ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — As Bills quarterback Josh Allen pinballed his way into the end zone for his game-clinching score, the celebration was on in Western New York with the 30-21 win over the Chiefs. Allen’s 26-yard touchdown run was the crushing blow to knocking the Chiefs from their undefeated perch and, all at once, announced themselves as bonafide contenders for the AFC’s top seed in the postseason.
With their sixth straight victory and now a 9-2 record, the Bills sit only half a game behind the Chiefs for the top seed in the AFC and now own the tiebreaker. If they wanted any hope of securing the AFC playoff path coming through Buffalo, Sunday was as close to a must-have as you’ll find.
The Chiefs have been the thorn in the Bills’ side in the playoffs for years. But outside of the playoffs, the Bills have owned the matchup. Sunday marked the Bills’ fourth straight win in the regular season over the Chiefs. But the win over the Chiefs also marked a first for the Bills — the first time they have beaten Patrick Mahomes in Buffalo.
The Bills are flying high into their bye week with only six games to go until the playoffs. Here’s what stood out from the Bills’ landmark victory over the Chiefs.
The Travis Kelce plan
While Allen will get much of the applause for the game, and rightfully so, the defense deserves a heaping amount of praise for their efforts. Above all else, for the first time since Mahomes became the Chiefs’ full-time starting quarterback, the Bills shut down his favorite target like they never have before. Tight end Travis Kelce, who has long been a Bills antagonist for how well he’s played in these matchups, was held shockingly silent. Kelce caught only two passes for eight yards.
In the seven games Mahomes and Kelce have been paired up against the Bills, Kelce has not had a game in which he gained fewer than 57 yards. His totals over those seven games, 51 receptions for 602 yards and eight touchdowns, would be among the most prolific tight end seasons in Bills history. That’s an average of seven catches for 86 yards. Over Kelce’s last three games this season, he’s caught 32 receptions for 254 yards. His average yardage per reception over those three games (7.93) was just a shade under how many total yards the Bills allowed to Kelce on Sunday.
Over the years, the Bills have tried a little bit of everything. They’ve tried to bracket him in zone. They’ve also tried to assign him a similarly sized defender on obvious passing downs to neutralize, but nothing worked. But the big question is, how, after all these years and matchups, did they finally slow Kelce down?
It came down to heavy attention and switching things up from their usual operating procedure on defense.
“Wherever he was at, that’s where we wanted to have our eyes at,” nickel corner Taron Johnson said after the game. “Even if it’s zone and stuff, we even play our zones a little different when he’s in the game because of how smart he is as a player.”
Mahomes perpetually has his eyes looking for Kelce when he needs a play, and both players seem like they share a brain to find the soft spot in coverage. Kelce comes off the field more often than he has in previous seasons, which gave the Bills a chance to reset their scheme each time he was on the sidelines and resharpen once he trotted back into the game. But the Bills took him away like they never have before, which led to Mahomes looking elsewhere all game.
“If we’re in zone, just heavy awareness where he is — kind of flood that area, type of deal,” said defensive back Cam Lewis, who subbed in on defense for every third down.
It worked, and it helped take Kelce away early, forcing Mahomes to go elsewhere outside of a pair of dump-down throws. The Bills also went with an atypical approach once they had some good early-game results.
“I feel we played a lot of man, to be honest with you, especially on third downs,” Lewis said. “I feel like we found it working kind of early that we could cover these guys, and our rush was humming tonight, so why not?”
The Bills are a heavy zone team and have been so under head coach Sean McDermott for a long time. But with a pass rush getting to Mahomes and limiting his time to create, the Bills defense pounced by taking away Kelce and got themselves off the field more often than not.
There were many reasons why the Bills won this big of a game, but limiting Kelce was chief among them. This is likely a much different game and, possibly, a different outcome if Kelce was able to get going.
The quietly huge game from Ryan Van Demark
On Sunday, the most unlikely and remarkable streak finally came to an end. For the last 32 games, starting in Week 18 of the 2022 regular season, the Bills have seen their preferred five of the offensive line start every game through the first ten games of the 2024 season. Usual starting right tackle Spencer Brown missed the game with an ankle injury, which forced Ryan Van Demark into the lineup for his first NFL career start.
