Four Takeaways from the Kansas City Chiefs' 30-21 Loss to the Buffalo Bills

The Kansas City Chiefs traveled to face the Buffalo Bills in Week 11, and there was plenty to take away from the Sunday afternoon contest.

Nov 17, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) looks to throw the ball against the Buffalo Bills during the first half at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images Mandatory Credit: Junfu Han/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images / Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

In yet another chapter of the Kansas City Chiefs' ongoing saga with the Buffalo Bills, Week 11's game certainly managed to bring some drama along with it. Could anyone have expected anything different?

A back-and-forth first half saw both squads put up points, although it was the home team that entered the break with a two-point advantage. In the second half of play, that expanded to a 23-14 lead before the visitors closed the gap yet again. In the end, as they have in the past, the Bills came away with a gritty regular-season win over their conference rivals. Buffalo hands Kansas City its first loss of the 2024-25 campaign and its first since Christmas Day last year.

With that in mind, here are four takeaways from Sunday's game.

Xavier Worthy giveth and taketh away

Looking all the way back to Week 4, many pinned that game against the Los Angeles Chargers as a potential breakout moment for rookie wideout Xavier Worthy. After all, three receptions for 73 yards (including a 54-yarder) made for a nice stat line. Since that point, however, the first-round pick combined for 11 catches and 92 yards in five contests. Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said this week that Worthy's time for a bigger day was coming, which ended up being the case on Sunday. It wasn't perfect, though.

A huge chunk of Worthy's impact – both positive and negative – came in the first half. All of it was in the first two quarters, from a statistical standpoint. On the Chiefs' opening drive, he made his best play of the season with a 31-yard grab in traffic and then later had a third-down conversion. He capped things off with a nice touchdown. Later in the half, the bad returned when he couldn't get both of his feet in bounds for what would've been a massive gain deep down the field. In the most important half of play, Worthy didn't have a single catch or yard. It was a game of mostly ups for the prized draft pick, yet simultaneously a reminder that he and the team have work to do before he establishes consistency.

A steady Chiefs defense finally fell victim to chunk plays

Even after losing L'Jarius Sneed in the offseason and despite facing some good offenses early this season, Steve Spagnuolo's defense never cracked. In fact, as highlighted in this week's game preview, they're normally the best at limiting explosive plays. With that said, facing Josh Allen and a talented Bills offense served as a massive test in Week 11. From the onset of Sunday's game, that was made obvious.

In the first half of play, the Chiefs surrendered four explosives to the Bills' offense. Another two plays went for 15 yards. Amari Cooper made a pair of truly impressive grabs vertically, Dawson Knox had a 24-yard reception past Leo Chenal and Allen found a soft spot between two defenders for a 21-yarder to Curtis Samuel. Khalil Shakir added a 20-plus-yard gain of his own late in the third quarter, then Mack Hollins had a 15-yard catch in the fourth. The nail in the coffin was none other than Allen's insane touchdown run right around the two-minute mark.

Not everything is doom and gloom – the Bills didn't average a crazy yard-per-play figure – but in a matchup that provides such a slim margin for error, the ability to get chunk plays can be the difference against one that doesn't have it.

This is the first time since Super Bowl LVII that the Chiefs have surrendered at least 30 points in a game.

— Nate Taylor (@ByNateTaylor) November 18, 2024

The fourth quarter was a classic Chiefs vs. Bills sequence – playoff preview?

Don't get it twisted: Sunday's first half was excellent and even with no points being scored in the third quarter, things were interesting. The final frame, though, felt like a true playoff environment from two of the AFC's best teams and quarterbacks. Should these two squads face one another again come playoff time, it's safe to assume that similar circumstances will unfold.

Allen went into hero mode down the stretch, completing six of his eight pass attempts for 51 yards and a score while adding four carries for 41 yards once he crossed into the end zone on the game-sealing touchdown. Buffalo displayed some serious intestinal fortitude by going for it on a fourth-and-2 deep in Chiefs territory. Those types of plays win games against Patrick Mahomes, yet it didn't feel totally over when the two-time NFL MVP got the ball back. While the road team's comeback effort fell short, this one had just about everything someone could hope for. With several weeks left in the regular season, it'll set the tone for the rest of the year.

The AFC seeding race got a lot more interesting

The biggest point about the Chiefs' 9-0 start to the year was that no matter what happened in Week 11, they'd still be in the AFC's driver's seat. Even with a loss, that'd still keep Kansas City as the conference's only team with just one of them. A tiebreaker over the Baltimore Ravens was made even sweeter with the Pittsburgh Steelers taking them down; the Chiefs still have to face the latter on Christmas Day. Mike Tomlin's team is suddenly one to seriously account for in playoff math. Sunday's Chiefs-Bills outcome now adds even more fuel to the fire.

At 9-1, Kansas City still has a game advantage over the Bills in the loss column. The same is true with the Steelers. On the other hand, what seemed like an opportunity to partially ice the conference on Sunday morning is now a situation to monitor just hours later. Both Buffalo and Pittsburgh either are playing into or could factor into tiebreakers. The Chiefs, albeit in that same driver's seat, now have a car or two closing in on them in the race for a first-round postseason bye.

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