Buffalo Bills: Bills Catch Breaks But Still Drop Overtime Heartbreaker To Chiefs
The Buffalo Bills lost in overtime for the second consecutive time, as they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 13-10 on the last play of overtime, before the game would have ended in the first tie in the NFL since 2008.
The Bills once again took on a strong team with a winning record on the road and played them even. The Bills are playing at a level that is par with winning teams, but you wouldn't know it if you just looked at their 0-7 record. The Bills had their chances to win this game however, and that might haunt them unless they can forget about the wasted opportunities quickly.
For the beleaguered Bills defense, this was a welcome sight. The Bills defense had surrendered 30 or more points in five straight games, and they were playing a Chiefs team that averaged 31.3 points at home so far this year. On the surface you were expecting a shootout, as the Bills put up 35 points on Baltimore last weekend. This was far from a shootout as the 13-10 final score indicated, but it was still an exciting game.
Ryan Fitzpatrick Found the Going Tougher in Kansas City
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In the first half, Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick scrambled and had the ball knocked out of his hands. The Bills recovered the fumble, in fact they recovered all three times the Bills fumbled the ball today. The ball was bouncing the Bills way for once. The Chiefs thought they had recovered one fumble, only to have the call overturned by the replay officials.
Regarding Fitzpatrick, he had a reasonably productive day as he passed for 223 yards and rushed for another 43 yards on six scrambles. But he was sacked three times for 32 yards, which brought his total down to 191 for the day. He was under fairly heavy pressure and attempted a number of passes with the Chiefs all over him. He did throw one interception, which was costly, when the Bills were going in for a game winning score.
Otherwise, Fitzpatrick spread the ball around to six different receivers and led the Bills out from deep in their own territory for most of the game.
Strange Play-Calling by Chiefs Head Coach Todd Haley
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Based on the first half of the contest, I wonder if Chiefs kicker Rian Succop was developing an inferiority complex. Despite being in a tight, low-scoring game, Chiefs head coach Todd Haley twice disdained field goals attempts by Succop to instead try to go for it on fourth down. Each time Haley was thwarted by the Bills defense, and those mistakes allowed the Bills to come back in to the game.
The right call that Haley made came in the overtime period, when he called a timeout just before Rian Lindell attempted a 53-yard field goal, which Lindell made with 10 yards to spare, By icing the kicker, Haley salvaged his day and Kansas City won the game, because Lindell's second attempt bounced off the goal posts. Now Haley looks like a genius, when it should have backfired on him for turning away points. Football can be a very strange game on some days.
Game Looked Like It Was Going To End in an Overtime Tie
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The Bills were driving on their final possession of overtime, when the offense stalled and was forced to punt. The Bills had gone past midfield, and a normal punt by Brian Moorman would have sent the Chiefs deep in to their own territory, which may have caused Todd Haley to play it safe and settle for the tie.
Instead, Moorman shanked the punt, and it was marked at the Chiefs 31-yard line, giving the Chiefs breathing room to either run or pass. Moorman was seen to be in a heated discussion with the referees over the spot, but the play was never stopped to be sent up to the review booth, or maybe Chan Gailey had to throw a challenge flag on the call.
There were challenges thrown by both coaches as there were a number of plays that were controversial, but like we stated earlier, this was one game where the ball and breaks went the Bills way.
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Bills Defense Was Led by Paul Posluszny but They Create Zero Turnovers
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The Bills defense was led by Paul Posloszny, who came up with a whopping 18 tackles for the game—11 of them being the solo variety. Donte Whitner chipped in with 11 tackles (seven solo) and Kyle Williams also had a strong game with nine tackles (six solo) and two big sacks. Williams is playing at a Pro Bowl level right now.
Once again, however, the Bills defense did not come up with any turnovers. The lack of interceptions are particularly disturbing as there were a number of deflected passes that we have come to expect would result in an interception from the Bills ballhawking secondary of 2009. The secondary must have been dipping in to their karma allotment heavily last year, because they can't even record an interception now when the ball is thrown directly to him.
