Travis Kelce (75), Blake Bell (17, 11 on ST), Jody Fortson (14, 23 on ST)
Kelce totaled six catches for 57 yards and a touchdown on 10 targets, extending his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 115 — the second-longest streak in team history and the fourth-longest active streak in the NFL.
Bell recorded one catch for 4 yards on one target, while Fortson, who had caught TD passes from Mahomes in back-to-back weeks, wasn’t targeted.
OFFENSIVE LINE: Orlando Brown Jr. (86, 4 on ST), Joe Thuney (86, 3 on ST), Creed Humphrey (86, 4 on ST), Trey Smith (86, 4 on ST), Lucas Niang (86, 4 on ST), Nick Allegretti (4 on ST), Andrew Wylie (1 on ST), Mike Remmers (did not play),
The Chiefs’ line allowed two sacks of Mahomes, who was hit eight times in the game.
Thuney played the entire game with a fractured hand.
DEFENSIVE LINE: Frank Clark (47), Tershawn Wharton (32, 6 on ST), Derrick Nnadi (32, 6 on ST), Mike Danna (31, 6 on ST), Alex Okafor (28, 6 on ST), Jarran Reed (27), Khalen Saunders (20), Demone Harris (10)
Danna started in place of Chris Jones, who was inactive with a wrist injury, and led the defensive line with four tackles. He also recorded the Chiefs’ only quarterback hit of the game.
Clark, who’d missed the previous two games with a hamstring injury, returned to the lineup and made two tackles, as did Wharton.
The Chiefs did not record a sack in the game. Under minimal pressure, Allen had his way with the Chiefs’ defense, throwing for 315 yards and three touchdowns and rushing 11 times for 59 yards and a touchdown.
LINEBACKERS: Anthony Hitchens (47, 6 on ST), Nick Bolton (43, 2 on ST), Willie Gay Jr. (25, 10 on ST), Ben Niemann (15, 15 on ST), Dorian O’Daniel (25 on ST)
Hitchens and Bolton tied for the team lead in tackles, with six apiece, while Gay made his season debut and finished with two.
The Chiefs’ linebackers didn’t help contain the high-powered Bills offense and appeared out of position a few times. One example occurred at the 8:34 mark of the second quarter.
During a Buffalo drive, Hitchens and Bolton dropped back in coverage with their backs to the line of scrimmage, leaving a massive hole in the middle of the field. Bills running back Zack Moss found the opening and caught a 3-yard pass before turning upfield.
Hitchens was approximately 7 yards away from the play, and by the time the defense reacted, Moss had gained 24 yards to put the Bills at the Chiefs’ 35. On the next play, Allen found receiver Emmanuel Sanders for a 35-yard touchdown.
DEFENSIVE BACKS: Tyrann Mathieu (57), L’Jarius Sneed (57, 5 on ST), Daniel Sorensen (57, 5 on ST), Rashad Fenton (55), Juan Thornhill (25, 12 on ST), Mike Hughes (18, 16 on ST), Deandre Baker (1), Armani Watts (18 on ST), Chris Lammons (25 on ST)
With Charvarius Ward (quad) missing a second straight game, Fenton drew the start at left cornerback.
Mathieu and Sorensen each recorded four tackles, but Sorensen was burned deep on two occasions, including a 53-yard touchdown down the right sideline late in the second quarter.
Bills tight end Dawson Knox was near the right side of the line of scrimmage with Sorensen defending. With the pocket collapsing, Allen scrambled to his right and spotted Knox before gesturing the tight end to go up the field. Sorensen, peeking into the backfield, let Knox get behind him and was caught in no-man’s land.
The Chiefs safety leaped in a vain attempt to knock down the pass, but the ball sailed over his head. Knox was wide open by a good 5 yards at the 17-yard line for an easy catch-and-run touchdown.
“(Knox) ran a corner route and turned it back up into a swing route as the quarterback moved and (Sorensen) dropped him,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of the broken coverage. “You can’t do that. He had his eyes in the backfield and lost where the tight end was.”
SPECIALISTS: Harrison Butker (9), Tommy Townsend (6), James Winchester (6)
Butker nailed two field goals, including a 54-yarder, and converted two extra points.
Townsend punted twice for 88 yards, averaging 44.
INACTIVES: Defensive end Chris Jones (wrist), cornerback Charvarius Ward (quad), center Austin Blythe, guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, wide receiver Daurice Fountain, tight end Noah Gray
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 12:13 PM.
