Confluence of a lot of things--Bills just didn't play well

[WNYFAN1]

1 hour ago, Jerome007 said:

In both the Ravens and Chiefs game, it seems amazing that they won or that the game was close. Takeaways and a few clutch plays (Hollins twice vs the Chiefs for sure!) made the difference. Heck, even all year, no receivers, TE or WR, had stats to shout about. Yet... they won most games.

 

Anyway, for all that, this one stings. So close... again.

And let's be honest, refs-aside, they got pretty lucky regarding turnovers. How many fumbles did we recover against KC? How many potential picks did Josh throw that were dropped?

[SoCal Deek]

The Bills played just fine. If Kincaid catches that throw…they win. Period! 

[Roundybout]

4 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

The Bills played just fine. If Kincaid catches that throw…they win. Period! 

Well, not necessarily, but I’d feel pretty good 

[PaoloBillsFanFromItaly]

We played a terrible first half defensive.

We were in the game because KC giftes us a turnover and we stole a possession.

 

First half -> 4 drives: 3 TD, 1 fumble lost

Second half -> 2 Punt, 1 TD, 1 FG

 

We lost the game on defense on it is not even close.

[SCBills]

38 minutes ago, Mango said:

Also that was a first down. And so was the third down before it. 

 

I love how it's a valid criticism for some that we didn't execute on those plays because we got 5 when we needed 5 and got 1 when we needed 1, simply because the refs decided to give us 4 and 0.

[SoCal Deek]

5 minutes ago, PaoloBillsFanFromItaly said:

We played a terrible first half defensive.

We were in the game because KC giftes us a turnover and we stole a possession.

 

First half -> 4 drives: 3 TD, 1 fumble lost

Second half -> 2 Punt, 1 TD, 1 FG

 

We lost the game on defense on it is not even close.

You aren’t going to blow out the Chiefs in KC. The game ended up EXACTLY like the betting line. We had the ball with the chance to win it and blew it. 

[90sBills]

1 hour ago, SCBills said:

Agreed on all of the above.

 

I will say, however, the only reason everyone thinks the Chiefs are perfection in big games personified is because they get the breaks.   I'm not at all backing off that simply because we also didn't execute.

 

Let's look at this the other way if we don't have every single call, including the biggest call of the playoffs thus far, go against us and win the game:

 

-Mahomes fumble when Chiefs could go up two scores early

-Allowing a TD before half when up 21-10

-Empty possession up 21-16 out of half

-Mahomes taking an open field sack on the second possession of the 3rd quarter negating any ability to get points

-Mahomes getting sacked when the Chiefs had an "and goal" situation to go up 7 late in the game, only going up 3

We got a lot of lucky breaks as well. Got the turnover from Mahomes in the redzone and drove the field. That’s a 10-14pt swing. All of our fumbles were recovered by the offense. A couple of wacky throws from Allen early that could’ve been picks. Then, of course, the defense miraculously held KC to a fg on that last drive to give the offense and Allen a chance to be heroes. We got plenty of breaks to win this game. Just weren’t good enough. 

[MJS]

2 hours ago, Jerome007 said:

To me it's the opposite. It was the 1s and 2nd down plays. Of course those "critical plays" stand out. But the issue was they were always in such "critical plays" all game long. 3rd and long, 4th downs.

 

As many other teams have done against the Bills D, the Chiefs had many drives when they had basically no or very few 3rd downs. They kept gaining 10+ or 8-9 yards per play! They had first downs without even going to 3rd downs. So... no critical plays for them. They didn't need to. Much better this way! What "critical play" did the Chiefs make that they just had to make? 

And for all the Chiefs' winning aura, it's their defense that dominated all year. Their offense and Mahomes looked like juggernauts Sunday, but it was their highest scoring game, all year! The narrative that the Bills D fails in th playoffs is sadly an accurate one.

I don't think they looked like offensive juggernauts. I think it looked like two good teams going head to head. The Bills had similar offensive success, so do Chiefs fans view the Bills offense as a juggernaut? I don't think so. Both teams were playing well trading blows all game long.

[Hawaii50]

Playing a tough Ravens team in a very physical game on Sunday and then having to travel to KC seemed to have hurt preparation and player readiness.  We essentially had two less days to prepare.  Chiefs had bye week, pretty easy game against Houston, and were able to have us come to their stadium.  

 

We need to get bye next year to increase our Super Bowl chances.  Basically, KC got to sit back and wait for Buffalo to arrive.  Number 2 seed path way harder.

[HamptonBillsfan]

Bills didn’t play well, but well enough to win. The coaching staff was inept on goal line play calls and went for 2 too early. The decision to throw on 3rd down to Cooper with a screen made no sense and the protection on the fourth down play was a killer. Other than those three things, they could have won. I’m not mentioning the blown call for a 1st down when they never measured and and placed the ball way behind where the linesman came in.  What’s the difference, these games comes down to one or two plays. 

[All_Pro_Bills]

Watching the game and then re-watching parts of it the day after I came away with thinking the deciding difference between the two teams is the Bills had to fight for every inch of ground on offense while the Chiefs moved the ball with relative ease with the exception of a few drives. Even on the drives where they scored the Bills faced critical 3rd and 4th down situations. By my count the Chiefs had 19 offensive plays that gained 10 yards or more.

 

I don't think focusing on the Bills offensive shortcomings against the Chiefs is the right place to put the blame and attention. Because the Bills offense is already better than the Chiefs offense. They're losing these game because the gap between the Bills defense and the Chiefs defense is very large. To beat the Chiefs in the playoffs the Bills brass needs to marginally improve the talent level on the defense. That means adding players that can get more pressure on the QB and a secondary that can actually cover the receivers. I'd like to get a true WR1 too but that might not matter as much.

Edited Tuesday at 06:47 PM by All_Pro_Bills

[Free Speech]

Throwing wide receiver screens on 3rd and 10 with just over two minutes left.