Mahomes: Chiefs Hoping for Another Chance to Play Bills
The Kansas City Chiefs had multiple chances to set the tone during their Week 6 outing against the Buffalo Bills, yet they failed to do so and it ultimately came back to bite them.
There were several reasons why the Chiefs lost despite hosting the Bills, and putting too much blame on any specific unit would be unfair. Heading into the game, however, hearing that Kansas City's defense would surrender just 24 points to Buffalo's elite offense would prompt many to ask how many points the home team won by. On the contrary, Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy's offense mustered just 20 points and struggled to generate any consistent momentum all night long.
Everything was capped off by a late interception from quarterback Patrick Mahomes on the Chiefs' final drive of the game. Upon taking the podium postgame, Mahomes tipped his cap to his budding rivals from across the AFC standings.
"When you lose a game at home, especially at home, it's never a good feeling," Mahomes said. "That's a great football team. I thought we played some good football. We just made too many mistakes at the end of the day, and when you make mistakes against another great football team, you lose football games. It'll be good to learn from but right now it stinks, for sure."
As Mahomes mentioned, plenty of mistakes were made on Sunday afternoon. At least two of them — both interceptions — came from him. Others were the results of lackluster play-calling, miscommunications on route concepts, missed openings on runs, or a combination of a few things. Another element of the game that the Chiefs struggled with at times was pass protection, as Von Miller single-handedly wrecked segments of the game for Buffalo. Mahomes praised Miller for doing Miller things, but he didn't think his offensive line struggled as much as the in-game broadcast showed.
"There were some that Von obviously made plays," Mahomes said. "I mean, he's a [future] Hall of Famer for a reason, so he's going to make plays here and there. But there were some where they played good coverage and were in the right spots at the right time. It's about me finding a way to get the ball out of my hands, finding outlet throws and stuff like that. I think, for the most part, I thought the offensive line did a good job [outside of] just a couple of plays. They have a good defense, and they're going to make some plays throughout the game."
Coming into Sunday, Mahomes was a home underdog for the first time in his already storied career. If any opponent was worthy of being spotted a few points as they marched into Arrowhead Stadium, however, it was the Bills. Sean McDermott's team is firing on all cylinders to open the 2022 campaign despite missing some pieces in the secondary, and its 5-1 record through six games is far from a fluke.
The Mahomes-Josh Allen storyline dominated media throughout the week leading up to the game, and both quarterbacks made several plays that showed why they're viewed as the cream of the crop in the NFL. Dating back to the 2020-21 season's Divisional Round matchup between these two clubs, Mahomes and Allen have had some epic battles. Mahomes is grateful that at least his team lost to another top-flight opponent, and he's hoping for a rematch down the road with a chance to reverse the outcome from Sunday's regular-season defeat.
"I want to win against the best, and he's putting himself up there," Mahomes said. "Definitely, you want to win against the best and play against the football teams. But when you lose, at least you're losing to the best. You have two great quarterbacks, two great teams, you have two great coaches going at it, and that's what you want. We lost this time, but hopefully we can battle back and have another chance when we get to the playoffs."
