The Steeler's game told me everything I needed...that's how this offense is going to look these last two games. IMO. That was the test drive...it's the only game this year where it looked like "The Chiefs/Andy Reid"...instead of the drudging along...do the minimum to win approach we've seen.

The fact Brown/Hopkins werent involved ..really at all, against the Texans says it was deliberate. Neither one had a single catch...

I'll eat crow if this happens again on Sunday...the fact they can just turn that shit on/off is nuts....it's how truly good they are.

Yeah, there's a lot of nuance like this that gets glossed over, and I think it's two completely different things to say Mahomes spent much of the season being indecisive and less spontaneous, then talk about 'saving' anything... and then throw in overall focus and motivation against shit teams each week, versus Mahomes breaking his helmet in playoff games, etc.

It seems clear to me that...
...they tend to shut it down at times (like you said, they don't continue going to the same well/same weakness over and over and over)
...given the above, what they do run isn't always polished.
...Mahomes, outside of those things, also struggled this season
...they do rolll out things they haven't run all season (and yeah, seemed like the Bills also did this against the Chiefs last postseason), but these aren't always magical guaranteed touchdown plays (except corndog).


It's still football, it's still hard. They probably make it harder than it should be in the regular season, but it's always come together when it matters the most.

I strongly feel the lack of WR involvement was intentional. No reason to test those Texans DBs and let their ends tee off on Mahomes when they knew Kelce was going to be open a lot.

The Bills aren't built that way. They're much weaker at DB than the Texans. I think we are going to see Brown and Hopkins heavily involved this week.

And maybe that's the thing.

Maybe we've gotten so used to "Man, winning football games is really damn hard" that when we see Andy and company trying to do it with one arm tied behind their backs, we see it as the height of hubris that will inevitably come back to bite them in the ass.

Because football isn't basketball. Basketball is the only sport I've ever seen where a team truly can flip a switch and just buzzsaw their opponents. And even THAT'S only possible because of the 'best of' series format.

But in a win or go home scenario, I just don't think it's possible to 'turn it on' when you need it. You have it or you don't.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the Chiefs ARE just that good.

That's just an awfully big mental hurdle to ask people to clear.

We'll find out.

If they've simply been reluctant to open the taps, we'll see it this weekend. This isn't a dominant defense by any stretch.

30 should be a foregone conclusion if they've really been 'saving it' for the playoffs.

If they'll burn this ships Sunday, steadily playing only Worthy, Brown, and Hopkins aside from 10 or so snaps, I just don't see how we wouldn't have our best day.

I don't think Buffalo can remotely run with the speed guys. Once they have to commit extra help to the cause, you're telling me they'll handle Kelce and Hopkins underneath sprinkled with one of the fast guys running drag/speed outs?

It just doesn't math with the secondary they have.

This year has been different than the past.


I have never seen so few games where it looked like our offense even game planned specifically for an opponent.


Baltimore opener, 49ers game looked like there was thought and care put into the play calling/design.

Almost every other game just looked closer to random than designed.

I think Mahomes has proven it to a large extent in the past, but at the same time with newer receivers and pieces around him, yeah there could be some FAFO if they aren't all on the same page, especially if possessions are limited.

And much of the time in the playoffs, it's suddenly the Mahomes and Kelce show, probably for that very reason... 100%, those two guys can suddenly flip the switch and make plays, but of course that's just one piece of it for this ideal offense we all have in our head that will suddenly look like the Bills playing the Lions.

Exactly how I feel.

The Chiefs may not hold back plays but we know for a fact that in Hopkins case, they were holding back personnel packages that included him because they were trying to avoid that 4th round price.

When he's a literal cheater.

100%.


If we go down without using Hollywood/Worthy/Dhop to attack Buffalo then we don't deserve to move on.

There's only two reasons for Hopkins to play 16 snaps to JuJu's 21 last week.

1) Hopkins is hurt, which he said he wasn't yesterday.

2) They were ensuring he'd be available for this game.

It surely to goodness isn't because JuJu is that much better of a blocker that they feel he just has to be out there that much. Guess time will tell. I don't think the screens are the way to attack this defense anyways.

They need to be challenged to cover our guys. They won't be able to.

And I'm sure they got all they needed from Brown for a couple weeks at <50% snaps to be comfortable with him 'flipping a switch' with Mahomes in this game.

