A Few Thoughts about the Chiefs Game - Community Edition

[Virgil]

No lead in needed for this game; we all know what this is.  Please join in and list your thoughts as well.

 

Also, I know these are meant to be "in no particular order, but the first four points were all things we've been waiting all season for and I couldn't be happier with how they worked out.

 

1A - Hairston - Pick your play here.  Hairston kept up with Worthy EASILY on a deep route, batted down the game winning Hail Mary, and picked off Mahomes for his first career interception for the only turnover of the game.  Yes, it's only been a game and a half, but Hairston looks to be as advertised in coverage, speed, and hands.  You have to love it and he picked the perfect game for his coming out party.  Can't wait to see more of what this kid has to offer. 

 

1B - Bishop - I mean, holy ***** did Bishop ball out.  I didn't take notes for this game, so my memory might be failing me, but Bishop was EVERYWHERE this game.  Not only that, but he absolutely laid out Mrs Swift in the end zone.  Bishop had quite a few pass break up where he punished the receiver, and I honestly thought he had a chance at a pick six on a beautifully tracked swing pass to the near side.  I don't know what clicked recently, but if Bishop and Hairston are going to continue to play at this level, or secondary is in MUCH better shape. 

 

1C - Cook Catch - I was so tempted to put this first, but we threw to Cook in a crucial situation and got the first down.  I repeat, Brady called a pass to Cook out of the backfield.  It's amazing how such a simple play can get me so hyped.  Cook overall had another great game, eclipsing 100 yards against a team that doesn't allow those types of games.  It's almost as if the Bills realized that they have multiple stars on offense that aren't named Allen (see Kincaid).

 

1D - McD - While I'm not going to excuse the time outs on defense, I do understand why he called them.  The players clearly looked confused out there and McD needed to save them.  Now, why were they confused is a bigger issue.  Also, I don't know how much of the plays are being called by Babich or McD, but the defensive turnaround these past few weeks makes me believe McD is way more involved.  Holding Mahomes to under 50% passing and actually sending pressure on the final play was HUGE for the defense, and another thing we've been begging for out of this defense.  Making Mahomes throw up that last pass off his back foot, not allowing it to have enough power to get to the end zone was exactly how you need to play him.  Not only that, but Mahomes was smacked around the field today in the best way possible.  Also, did you see the Chiefs 3rd down conversion percentage?!  It's about time.

 

5 - Josh - I referred to the Chiefs as Allen's 7 iron, in that he always seems to pull out his best games against them.  Josh even said in his post game presser that he just felt different early on.  Josh only had three incomplete passes all game and was incredibly accurate on his balls downfield.  I still feel like Josh is playing a little frustrated or held back, but it's tough to argue with the results.  I like that we didn't force balls to Coleman and utilized the guys who got open.  We were a missed field goal from breaking 30, and that's even with us having two terrible drives after our opening one.  

 

6 - Defensive Line - While it sucks to lose Hoecht, and being without Oliver for the rest of the regular season, it was great to see the everyone else step up.  AJ played a great game, and smacked the sense out of Mahomes.  Bosa was a monster all game, minus the mind-numbing decision to stop his pressure on the 4th and 17 play.  Groot also was great in pursuit as well as against the run.  I would actually argue that Groot sneakily played one of the best games of the season.

 

7 - Kincaid - If ever there were a game for the those banging the drum of Kincaid being our #1 receiver or Josh hanging in the pocket a second longer, look no further than the long catch and run on the crossed by Kincaid.  With pressure coming and a congested middle of the field, Josh stepped forward and found Kincaid as he got behind the defender.  Sometimes I forget how fast Kincaid was.  His first touchdown got me on my feet and teams are going to need to start paying more attention to him.

 

8 - Hancock - For anyone with the All-22, I'm very curious to get feedback on Hancock from this game.  On the long catch before half, and the deep sideline catch on the pick play, was Hancock the responsible deep safety and slow to recognize the play?  I could be wrong, but he seemed to come to the play late.  Again, happy to be wrong, but he seemed to be responsible for 2 of the 3 biggest Chief passing plays. 

