The Bills have owned TEs this season. Now comes Kelce.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

I still have Gonzalez and Gronk as 1 and 2 all-time but by the end of his career Kelce may be the best of them all. 

[Bruffalo]

8 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

I still have Gonzalez and Gronk as 1 and 2 all-time but by the end of his career Kelce may be the best of them all. 

Kelce's great but I feel like Gonzalez was a better pure pass catcher and Gronk was a much better blocker.

 

Kelce is excellent but benefits from a QB who improvises and makes a lot of time in the pocket. I think if you dropped either player from his prime into Kelce's spot they'd outperform him. 

[Rochesterfan]

3 hours ago, mjt328 said:

 

After watching yesterday's game, I'm convinced nothing is going to change significantly in how the Bills defense plays against the Chiefs.

 

The Bills strategy is to keep everything underneath, and make sure they don't get beat over the top.  Even without Tyreek Hill to worry about.  They aren't going to blitz a lot.  They aren't going to double-team the tight end.  They aren't going to chip him at the line.  The are going to go 95% nickel defense (some dime) and try to pressure the QB with 4 guys.

 

Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier believe that by constantly forcing them into long drives, they will make just enough mistakes where our offense can outscore them.  The Chiefs played very good, but Mahomes did throw two interceptions.  We made two unforced errors (both on Isaiah McKenzie) and still ended up winning at the end.

 

 

 

I have not gone through the All-22, but after just watching highlights and listening to a few trusted people - I am going to strongly disagree with your first line and I will wait until the player stats all come out, but I think at halftime the Bills made some major adjustments that kept Mahomes off his game.

 

First off the Bills played a variety of coverages including more Man, some zone, and some Man Zone combo coverages going side versus side.  They also came up with what I will call a BIG DIME - where they switched up and had only 3 DL in the game rushing and used Milano as a 4th DL and a spy.  They then dropped 7 into coverage with Edmunds as the sole LB and used Neal and Taron as thumpers to help with coverage, but not lose the ability to tackle.

 

It worked for the most part although Neal got burned and missed JuJu on the long TD.  On the Int - the Bills used combo coverage and Mahomes tendencies against the Chiefs to win the game.

 

The Bills played Man on the Defenses right side and a Robber Zone on the left.  They know that Mahomes likes to escape to his right (D’s Left) so they set up a Pass Rush from Von to specifically move Mahomes and allow him to move right and then attack with Milano - similar to how Belichek attacked Josh last year.  Give him what he wants, but attack him so he can’t get comfortable.

 

Milano flashed causing Mahomes to hold the ball and then Taron playing Robber attacked the spot for the pick.  It was a defense I believe specifically created for later in the game to attack the Chiefs by showing them what they wanted and preying on those tendencies.

 

The Bills played multiple different defenses throughout the game making Mahomes adjust and by trying to keep things in front - they forced them to have to figure things out continuously throughout the game leading to KC mistakes.  
 

Just because the Bills have a specific philosophy of not getting beat deep does not mean they do not flip the script on teams and show a ton of variety.  The staff is very good at being variable and they pull things out against specific opponents and hide it at other times.  
 

Brilliant Job by McD and staff!!!!!
 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Rochesterfan

[C.Biscuit97]

Kelce is amazing. Hill is a trash human but his loss is definitely hurting them. 

[RiotAct]

we did… okay against him.  Still a few “wtf why was he wide open?!?” moments but I guess that’s to be expected?  😬