As someone said the other day, there's just not much tape with all these guys on the field at the same time. Is that some huge advantage? Probably not, it's still football, it's still hard, but I imagine there's some value to it on top of reducing injury risk.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wow. <br><br>Nobody believes in us. Time to shock the world. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChiefsKingdom?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChiefsKingdom</a> <a href="https://t.co/2KUnHoUSq0">pic.twitter.com/2KUnHoUSq0</a></p>&mdash; ChiefsJayhawksRoyals (@CJR16255) <a href="https://twitter.com/CJR16255/status/1882450872720142361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Matt Milano sat out at least one drill during portion of practice open to media. <br>Was a read and react drill for LBs/DBs dropping and reacting laterally to direction QB looks. <br>Outside of that, Milano seemed to moving around well. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bills?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bills</a> <a href="https://t.co/ia8EVaGpfO">pic.twitter.com/ia8EVaGpfO</a></p>&mdash; Thad Brown (@thadbrown7) <a href="https://twitter.com/thadbrown7/status/1882496419061506478?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That will be the tell...is this the first game where they break the 30 point barrier? At the very time they needed to ratchet it up?

After the Steeler's game, the talking heads were all saying..."The Chiefs are heating up, getting into play-off form".

I was expecting them to roll the Texans but they played it close to the vest...had the Pittsburgh game not happened with the return of Brown, I would just accept that this offense is what it is.

He's hurt and they're trying to hide it.

It's a copycat league. I would expect other teams to borrow from anything that works (especially if it's from the Chiefs).

How do we know this for a fact? Playing time didn't matter at all in the playoffs and he played 16 snaps last game.

It's one game.

We know for a fact they limited his snaps during the regular season.

We don't yet know what happened last week but from the looks of the offensive scheme during the game, they just didn't really need him. He wasn't in the game plan.

I want us attacking this defense aggressively down field and I know that requires pass protection, at least if you have Kelce and Hopkins out there those are two guys who if Patrick has to get the ball out quick, he can trust them to make the play even in tighter coverage.

Get Hollywood, Worthy, DHop and Kelce on the field.

If Buffalo safeties aren't a million miles back, throw over their heads.

If they are properly deep then it should be on.


Attack the intermediate middle with zero mercy.

RPO, zone beaters, Kelce, D Hop and everyone should be catching wide open passes 12+ yards downfield.

I would love to see Worthy catch a slant there and take it to the house.

This is a game that I think Andy tells Patrick to unload it deep. These guys are going to do anything in their power to erase Kelce and that’s going to open up Hollywood and Worthy.

The shots have been there on this defense all year. That secondary is not good

Their secondary isn’t good. Look at all these wide open receivers. I think Patrick is gonna have a big game

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/oregonfootball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@oregonfootball</a> rookie connection gets the <a href="https://twitter.com/Broncos?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Broncos</a> on the board 🦆 <a href="https://t.co/nAHRdNEWtC">pic.twitter.com/nAHRdNEWtC</a></p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1878505036747341864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ronnie Stanley is all of us <a href="https://t.co/o4p9c4EEG0">pic.twitter.com/o4p9c4EEG0</a></p>&mdash; Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) <a href="https://twitter.com/Nate_Tice/status/1882131558104195305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LAMAR TO BATEMAN!<br><br>RAVENS SCORE ON THEIR OPENING DRIVE 🐦*⬛<br><br>📺: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BALvsBUF?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BALvsBUF</a> on CBS<br>📱: Stream on <a href="https://twitter.com/NFLPlus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFLPlus</a> and Paramount+ <a href="https://t.co/kBkmDR6FxC">pic.twitter.com/kBkmDR6FxC</a></p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1881126486129701063?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LAMAR TO LIKELY!<br><br>RAVENS WITHIN 2!<br><br>📺: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BALvsBUF?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BALvsBUF</a> on CBS<br>📱: Stream on <a href="https://twitter.com/NFLPlus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFLPlus</a> and Paramount+ <a href="https://t.co/j68lGOOHZv">pic.twitter.com/j68lGOOHZv</a></p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1881167369361559906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/V4kVdZRTqo">pic.twitter.com/V4kVdZRTqo</a></p>&mdash; 𝘙𝘑 (@RJLockedIn) <a href="https://twitter.com/RJLockedIn/status/1881376418481012882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Bills played a lot more man than they are used to on week 11. With Hollywood back and the injuries in their secondary, I think they go back to majority zone on Sunday. Mahomes is going to carve them up.

I look back at last years afccg. The offense was aggressive. Mahomes threw into tight coverage. Then thet got safe in the second half with the 10 point lead. Then when they needed a first down, he hit mvs deep to seal the win.

Andy is well aware of the crazy turnover differential Buffalo has. I expect the offense to emphasize protecting the ball. If they get behind late, they'll let er rip though.

We had a bit of that in our section, too. I think a lot of the seats around me are sold to different people every week. And I wonder if many of those people have never been to Chiefs games. They need to be taught. :)

I think they can do both.

