Yahoo News Bills offense gets stuck in the rain, as Chiefs dominate in win
There’s no shame in losing at the Tennessee Titans. There’s none in losing to the Kansas City Chiefs either.
That said, the Buffalo Bills’ losing streak has a troubling trend. The offense has disappeared.
There won’t be any more Josh Allen for MVP talk, at least for a while. The Bills offense was totally shut down on a rainy Monday night by the Chiefs, who won 26-17 while putting up more than twice as many yards as Buffalo. The Chiefs, who outgained the Bills 466-206, improved to 5-1.
The Bills are 4-2. They still are in first place of the AFC East. But if they want to stay in that position, they better rediscover their offense fast.
Bills offense did very little
Allen was off from the start. It wasn’t easy to throw the ball in a constant rainstorm, but you still need to throw for much more than 100 yards to beat a team like the Chiefs. Allen had fewer than 100 yards passing until about seven minutes remained. The Bills didn’t have a play gain more than 15 yards until then either. The Bills got in the end zone with 6:34 left to cut the Chiefs’ lead to 23-17. The defense couldn’t get the stop it needed after that. Harrison Butker’s 30-yard field goal just inside the two-minute warning was all the Chiefs needed to put the game away.
While the Bills floundered, the Chiefs decided to rely on a power run game and did so with surprising efficiency. The Chiefs hadn’t run for that many yards since late in the 2016 season. Kansas City rushed for 247 yards despite some injuries on the offensive line. The Bills defense hasn’t been great all season, despite a lot of expectations, but the offense had been very good. Until the Titans game.
It’s possible this is a short-term slump for Buffalo against an undefeated Titans team and the defending Super Bowl champions. But the excitement over a 4-0 start and the prospect of finally knocking off the Patriots in the AFC East has cooled a bit.
Bills were in the game until the end
The Bills have the talent to rebound. Allen has improved, he just might still run hot and cold. Stefon Diggs and John Brown can make plays downfield when it’s not pouring outside. The defense has the talent to be much better, but that needs to show itself soon, too.
Through all the offensive issues and the defense being unable to stop the run, Buffalo still was right in the game against the Chiefs in the fourth quarter. The Bills almost caught a huge break when Clyde Edwards-Helaire seemed to lose a fumble with 5:20 left, but a replay review showed his knee was down just before he lost the ball. Patrick Mahomes made a nice throw to Byron Pringle for 37 yards on a key third-and-12 right after Edwards-Helaire’s fumble was reversed, and that took the Bills out of the game.
Buffalo can still be an AFC East title team. But they probably need to improve on both sides of the ball going forward. The best news for the Bills: Next week they should be able to fix all of the things that need some work. They play the New York Jets.
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