 

9 - Offensive Line - Even with the Chiefs sending stunt blitzes, extra rushers, and being dominant against the run, Josh overall had time, Cook got his 100 yards, and I didn't hear Chris Jones' name once.  Spencer Brown absolutely mauled some guys and I think we only had one holding penalty?  Just a great performance overall by the unit.  Shout out to Gilliam too.

 

10 - Stats and Outcome - There's two things I didn't like from this game.  Statistically, we dominated.  Mahomes was under 50% completion and didn't score a touchdown.  The Chiefs were terrible on 3rd down.  Kelce and Jones were non-factors.  And yet, we still needed to survive a Hail Mary at the end.  How is that even possible?  Yes, Prater could have made it a two score game and that 4th and 17th was ridiculous.  Even still, it's scary when we can play at that level and still barely win.  

 

 

Overall, I'm not putting stock into this win any more than we are 1-0 this week and have the tie-breaker over the Chiefs.  I'm glad to see the team back on the positive uptick both offensively and defensively, but I also recognize this game means nothing towards the outcome of our playoff success.  I'm back to believing we can play with anyone, and don't even try to tell me the Chiefs were holding back because it's only the regular season.  They want to win their division and this hurt them.  

 

Go Bills!

[Peace Frog]

 

"You guys really stuck it to my team today.  I don't think I could have a single fish to eat, I'm so upset."

 

[BearNorth]

Last time the Chiefs allowed a 100 yard rusher and 100 yard receiver was last September 12 vs. Baltimore.  Cook and Kincaid delivered the mail.

[Desert Bills Fan]

Great write up !
Thanks for doing these

The absence of presnap penalties was nice to see.

the OL played great. One play in particular , saw Brown maul Chris Jones. That was great to see.

 

the DL played great. Loved seeing pressure on the QB. Even though some of the blitzes lead to completions, still took away some deep balls.

[1billsnut]

“How do we dominate and it comes down to a hailmary?”

 

We basically won in every phase of the game……except coaching. 
 

Too many bonehead decisions. 🤷‍♂️

[Big Turk]

As I said previously, when the Bills best is required, we typically get it.

[Avisan]

29 minutes ago, Virgil said:

10 - Stats and Outcome - There's two things I didn't like from this game.  Statistically, we dominated.  Mahomes was under 50% completion and didn't score a touchdown.  The Chiefs were terrible on 3rd down.  Kelce and Jones were non-factors.  And yet, we still needed to survive a Hail Mary at the end.  How is that even possible?  Yes, Prater could have made it a two score game and that 4th and 17th was ridiculous.  Even still, it's scary when we can play at that level and still barely win.

We gotta stop defining games we win by TD+ as "barely won" on this board.  Hail Marys have a very low success rate, and surviving two of them is going to happen 95+% of the time.  Other teams are often going to have chances to not just roll over and die, that's just how the league is.

[CDogg20]

Thanks Virg, always my favorite post of the week. 
 

Loved sending the pressure as well on the last play. About time. Bishop and Hairston made a HUGE difference today. Bosa and Hoecht as well. Shame we lost Mike for the season. Josh, Kincaid and Cook absolutely make this offense roll. When Cook is on, everything else just falls into place. Fun game to watch today. Go Bills! 

[hondo in seattle]

5 minutes ago, 1billsnut said:

“How do we dominate and it comes down to a hailmary?”

 

We basically won in every phase of the game……except coaching. 
 

Too many bonehead decisions. 🤷‍♂️

 

Coaching is the reason we won in every phase of the game.  

Brady called a good offensive game and his squad executed.

The defense was seriously banged up and still got stops and a pick against a more talented and (mostly) healthy Andy Reid/Pat Mahomes offense.  

[Mikie2times]

27 minutes ago, Virgil said:

No lead in needed for this game; we all know what this is.  Please join in and list your thoughts as well.

 

Also, I know these are meant to be "in no particular order, but the first four points were all things we've been waiting all season for and I couldn't be happier with how they worked out.

 

1A - Hairston - Pick your play here.  Hairston kept up with Worthy EASILY on a deep route, batted down the game winning Hail Mary, and picked off Mahomes for his first career interception for the only turnover of the game.  Yes, it's only been a game and a half, but Hairston looks to be as advertised in coverage, speed, and hands.  You have to love it and he picked the perfect game for his coming out party.  Can't wait to see more of what this kid has to offer. 

