You read that headline correctly. The Bills were outscored by the Chiefs defense en route to Kansas City’s ninth straight win of their perfect season Sunday.
The Bills had double the amount of total yards from scrimmage than the Chiefs yet they weren’t able to score more points than Kansas City’s defense. The Chiefs didn’t manage to score an offensive touchdown, yet they were able to overcome their mistakes to stay perfect.
“Obviously it hurts. It hurts me, it hurts the guys in that room, I hurt for them, I hurt for our fans. There were a lot of good things. When you need to do it and you need to get it done, we just can’t seem to do it consistently and that hurts.” Bills head coach Doug Marrone said following their ten point loss.
The Bills really controlled this game until Jeff Tuel threw an untimely 100 yard pick six to defensive back Sean Smith in the third quarter. Rather than finishing off a drive and holding a potential two possession lead into halftime, the pick six tied the game at 10 and the Chiefs defense never looked back.
“We were out-gained by a ton, but the turnovers and the score are kind of the important things. Turnovers, either created or lost, really, that’s what the game came down to,” Kansas City head coach Andy Reid told reporters following their ninth straight win to open the season.
With the game tied at 13 in the fourth quarter, T.J. Graham was stripped and Tamba Hali returned the fumble 11 yards for Kansas City’s second defensive touchdown of the game.
After completing a solid first half, Tuel’s grasp of the game seemed to slip away from him. Tuel’s stats at half time are as follows: 9 of 15 for 139 passing yards with one touchdown and one interception. His final stats were 18-39 for 229 passing yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. This beautiful ball Tuel gave to Marquise Goodwin for the 59 yard touchdown was the nicest throw he made all game. Not a bad toss for an undrafted rookie free agent making his first career start in the NFL.
“When I threw it he wasn’t looking yet and I was just saying just look, I just wanted him to make sure he just looked up and found it. That was my only concern because I felt like it was a good throw,” Tuel said.
Running back C.J. Spiller returned from sitting out last week against New Orleans due to an ankle injury with some explosive runs that he pulls off frequently when healthy. An inside zone rushing scheme was working well for Spiller and teammates Fred Jackson and Tashard Choice who combined for a season high 241 rushing yards.
Spiller busted open a 61 yard carry before running out of gas in the red zone to set up the game changing pick six:
“It was a little inside zone that we just ran and pretty much just (about) reading the defense…At the end of the day, we still lost and that’s all that matters,” Spiller said.
Overall the Bills played well enough to hand the Chiefs their first lost of the season but failed to execute when it counted. As cliche as it has become, it is still a true statement; losing the turnover battle tends to result in a loss in the NFL. On the other hand, if you prevent your opponent from scoring an offensive touchdown you will almost always be victorious. At the end of the day a touchdown is a touchdown, and the Chiefs were able to score more of them than the Bills.
“We’re pretty happy that we got the touchdowns. We’ll take them anyway we can get.” Head coach Andy Reid certainly knows the value of producing touchdowns in any facet of the game, and it is no coincidence the Chiefs haven’t lost a game this season.
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