Sean McDermott was willing to get more aggressive than usual in attacking Patrick Mahomes in Sunday’s victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
It was a reflection of the fact there was no holding back with the Bills’ season on the line. It’s also a reflection of the obvious fact the Kansas City wide receiving corps is not as scary or as productive as it used to be.
Sean McDermott did his homework over the bye week. The Buffalo Bills’ head coach needed to find an solution to a problem that, until Sunday, had eluded his defense: How to close out games.
The Bills rushed five or more men at Mahomes on 12 of 47 dropbacks, according to Buffalo News charting. That’s the most ever by McDermott vs. Mahomes.
It worked pretty well. Mahomes was 6 of 10 for 71 yards with an interception on blitz plays. The Chiefs also made two offensive penalties vs. the blitz.
One of those was on the Travis Kelce lateral play for a touchdown that was called back. The Bills rushed six men on that one.
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It used to be that blitzing Mahomes was anathema.
When the Bills beat the Chiefs in the 2021 regular season, Mahomes took 70 drobpacks without one Buffalo blitz. In the playoff loss that season, the Bills blitzed Mahomes just 3 of 53 plays. But that was when the Chiefs offense had superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill on the field.
In last year’s win at Kansas City, the Bills blitzed 10 of 52 plays, and Mahomes went just 3 of 9 against it.
Mahomes is on pace for 4,443 yards this season, which would be a 15% drop from last season, when he led the NFL with 5,250 yards.
Here’s a position-by-position grading of the game, based on video review and scored on a scale of 0 to 5:
Quarterback (4.5). The pressure scheme of Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was as tough as advertised. Spagnuolo blitzed Josh Allen on 13 of 53 dropbacks, and Allen handled it well. He was 7 of 11 for 79 yards with a TD and a sack. Allen also ran for his 6-yard TD against a run blitz. But Spagnuolo did get stops on each of the Bills’ final three drives with the help of his well-schemed blitzes.
Allen also made more “Superman” plays than Mahomes, including the power run TD through defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton, the fourth-and-2 sidearm pass to Dalton Kincaid, the remarkable 21-yard pass to Latavius Murray in the fourth quarter (that beat a blitz) and the flat-footed 25-yard man-beater throw to Deonte Harty. The blemishes were the interception thrown late over the middle and missing a wide open Gabe Davis in the end zone on the last drive. But that play also was made harder for the QB by a slot-corner blitz by Trent McDuffie.
Running backs (4.5). With 141 yards from scrimmage, James Cook now stands third in the NFL among RBs with 1,180 total yards, behind only San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey (1,614) and Jacksonville’s Travis Etienne (1,189). Cook had 15 touches. That should be the minimum for the Bills’ budding star. The 27-yard wheel route pass to Cook was the same play on which he had the drop vs. Philadelphia. Ty Johnson continues to give the Bills productive snaps in a spot-duty role and makes it harder to activate Leonard Fournette. While Murray almost dropped the 21-yard pass, he gets big credit for getting himself open downfield on the play and calling for the ball. That helped the Bills keep the ball away from Mahomes another 2:30.
Receivers (2.5). The Chiefs committed to double-teaming Stefon Diggs, and L’Jarius Sneed did a good job in primary coverage on the Bills’ star.
“They were playing a lot of double on Stef, trying to take him out, especially on some third downs stuff,” Allen said, “so we knew there were some good matchups with James.”
Diggs had a semi-drop on a slant vs. Sneed and dropped a receiver screen in the fourth quarter. ... Davis dropped a pass over the middle early in the fourth quarter. ... It was good to see Harty show what he can do against man coverage, beating the stellar McDuffie for a 25-yard pass.
Kincaid did a good job on a crack-block on Allen’s third-and-2 QB sweep on the winning drive.
"As national broadcasters, they are nothing but objective and that certainly is a bonus when they assess key penalties that may decide the game," Pergament says.
Offensive line (3.0). Pass protection was more about communication against the Chiefs blitzes and stunts than straight one-one-one blocking. Dion Dawkins was good again, allowing just two hurries. His holding penalty when he jerked down Charles Omenihu was a tactic you don’t often see flagged. He dominated Omenihu on the play. Spencer Brown gave up four hurries and had a hold but wasn’t bad when he single-blocked George Karlaftis. The Chiefs’ Chris Jones was outstanding as usual. He beat O’Cyrus Torrence for a sack. Mitch Morse had a good day blocking in the middle (vs. Derrick Nnadi) and on the second level.
Defensive line (3.5). Von Miller had two hurries but both were big. Early in the fourth quarter, Miller beat left tackle Wanya Morris wide to force an incompletion on a third-and-8 play from the Buffalo 10. It forced a field goal. On the Chiefs’ third-last play, with 1:05 left, Miller beat Morris wide to force an incompletion. Ed Oliver bull-rushed All-Pro Joe Thuney to bat down a pass on the second-last play. Leonard Floyd beat a chip block and right tackle Jawaan Taylor to force the final, fourth-down incompletion. Jordan Phillips was not stout enough against a double-team block, which made the Chiefs’ 7-yard TD run in the second quarter too easy.
Linebackers (3.0). It wasn’t an easy game for Terrel Bernard, because the Chiefs’ hard play-action fakes make it tough on linebackers to get back in zone coverage on Kelce. Bernard had a tough coverage on Rashee Rice on the 4-yard TD pass, too. On a third-and-7 play with 7:05 left, Dorian Williams lined up as the fourth defensive lineman and bull-rushed Taylor to hurry Mahomes and force an incompletion. The Bills were in dime personnel, and Bernard was a spy on Mahomes on the play. ... Tyrel Dodson missed a tackle on the 20-yard screen pass in the fourth quarter that led to a field goal. Not a bad day for Bernard and Dodson, who each had eight tackles.
Defensive backs (3.5). Christian Benford’s strip of Rice for a fumble was one of the plays of the game. Taron Johnson’s tackling was superb, as usual. The Bills used their dime package on nine plays, including the final drive.
Special teams (3.0). Sam Martin’s inconsistency continued. He hit a booming 4.54-second hang time punt with a 41-yard net in the third quarter. Then he hit a 3.86-hang time punt to start the fourth. It was returned 25 yards for a 15-yard net and set up a Chiefs field-goal drive. Midway through the fourth quarter, Martin hit a clutch, 50-yard net punt with a 4.6 hang time and no return. Tyler Bass’ final, 39-yard FG was his fifth tiebreaking FG with two minutes or fewer to play (including overtime).