4. The best recipe to beat the Chiefs?
The Bills and Chiefs know each other like a division opponent. They’ve played each other nine times in the last five seasons, including playoffs.
Buffalo and Kansas City have been two of the best teams in the past five years, and their stats back that up. Since 2020, the Bills rank first averaging 29.1 points per game and the Chiefs ranks fourth averaging 26.3 points per game.
Both teams know if they want to come out of Week 9 with a victory, they’ve got to give it their all. Defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said when it comes to game planning, it starts with understanding what they do well.
“What’s the strength and weaknesses of the offense? What’s the strength and weaknesses of each individual player?” Babich said. “And (we) try to put our guys in the best position possible to have success. That’s the best thing we can do. Not lose our guys too much in who the opponent is, understand what we do well and what we’re doing well and try to focus in on that.”
For Buffalo, the recipe to beating the Chiefs begins with the Bills defense grabbing takeaways and their offense staying on the field.
Buffalo has been great at controlling possession this season as they average the highest time of possession in the league at 33:14 per game. They also average the third most first downs per game at 23.1.
Defensively, they’re allowing their opponents to stay on the field for an average of just 26:45 per game, the least amount of time in the NFL. Their three takeaways against Carolina were a season high, and they want to carry that energy and physicality into Chiefs week.
ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky also believes Buffalo’s tight ends can play an important role on Sunday. Kansas City’s defense is giving up an 82% completion percentage to tight ends, the fourth worst in the NFL.
“I think the tight ends are enormous in this game,” Orlovksy said on One Bills Live. “I think the play action pass with the tight ends are enormous. This is a good defense in Kansas City, pass rush hasn’t been great. You can get some chunk throws against this defense with those two tight ends and play action game.”
Through six games, tight end Dalton Kincaid is averaging 14.8 yards per reception, which is the second best among tight ends.