Just look at those tweets from Run. The Bills rely on zone defense. Guys are gonna be running wide open. Mahomes might not even have to make throws into tight windows.

One thing's certain...if even one of the injured players doesn't play, they've got this year's excuse.

"If Rapp played, we'd have beaten you by 30 easily!!!"

One thing I do feel is being set up is the Chiefs scoring over 31 points and McDermott and the defense again being blamed for the loss. The only question in that scenario is do we rip their hearts out or does our defense keep the Bills at arms length the whole game and it’s more akin to a total team loss for the Bills.

Or he just doesn't know enough of Andy's complicated ass playbook to be on the field more than he is. If he's barely used again this week it's the only reason that makes sense unless we think they're being dishonest with the injury report.

Andy might just spread em out and go empty and 11 personnel. Their safeties and LB’s are just begging to get destroyed

I hope we do a fair bit of that.

I love Kareem right now but with the shifts on the OL, I’m not expecting some grand rushing performance.

We should pass to set up the run.


Once we have them beat through the air fine with mixing in power and counter runs up the middle.

We need to roll back to the Steelers game plan and do a lot of quick passing and really attack this secondary early. Also use those crossers to put Milanos hobbled ass in a blender, make him change direction. Shred them like the Steelers and let it open the deep game up.

This is where the chess comes in. Does Buffalo look at last week and say, "we gotta prioritize 87" ....

Cause if they do, yes, the WRs are going to have opportunities galore.

Kelce has carved them up like Swiss cheese in the playoffs and their fans are talking about him on Twitter like he’s all four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Our receivers are going to have some opportunities on Sunday.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You heard QB1. <br><br>Can we get louder this weekend, Chiefs Kingdom⁉️ <a href="https://t.co/ia9I4iXeIB">pic.twitter.com/ia9I4iXeIB</a></p>&mdash; Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) <a href="https://twitter.com/Chiefs/status/1882515395288195211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Thank goodness.

Was talking about this earlier today. Arrowhead has to step up Sunday. This isn't like any other game this year. Throwback!

Is this true?

A caller on 810 just said the Bills haven't played on anything but turf since the first month of the season.

So today Matt Milano is limited again and wasn't allowed to participate on drills moving backwards in fear of tweaking his hamstring. Bedford is still limited in a red "don't touch" jersey and a protected helmet on. And Rapp is still not practicing.

Hey maybe all three play in the game but does that sound like they'll all be 100% on that field? Imo Reid needs to attack that secondary with everything he's got because they clearly will be banged up. And the funny thing is imagine if this was the Chiefs? The media would be talking about it non-stop. But not one of them are talking about it because it's the Chiefs opponants and that obviously doesn't matter.

Watching the last game again I feel bad for Nazeeh. First pass was a dime. He had good coverage. Threaded the needle. Second pass was also a low percentage pass/catch. Allen barely fit that ball in bounds. Tough tough throw.

The third one was obvious bullshit. He got blasted in the chest on a crossing route that should have been OPI. Blatant bullshit call.

Overall we were outstanding keeping the pocket contained until that last run. Elite stopping the run too.

The real issue with this game was Conner. 3 big missed tackles and a DPI. Two of which were on 3rd and long. Kid did get a pick but overall played terribly.

The story of that game of defense was missed tackles. You can’t give a ton of those up and expect to win.

I said the day of that game, now Nazeeh isn't good, but those two throws and catches with Cooper were unstoppable. Just damn near impossible to do two of those again, if one even.

Also to note: Leo was the spy. He was lined up at DE a lot and faked his outside rush, then immediately dropped back inside baiting Josh. It worked a lot.

Danna and Karlaftis did a great job at edge too. Further solidifying why Spags doesn’t like smaller DL

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You heard QB1. <br><br>Can we get louder this weekend, Chiefs Kingdom⁉️ <a href="https://t.co/ia9I4iXeIB">pic.twitter.com/ia9I4iXeIB</a></p>&mdash; Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) <a href="https://twitter.com/Chiefs/status/1882515395288195211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Away games after Sept.:

Houston
Jets
Seattle
Indy
Rams
Detroit
New England

Actually that looks like it's true. Would have been the Ravens game where they got blown out in September. They also played at Miami early in the year and won that game big. I think those are their only two games on grass.

bwahahaha

we're going to kill them

I'm not sure turf vs grass is a huge deal in general but guys like Milano are going to be affected by footing.

Taron Johnson going from full to limited.

Shoulder ****ed?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiAVsTmW...g&name=900x900

I think it's October, but I did see something like that.

He's gonna suit up, it is what it is

We will see if he lasts or is as effective

Well is also says "neck". It's possible he has a new injury that caused him to be limited.

