A review of the game tape to see how the Bills held the Chiefs under their usual scoring rate
Prior to their game against the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs scored on 46.1% of their drives and held the football for an average of around three minutes and 20 seconds. Against the Buffalo, Kansas City scored on 33% of their drives and held the ball for two minutes and 53 seconds on average. That’s a major feather in the cap of the Bills’ defense.
Let’s take a look at the film, specifically the drive enders, to simultaneously gloat and learn a fact or two about how Buffalo pulled it off. While you’re at it, the Bills’ offense did the same thing in reverse to the Chiefs’ defense. Be sure to check out B.J. Monacelli’s companion article!
Drive 1
Kansas City started off using a creative wrinkle to gain seven yards with rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy. On the next play, the Bills’ front four collapsed the pocket.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes sprang forward but was wrapped up by defensive tackle DaQuan Jones. Mahomes saw an open receiver and… floated the ball thanks to Jones being wrapped around his lower body. The overthrow found a pair of hands, but they belonged to safety Taylor Rapp.
Drive 2
This drive started with an incomplete but then a five-yard rush to set up 3rd & Manageable. Buffalo stuck to a four-man rush again with linebacker Terrel Bernard hanging back to spy Mahomes. The front four yet again had a quick advantage and Bernard was there for the cleanup.
Drive 3
This drive was actually a touchdown. Since the Bills’ defense didn’t end it, we won’t was space here on a GIF, but it’s here with a heading as a placeholder to retain game flow and allow for a brief discussion.
It didn’t feel like it at the time, but Buffalo made them work pretty hard for this score. Kansas City faced three third downs and needed 11 plays to get the score, taking 5:30 to do it. This was the longest drive of the day for KC.
Drive 4
Some of the players crowding the line were there for coverage purposes, but note that they didn’t start with a lot of cushion and there was some man coverage mixed in. By crowding the line, Buffalo made it difficult to decipher who may or may not be coming. In this case they went full surprise mode and only rushed three with a spy hanging back.
The three-man rush is preposterously effective.
Defensive tackle Ed Oliver directly and indirectly occupied a handful of players. Edge rusher Von Miller and defensive end Greg Rousseau found themselves one-on-one. Rousseau beat his man with a pure speed rush to the outside with some clean hand fighting. Miller used a spin move to get his guy off kilter then followed it up with a bit of a bull rush and cleaned up as Mahomes stepped into Miller to avoid Rousseau. Of note is that only three receiving options immediately ran a route, to be covered by a whole lot of Bills defenders on the back end.
Drive 5
This was the second touchdown for KC, and it was arguably the easiest score for Mahomes and company and it still required nine plays and about 4:30 of game clock. The Chiefs only faced one third down on this drive.
Drive 6
Buffalo didn’t have a perfect day stopping the run, but they did it when it mattered. Continuing our theme of winning at the line, running back Kareem Hunt gained nothing on this play. One yard would have continued the drive and Kansas City was stopped cold.
Drive 7
“Wait Skare, this is drive enders and you’re showing us a second down play.” That’s right. Kansas City was approaching midfield. On first down, Hunt ran for six yards to get to the 49, threatening to cross the center. A holding flag put the Chiefs in the position you see above.
A good route by wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins deep was rewarded with a precise pass from Mahomes. At the same time, cornerback Christian Benford was there to say: “[expletive] that.” On the next play, the Bills were able to keep things in front of them and limit a catch by tight end Travis Kelce to “well short of the sticks.” This wasn’t the last play of the drive, but it ended it.
Drive 8
Kansas City’ final score took 10 plays and about five minutes to orchestrate. That’s significant to me because even though the Chiefs have thrived on chewing up clock, they were down two scores in the fourth quarter. The clock was starting to become the enemy and Buffalo had already scored four times. This was overall a successful drive for KC though, with no third downs forced.
Drive 9
The only analysis I’ll add to this is that at the pause I added you’ll see Terrel Bernard’s back is turned to Kelce. This was about the moment that Mahomes made the decision to throw the ball. Bernard of course flips around and…
Well you know the rest.
I used this angle deliberately because it makes the players look like ants. Sometimes it’s hard to get the full perspective of how ridiculous the NFL is unless you put it out there like this.
The Final Straw
I could write a dissertation on how the Buffalo Bills took it to the Kansas City Chiefs defensively, but I’ll keep it to a few bullet points. How did the Bills routinely take the ball out of Patrick Mahomes’ hands?
- An impressive game plan that included a lot of different wrinkles to unpack
- Execution, execution, execution
- Dominance at the line of scrimmage
That’s a recipe for success no matter the opponent.