What Could Buffalo Bills Learn From Kansas City Chiefs Week 13 Loss?

The Buffalo Bills will face a Kansas City Chiefs team coming off a Week 13 loss to the Green Bay Packers. What could Buffalo take from the Sunday Night Football showdown?

If the Buffalo Bills (6-6) are going to make the playoffs, they likely can only lose one more game. That task becomes more difficult when the remaining schedule includes Super Bowl contenders like the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, and Miami Dolphins.

Unequivocally, it would do Buffalo some good to steal these games against quality opponents. That starts in Week 14 when the Bills visit the ever-dangerous Chiefs.

With quarterback Patrick Mahomes under center, Kansas City (8-4) will continue to be favored in virtually every game, but it’s becoming clear it isn’t the AFC juggernaut of yesteryear. Each division leader is squarely in play for the conference’s top seed. The field only improved after the Chiefs’ Sunday Night Football loss against the Green Bay Packers.

What can Buffalo take away from Kansas City’s recent stumble?

Mahomes attempts to evade pressure from a Bills' defensive lineman :: Jamie Germano / USA TODAY NETWORK

1. Contain, contain, contain.

“Stop Mahomes” is a nice starting point, but it's as good of a game plan as “trying harder” or “wanting it more.”

Mahomes is still the best player on the planet, even if he’s falling off of an increasing share of MVP ballots. Without a legitimate receiving option on the perimeter, Kansas City is relying far too often on unsatisfactory targets. There’s only so much tight end Travis Kelce can do.

Subsequently, the Chiefs have been happy to run the ball, complete with fairly mediocre results. They rank 12th in expected points added per rush and 25th in success rate.

Where they have killed teams on the ground, though, is when Mahomes scrambles. It seems that for every crucial snap that Mahomes opts to scamper on, Kansas City converts. When paired with receivers that thrive out of structure (Hi, Tyreek Hill), his chaos can cost opposing defenses.

However, playing on the fly hasn’t been as fruitful this season – their receivers simply haven’t been good enough to win consistently. When forced to adlib, things have gone awry, like his lone interception from Sunday’s loss.

Buffalo’s pass rush is good enough to impact pockets fairly regularly, and Kansas City isn’t totally healthy up front. They’ll put Mahomes out of structure, but if they can limit those crushing conversions with his legs, the Chiefs will continue to find themselves in adversarial spots – perhaps without the horses to make it work.

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2. There will be opportunities in the run game.

Part of why Kansas City has found success while the offense performs a little worse than usual is the uptick in defensive performance. They rank fifth in overall success rate and have already put a cap on otherwise explosive offenses like Miami and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

However, they’ve been legitimately bad against the run. Only the Carolina Panthers allow more expected points added per rush. They’ve struggled both in down-to-down consistency and in the amount of chunk gains that have leaked through the cracks.

On Sunday, Green Bay forced the issue. Quarterback Jordan Love showed out, but the ground game came into play, too. The Packers ran for 129 yards on just 25 attempts, good for 5.16 yards per rush.

Interim offensive coordinator Joe Brady has done a nice job of maintaining a balanced offense, and that should continue down the stretch (especially if Buffalo keeps games close).

The Packers are a physical rushing attack, and the Bills can work to replicate that with running back Latavius Murray as a complement to James Cook, who has seen 33 rushes over the last two games.

They also have something Green Bay doesn’t: a military-grade tank of a quarterback. Josh Allen is plenty physical in his own right, and Buffalo has made the conscious decision to let him loose with the playoffs on the line.

There’s a sense of inevitability that surrounds the offense when Allen is rolling through the air and ground. Expect the Bills to lean into that on Sunday, especially in short-yardage situations.