George Wilson had a pass thrown directly to him that went right through his hands and hit him in the shoulder pads. Steve Tasker and Gus Johnson were lamenting that this is why these guys play defense. He must have forgotten that Wilson was converted from wide receiver.
Jamaal Charles Has Big Day Running Past the Bills Defenders
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Jamaal Charles had a huge game for the Chiefs. He rushed the ball 22 times for 177 yards and came up with another 61 yards in four catches for a combined total of 238 yards. That is some strong production. Charles speed and cutting ability was an issue for the Bills all day. He made Chris Kelsay look bad on several plays but so did Matt Cassel for that matter. Kelsay simply looks like a fish out of water, and I am still in shock that the Bills extended him to the tune of $24 million.
The way that Charles runs with the ball is what you would eventually hope to see C.J. Spiller do when he is the main guy. Hopefully, C.J. was taking notes, because he is not close yet to running with the confidence and authority that Charles does right now.
Speaking of C.J. (next slide please)
C.J. Spiller Fails To Make a Major Impact Again
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For the day, C.J. Spiller had six rushes for 17 yards, four catches for 28 yards, three kick returns for 58 yards and one fumble—that was luckily recovered by the Bills.
Spiller was lined up on the outside as a receiver more often today, which is another way to utilize his speed. In discussing Spiller with various Bills fans, it is becoming more and more apparent that he needs to be out in open space using his speed to pull away from defenders. Because if someone lays a hand on him, he goes down too easily. How many tackles so far have you seen him break so far this season? Very few, and those seemed to be kickers that he broke free from.
Hopefully, Spiller will take the upcoming offseason to get stronger and be prepared to become a more physical runner.The Bills will need him to be more like Fred Jackson than he has showed so far.
Game Ended Up Pretty Even Stat Speaking As Well
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In some ways, this game was very evenly played. While in some cases, it wasn't very close at all.
The Bills had 23 first downs while the Chiefs had 24. Both teams were penalized five times. The Bills had one turnover; the Chiefs had none. The Bills had the ball for 39 minutes, while the Chiefs had it 35 minutes.
Where it was different by a wider margin, were in the following:
Chiefs were in the red zone four times; the Bills just once. Bills converted 11-of-23 third downs while the Chiefs only converted 4-of-15. The Chiefs took their league leading rushing attack and cranked out 274 yards, as they averaged 6.1 yards on 45 attempts. When you consider the number of rushes that were stuffed, it shows how often they were able to break off long runs.
Bills Struggled with Field Position All Game Long
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The Bills had the ball for 12 different drives in the game—nine of those were from their own 20 or closer. They never started a drive past midfield, and the field position battle placed the onus on the Bills offense to move the chains to keep the game from becoming lopsided.
Ryan Fitzpatrick and company came up with enough big plays on third downs throughout the game that the Bills only had three drives that were of the 3-and-out variety. That is another big development for the Bills offense—they are doing a good job of keeping the defense rested.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs only had one drive for the entire game that started within their own 20, and that was the first drive of the game.
So Where Do the Bills Go from Here?
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Hopefully, the Bills will continue to battle and not let these consecutive overtime losses get them down, because they are continuing to play hard and a win doesn't seem to be that far-fetched a concept any longer. Next up is the Bears in the home game up in Toronto, so hopefully there will be enough support from Bills fans to make this contest appear to be a home game.
From a streaks perspective, the Bills did finally end their streak of giving up 30 points or more in five straight games.
The streaks that are unfortunately still alive are:
Not one 100-yard rusher in a game yet this year (seven straight)
Not one interception by a member of the secondary all year (seven straight)
Not one win by the 2010 Bills yet (seven straight)
Losses in overtime (two straight). For trivia types, the Bills have appeared in consecutive overtime contests twice before in team history—1987 and 2002.
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