 

1B - Bishop - I mean, holy ***** did Bishop ball out.  I didn't take notes for this game, so my memory might be failing me, but Bishop was EVERYWHERE this game.  Not only that, but he absolutely laid out Mrs Swift in the end zone.  Bishop had quite a few pass break up where he punished the receiver, and I honestly thought he had a chance at a pick six on a beautifully tracked swing pass to the near side.  I don't know what clicked recently, but if Bishop and Hairston are going to continue to play at this level, or secondary is in MUCH better shape. 

 

1C - Cook Catch - I was so tempted to put this first, but we threw to Cook in a crucial situation and got the first down.  I repeat, Brady called a pass to Cook out of the backfield.  It's amazing how such a simple play can get me so hyped.  Cook overall had another great game, eclipsing 100 yards against a team that doesn't allow those types of games.  It's almost as if the Bills realized that they have multiple stars on offense that aren't named Allen (see Kincaid).

 

1D - McD - While I'm not going to excuse the time outs on defense, I do understand why he called them.  The players clearly looked confused out there and McD needed to save them.  Now, why were they confused is a bigger issue.  Also, I don't know how much of the plays are being called by Babich or McD, but the defensive turnaround these past few weeks makes me believe McD is way more involved.  Holding Mahomes to under 50% passing and actually sending pressure on the final play was HUGE for the defense, and another thing we've been begging for out of this defense.  Making Mahomes throw up that last pass off his back foot, not allowing it to have enough power to get to the end zone was exactly how you need to play him.  Not only that, but Mahomes was smacked around the field today in the best way possible.  Also, did you see the Chiefs 3rd down conversion percentage?!  It's about time.

 

5 - Josh - I referred to the Chiefs as Allen's 7 iron, in that he always seems to pull out his best games against them.  Josh even said in his post game presser that he just felt different early on.  Josh only had three incomplete passes all game and was incredibly accurate on his balls downfield.  I still feel like Josh is playing a little frustrated or held back, but it's tough to argue with the results.  I like that we didn't force balls to Coleman and utilized the guys who got open.  We were a missed field goal from breaking 30, and that's even with us having two terrible drives after our opening one.  

 

6 - Defensive Line - While it sucks to lose Hoecht, and being without Oliver for the rest of the regular season, it was great to see the everyone else step up.  AJ played a great game, and smacked the sense out of Mahomes.  Bosa was a monster all game, minus the mind-numbing decision to stop his pressure on the 4th and 17 play.  Groot also was great in pursuit as well as against the run.  I would actually argue that Groot sneakily played one of the best games of the season.

 

7 - Kincaid - If ever there were a game for the those banging the drum of Kincaid being our #1 receiver or Josh hanging in the pocket a second longer, look no further than the long catch and run on the crossed by Kincaid.  With pressure coming and a congested middle of the field, Josh stepped forward and found Kincaid as he got behind the defender.  Sometimes I forget how fast Kincaid was.  His first touchdown got me on my feet and teams are going to need to start paying more attention to him.

 

8 - Hancock - For anyone with the All-22, I'm very curious to get feedback on Hancock from this game.  On the long catch before half, and the deep sideline catch on the pick play, was Hancock the responsible deep safety and slow to recognize the play?  I could be wrong, but he seemed to come to the play late.  Again, happy to be wrong, but he seemed to be responsible for 2 of the 3 biggest Chief passing plays. 

 

9 - Offensive Line - Even with the Chiefs sending stunt blitzes, extra rushers, and being dominant against the run, Josh overall had time, Cook got his 100 yards, and I didn't hear Chris Jones' name once.  Spencer Brown absolutely mauled some guys and I think we only had one holding penalty?  Just a great performance overall by the unit.  Shout out to Gilliam too.

 

10 - Stats and Outcome - There's two things I didn't like from this game.  Statistically, we dominated.  Mahomes was under 50% completion and didn't score a touchdown.  The Chiefs were terrible on 3rd down.  Kelce and Jones were non-factors.  And yet, we still needed to survive a Hail Mary at the end.  How is that even possible?  Yes, Prater could have made it a two score game and that 4th and 17th was ridiculous.  Even still, it's scary when we can play at that level and still barely win.  

