Bottom line of this game, Kansas City won, moved to 6-3 on the season and hold the #1 wild card spot and are only one game behind Denver for the lead. I expected a defensive battle and actually predicted the Chiefs to win this game 17-13, however the game did not unfold the way I expected it to.
The Chiefs defense was not dominate like they had been in the past few games, they gave up 253 passing yards on the day and the Bills averaged 5 yards per rush. The pass rush was not that great either and the Chief's were only able to get one sack on Orton by Poe, coming in to the game Houston was averaging more than one sack a game. However the defense did one thing they had not done all season; caused turnovers, three of them and two of them were game changing. To start the second half the Buffalo had the ball and were driving already up 10-3. Brown was rushing towards the end zone to give Buffalo a 17-3 lead and score the first rushing touchdown against the Chiefs on the year, when the Chiefs forced the fumble and the ball went out of the end zone for a touch back.This turnover took a sure 7 points off the board for Buffalo. The second came on a 4th quarter punt return when McKelvin fumbled and the Chiefs recovered it on the Bills 26 and two plays later Alex Smith had run the ball in for an 8 yard touchdown. Without these two turnovers the Chiefs would not have won this game.
The Bills front seven were getting pressure on Smith all day and slowed down the Chiefs rushing attack. The sacked Smith 6 times and only allowed 151 passing yards. The Chiefs were only able to get 127 rushing yards all day lead by Charles with 98, 39 of it game on his 4th quarter touchdown run. Smith was the second leading rusher with 25 yards on the day. Coming in to the season there were questions about the Chiefs offensive line and they have played well. I don't think yesterday was a step back as much as it was a step up in talent from Buffalo. The good news for the Chiefs is I don't think they will play a front seven the rest of the year as talented as the Bills. Hopefully they can use this as a learning experience and improve on it. Some people will question Smith with these offensive numbers, but to me the most important number this game was 6, the number of wins this team now has.
After the Tennessee game looking at the schedule I was not sure how this team would get to six wins, now they are there with 7 games left to go on the season. The Chiefs have two games left with Oakland, but their other five games are all against winning teams. They have Seattle, Denver and San Diego at home and will go on the road to Arizona and Pittsburgh. This would worry me, except they have played 6 teams with winning records so far this year and they are 4-2 against them. If the Chiefs can go 3-2 against winning teams the rest of the year and take care of business against Oakland they would finish at 11-5 which will get them in the playoffs.
Next week will not get any easier for this team as they will face the defending Super Bowl champions at home.
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