Having played much of his college and professional career at left tackle, he had to make his debut at the more unnatural side of the two tackle spots. And while he wasn’t flawless, the job Van Demark did in a critical sub-in role added to the lore of this now longstanding rivalry. He’s a player who spent the entire 2022 season on the practice squad and played his way onto the 53-man roster in 2023, only to make his first start more than halfway into the 2024 season.
The Bills relied on him to win his one-on-ones for much of the night, especially in a tough matchup against defensive end George Karlaftis. But Van Demark played with confidence and did extremely well given the circumstances. His natural athleticism showed up all game in his kick slide as he looked like he belonged all night.
One of Van Demark’s defining moments came on Allen’s 26-yard touchdown run. With Allen scanning the underneath routes around him, Van Demark went step-for-step with Karlaftis and shooed the pass rusher deep past the pocket, helping to create the running lane Allen needed to begin his memorable run. It’s small plays like that, and helping to keep Allen clean the rest of the time, that was such a massive showing from Van Demark when the Bills were without one of their best starters in Brown. An unsung hero, given the situation.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!
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— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 18, 2024
So the question is, what’s next for Brown? Speaking with The Athletic after the game, Brown said he’ll definitely be back in time for the 49ers game. The injury was a low right ankle sprain, hampering his ability to plant in pass protection from his position. Brown relayed that it wasn’t really a pain issue, but rather swelling in the ankle. Brown even said he would have pushed to play had the injury been to his left leg. Regardless, as long as the rest of the line is healthy out of the bye, the Bills will likely be back to their preferred five.
What the Chiefs win means in the grand scheme
As the Bills collected their fourth-straight regular-season victory over the Chiefs, the locker room was especially striking with the tone after the fact. While there was the usual buzz in the air from getting a victory, and a close victory at that, there wasn’t the feeling of those past wins over the Chiefs. In those moments, it felt like a culmination of their build rather than just what it was — a regular season win. At the time, it’s understandable why those wins would be more meaningful, given their playoff struggles against the franchise.
LET’S GO, TB!!
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— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 18, 2024
But on Sunday, both during and after the game, the Bills were presenting themselves as a team that had been there before. They didn’t only say it was just one game in the week leading up. They also acted that way. There was no extended celebration. Moral victories appear to be a thing of the past. It was all business as if there was still business to attend to. When asked about finally slowing down Kelce and how it felt to do so, Taron Johnson wasn’t even all that exuberant, thinking about the bigger picture.
“Great, but at the end of the day, it’s just another team,” Johnson said. “It’s not the playoffs. We’re just on to the next, that’s all.”
That’s the exact mindset that will serve the Bills best, especially with a week off to reset and think about the rest of their season. Make no mistake, this was a pivotal victory if they had any designs on securing both the top seed and a first-round bye for the first time since McDermott became head coach. Especially with losses to the Ravens and Texans that could potentially complicate their seeding, a loss to the Chiefs would have made the fourth seed a higher percentage outcome than the first seed. But the impressive piece is likely knowing this while still being able to compartmentalize and not letting it impact their performance in the slightest.
Even in a season that was supposed to be a slight retooling as they maneuvered future salary cap years, the bigger picture is becoming clear with each passing week and victory. This season is no longer about putting themselves in a good position for future years. In fact, it hasn’t been that way since they emerged from their quick two-game losing streak to fall to 3-2 on the season with a pair of victories to get back on track.
Things are trending up in almost every way. The offense is clicking in a balanced way, the defense is stepping up when they need to in big spots, and the team is battling through difficult injuries to big-name starters. And with those players set to return soon (see: Milano, Matt), this is as promising a first 11 games as we’ve seen from this franchise under McDermott. And that’s even before mentioning Allen, who is playing the best football of his career and has his best chance to win the NFL MVP award since entering the league. This Bills team is for real, and given the way this season is going, only a trip to the Super Bowl will be enough to consider the 2024 campaign a success.
MVP: QB Josh Allen — You can’t really give the MVP to anyone other than Allen after making what could be the defining play of his bid to win NFL MVP this season.
LVP: K Tyler Bass — It was tough to find a true LVP, but missing an extra point in a close game could have been the difference between a win and a loss for the Bills.
Up Next: The Bills head to their bye in Week 12, with a home matchup against the 5-5 49ers in Week 13.
(Top photo: Tina MacIntyre-Yee / Imagn Images)