 

 

Overall, I'm not putting stock into this win any more than we are 1-0 this week and have the tie-breaker over the Chiefs.  I'm glad to see the team back on the positive uptick both offensively and defensively, but I also recognize this game means nothing towards the outcome of our playoff success.  I'm back to believing we can play with anyone, and don't even try to tell me the Chiefs were holding back because it's only the regular season.  They want to win their division and this hurt them.  

 

Go Bills!

As always great write up, you're probably my favorite post game summary poster. 

 

The good

 

1. The secondary looks like it could develop into a strength as the season wears on. That is a really exciting development and could turn the tide on the the direction of this season. 

2. McD is calling the bulk of these plays if not all of them. I'm fine with that. We need to be in our best calls more than ever. 

3. The defensive line looked great, Bosa was on fire. The Hoecht loss is devastating. He looked like a real player. 

4. Cook is just so good and the offensive line was dominating

5. Kincaid is a serious difference maker and almost required for us to be effective offensively 

6. Allen had a great game and stayed in the pocket more, offensive line kept him super clean most the day. 

7. Love the pressure on the hail mary. We have seen a few of those transpire now, it would have been so disappointing to see us drop everybody and give a clean throw. 

 

The bad

 

1. Again nothing downfield with our WR's and very limited work outside of screens. I don't think we can climb to the top of the mountain with this type of WR output.

2. Hoecht injury seemed impactful almost right away. Bosa was insane, but he's also disappeared at times. As have others. Can we get consistency in line play and grow as the season wears on?

3. A couple calls bothered me. The 3rd and 10 screen to Shakir. I get that we aren't a long yardage offense at this point, but we can't throw in the white flag on 3rd and 10. This sort of goes back to point #1 about downfield WR production. It is required as an offense and we will need it. 

4. Kicking the FG late. You have 7 point lead, a punt pins them inside the 20 and likely drains 3-4 more seconds off. It would have forced them to go 80+ yards with no timeouts and under 25 seconds. Sign me up for that. The ONLY chance they had was that missed FG and we walked into that. Didn't bite us today, but I really disagree with that move. 

 

The final

 

It was a huge win for us for playoff seeding and AFC east seeding. Pure domination vs one of the better teams in the AFC. It was a similar script to how we lost the last couple weeks but this time we dished out the punishment. The progression of guys like Bishop and Max can't be understated and could really transform this defense. As you said, it's 1-0, and we have a long way to go, but great win and exciting to see some development with key players. 

[Marcus Aurelius]

"Bishop absolutely laid out Mrs Swift in the end zone ..."

 

Highlight of the game!

[Mikie2times]

1 minute ago, Marcus Aurelius said:

"Bishop absolutely laid out Mrs Swift in the end zone ..."

 

Highlight of the game!

Hell ya it was. That's a big boy as well. Even if Bishop delivered the hit I know he felt that one himself. But it was a hell of a hit right in the rib cage. That is a will taking play. You don't want to be in the middle of the field after something like that. 

[Virgil]

20 minutes ago, Avisan said:

We gotta stop defining games we win by TD+ as "barely won" on this board.  Hail Marys have a very low success rate, and surviving two of them is going to happen 95+% of the time.  Other teams are often going to have chances to not just roll over and die, that's just how the league is.

Barely won might be overdoing it.  And if Preter makes the FG, it’s a no doubter.  
 

But the fact that the Chiefs still had the opportunity to tie it was concerning

[zow2]

I gave my thoughts in a bunch of other threads. But i will say the Bills were rewarded for wearing the proper home uniform. ✅

 

[BuffaloBillyG]

Some thoughts.

 

I really loved the no DT look with Hoecht standing in the middle. It worked several times. They were able to send 4 and get pressure because the Chiefs didn't know which 4 were coming. I fear that look is gone now that Hoecht is down.

 

As I said in other threads. That catch by Cook is his first since wayyyyy back in the Saints game. This is straight up malpractice by Brady. 

 

I think today, I fully believe that McDermott and Babich are working together to call the defense. Several times the play seemed really late coming in as if there was discussion between the two. This causes some of those time outs. McDermott needs to streamline the defensive play call process.

 

Give it up for Cole Bishop. Dude BALLED out today. He's had by and large a very good season IMO. Some mistakes, sure. But I can't remember him making the same mistake twice.