At the evey least he ain't tackling Kareem...

They're all going to play with the possible exception of Rapp. But you're not going to convince me all of those LP guys are gonna be even be close to 100%.

Yeah he got banged up last game too.

Been saying for awhile now.

You can get away with Johnson on the field. Or you can get away with Conner on the field.

But those two really shouldn't be on the field at the same time. They're just too prone to breakdowns and when a team has 3 shots at waiting for one of those two guys to blow a read or coverage responsibility, the odds are just too great that they'll do it.

I mean let's do the math. Let's say that each guy gets through his play 80% of the time WITHOUT making a mistake. That means on any given play, combined probability says there's about a 64% chance that they'll BOTH maintain their responsibility. That's not bad on a single play. The odds of them managing to get through those 3 plays without blowing it, however, is about 26%.

Now put two guys there at 90% assignment sound. That's about 81% on any given play, 53% over the course of the 3 downs. At THAT point, you're more likely than not to survive the set.

And if you have one guy at 80% and the other at 90%, you end up at 37% over the three downs which ain't great, but it's not awful either. Figure that you'll need several conversions to score -- 37% says you're likely to get them off the field before they get too many 1st downs to make it a problem.

Now that's SHITTY analysis, but it's an attempt to quantify the sort of headache that having two guys out there vs. only one who you just can't count on to get the job done.

And to your point, let's set aside the snap to snap or drive to drive question. We see that game to game, perhaps Johnson will have a decent day but there's a pretty good chance that if he does, Conner will fall on HIS face.

We really don't want both those guys on the field.

Spags, evidently, disagrees.

75% of the Vegas money is on the Bills. However, the line has not moved.

Chiefs are going to win.

Apparently this is the greatest Bills team of all time.

Everybody in the media is picking Buffalo too.

Whether betting or just picking winners, picking with emotions never works out.

I think the intrigue drives ratings.

“Chiefs win again because they’re better” gets boring for viewers. They want something different, and these idiots feed them the copium they need.

Then, just blame the refs when the Chiefs win, and you get them coming back for more.

“We’ll win next time if the refs don’t **** us!” “Finally, the Media is being honest about how the League favors the Chiefs!”

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Lather is the operative word.

"It's rigged for the Chiefs"

"But we're also going to bet and pick against the Chiefs!"

Right?

The betters on the action network I watch are all going chiefs. They vowed to never go against Mahomes after what happened last year :D

Probably just precautionary. Wouldn’t read much into it.

LATEST ON TARON JOHNSON IS HE'S WEARING A HARNESS SLEEVE ON HIS BANGED UP SHOULDER.

so the list is.

Johnson= shoulder/neck
Benford= concussion
Milano= hamstring
Rapp= hip

That's four huge players in their defense. Gonna be very interesting to see how these issues effect the game. Can Milano cope going side to side and run downfield? Can Rapp turn and run? Can Johnson wrap up and tackle with that shoulder? Can Benford take a hit? These will be the questions during the game.

From The Athletic:

Against the Bills in particular, playoff Mahomes has been his very best.

In his three previous postseason games against Buffalo, he averaged 306 passing yards and had a 75.2 completion percentage, with eight passing TDs to zero INTs. His EPA per pass nearly doubled to 0.47, his highest against any team he's faced multiple times in the postseason — and more than double Allen's playoff mark against Kansas City.

Breaking news from the NFL:

Due to the ongoing controversy surrounding the referees and the Kansas City Chiefs, the AFC Championship is being moved to the neutral field at Area 51. The Buffalo Bills have also designated Bigfoot to return from IR.

Everyone knows the reason Mahomes gets all the calls is because he's a Virgo

learned today that Bills right tackle Spencer Brown is from a small town in Iowa, about 2 hours on 148 to Arrowhead. Said he went to many games growing up.

Yep. Played his college ball at Northern Iowa.

Reverse the injury situation and we would NOT feel confident.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3dbaad7618.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bring on the bulletin board material. Chiefs team feeds on it.

Yeah. These guys will be ready

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oh it’s spreading through the facility. <br><br>This team is not happy about Allenhead. <a href="https://t.co/HsrF8OLWLJ">https://t.co/HsrF8OLWLJ</a> <a href="https://t.co/BJnqFdQlkb">pic.twitter.com/BJnqFdQlkb</a></p>&mdash; Chiefs Blitz (@ChiefsBlitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChiefsBlitz/status/1882544767890039095?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Also they have an over 24-hr rest disadvantage, plus travel

Allenhead?

LMAO LMAO LMAO

Redzone issues and penalties on the OL in bad moments.