 

Dalton Kincaid is showing, when healthy, he's a force. He made several big plays today, some that were "young Kelce-ish". 

 

The next two days will be interesting. Not much cap to work with (not sure what levers can still be pulled to make more room) and obvious needs in several spots. Hopefully, Beane can pull a couple moves. We shall see. 

 

I swear, nothing fixes Josh Allen's game more than facing the Chiefs. He looked like the reigning MVP today.

 

By and large Bosa had a great day. He had the one play he froze on the long conversion. But he has been a demon causing pressure. I would be open to signing him 

 

AJE is balling out this year too. 

 

For years come cutdown day out of camp, people want to cut Reggie Gilliam. Guy has shown for the last two weeks why he's on this team. He's a crushing blocker. I'm hoping they reward him with a goal line touch or two this year. 

 

At the midway point of the year, the Chiefs are "in the hunt"...and not for the 1 seed. It's a beautiful thing. 

[frostbitmic]

Reggie Gilliam - Lets give this guy some love for the game he had. He was leading Cook through the line all day and was making plays on Special Teams as well.

[HappyDays]

54 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

A couple calls bothered me. The 3rd and 10 screen to Shakir. I get that we aren't a long yardage offense at this point, but we can't throw in the white flag on 3rd and 10.

 

I know I'm alone on this but I had no issue with that play call. I had an issue with our 4th and 2 attempt where we just ran a normal drop back pass play hoping someone would get open... On critical downs we have to stick to the few plays that work with our personnel. We aren't built to convert 3rd and 10, unfortunately, so there aren't any perfect options there. Once we get into 3rd and long we've kind of already lost. So I understood the thinking there - get 5+ yards from Shakir and get into 4th and manageable. Didn't work out that way which makes it worse with hindsight but I'd still bet on that concept over the normal drop back pass where one of our WRs needs to separate.

 

Overall I think Brady did what he needed to do in this game. Other than that failed 4th and 2 he spammed Cook runs, quick passes to Shakir, and ran the downfield passing offense almost exclusively through the TEs. Those three concepts have to be 90% of our offense. If you spam those plays enough you'll get the occasional Elijah Moore splitting the safeties downfield because the defense forgets about him.

 

Edited 14 hours ago by HappyDays

[US Egg]

The most visually striking uniform combos in the league when matched up.
 

 

Haven’t watched a game in over a month, when did McDermott start wearing glasses?

 

[WideNine]

10 minutes ago, frostbitmic said:

Reggie Gilliam - Lets give this guy some love for the game he had. He was leading Cook through the line all day and was making plays on Special Teams as well.

 

Gilliam has been very unselfish and contributes a lot to special teams too.

 

Brady should show him some love. If memory serves Reggie has decent hands, with teams all expecting him to come in motion to lead block, use some orbit motion to get him the ball a few times.

 

Just a thought - great game, too bad about Hoecht. This defense just can't catch a break staying healthy.

 

[GASabresIUFan]

A couple of things.  
 

1. Why was this game close? 
a. The terrible play call on 4th and 2 in the first gave KC a very short field.  

b. The secondary sucks despite improved play from Bishop and Hairston.  We gave up 6 passes of 20 yards or more.  3 of the 6 came with KC deep behind the sticks on a 2nd and 16, a 3rd and 10 and of course a 4th and 17.  The only reason there wasn’t more big KC passes was the pass rush had 3 sacks and hit Mahomes 15 times.

c. Some more questionable play calling by Brady lead to 3 Buffalo punts, including nearly all running plays in the 4th qtr instead of just running the offense,  

d.  A FG ices the game.  Neither Bass or Prater is the answer,

 

2. Bishop and Hairston are improving each time they play. Hairston looks like he can cover anyone and Bishop is finally showing what the fuss was about.

 

3. Cook is a star, why aren’t we utilizing him more in the passing game.  It really makes no sense.  His catch was only his first in 4 games and only his second target in 4 games.  Stupid.  
 

4. The WR are just terrible.  Shakir is fine in the slot, but this team has no deep threats and no reliable boundary receivers.  Coleman is a big slot.  Moore and Samuel are also slots, while Shavers is a PS caliber player.  Is it really so hard to find a receiver who can catch a pass deeper than 5 yards down the field?