Why the Chiefs face a new reality in the Patrick Mahomes Era after this loss to Bills

[LongSufferingToady]

Von Miller walked behind the lectern inside the tight quarters of a room reserved for a Bills news conference, less than half an hour after his team beat the Chiefs here at Arrowhead Stadium. He began with an opening statement, of sorts. “Howdy,” he said, and then he offered a grin. “I came in this stadium a whole bunch of times, and I’ve been at this same podium, and I ain’t have no smile. So it’s good to come in here and smile.”

For years, the Denver Broncos could not beat the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs with Von Miller at this stadium, but on Sunday, the Bills would not have won without him. The marriage has helped form the team that is intentionally and blatantly built to beat the Chiefs, future ramifications be damned. But with a payoff. The Chiefs are no longer the best team in the NFL — a home defeat did not produce that statement, but rather cemented it. That title belongs to the Bills now, and for evidence, don’t look at the fact they won, but rather how they won.

Josh Allen was nails on the game-winning two-minute drill, which absorbed the kind of inevitability Patrick Mahomes has so often delivered others. But Allen was nails last time the Bills visited Kansas City. The difference this time? Their defense got the stop it could not get here in January. That was Miller’s doing, and it’s the reason the Bills felt comfortable paying a 33-year-old edge rusher $45 million guaranteed this summer, even if it means he will still be eating up cap space at age 37.

The final impact play reads as a Mahomes interception into the arms of Bills cornerback Taron Johnson, but Miller wrecked the play with pressure inside the edge of right tackle Andrew Wylie, forcing Mahomes into a throwing window he did not plan.

One drive earlier, Miller sacked Mahomes to end a drive the Chiefs would also like back. He is a difference-maker on a team that spent an offseason knowing it was 13 seconds shy of beating the Chiefs in January — heck, knowing it has spent the last two summers with a lot of time to dwell on the Kansas City Chiefs.

That’s the way it works now. The title of best-team-in-football will change course over the next decade, with the Chiefs glued to that mix, but the Patrick Mahomes Era will always include a general manager out there somewhere, constructing the blueprint of a roster to take him out, even if it means sacrificing part of his future to do it. The Bills are this year’s version, and maybe next year’s version, and maybe the version over the next few years.

But for the duration of Mahomes’ 10-year contract, there will be others. This is a new norm, a new reality confronting the Chiefs that is more complimentary than it appears on the face of it. The Bills do not care if Miller’s contract puts them in cap hell in two years, when he’s 35 and earns $22 million — he is the over-the-top addition to win games like the one they won Sunday. Or to win the exact game they won Sunday. And it worked. But barely.

It’s a weird spin to put a moral victory on a Mahomes loss — the Chiefs are not some sort of lovable underdogs, even if they were underdogs on this field Sunday for the first time in Mahomes’ career. While that’s not the intention, not all losses are created equally.

Three weeks ago in Indianapolis, the Chiefs looked capable of losing to just about anybody. On Sunday, the team that has eyed them for two offseasons with all resources on deck needed a lot of things to go right in the fourth quarter. This felt like a coin-toss game — though not quite as literally as last time.

The Chiefs are certainly not miles away, even after implementing an inverse offseason strategy, extending their championship window at the expense of a short-term hit. The gap between the Bills and Chiefs appears more razor-thin than I anticipated, and if you don’t expect they’ll get another shot, I’d like to see which team you think will get that shot at the Bills in the postseason.

“I think you just want to win, just because you’re a competitor and you know you’re playing the best of the best — and you feel like you’re the best of the best,” Mahomes said. “You wanna win those games. “At the end of the day, that’s something you gotta reiterate to the guys in the locker room — it’s one game in the regular season that you wanted to win, felt like you could win and you didn’t. So how are you going to respond?” The broader point is this: If you felt like the Chiefs could win the Super Bowl before Sunday, and count me on that list, why would a late interception do anything to change that?

The reverberation of the outcome is not that the Chiefs can no longer accomplish everything on their preseason goals list — rather, it’s that for the first time since Mahomes became the franchise quarterback, he might need to go on the road to accomplish them. The Bills have a leg up on the race for homefield.

But otherwise, nobody needs a reminder that the Chiefs lost this same game, which arrived in similar timing on the schedule, just a year ago. In a much worse fashion, to boot. And then they won the rematch. A lot can happen between now and the time the playoffs arrive — three months can resemble a lifetime in football — so a rematch is not guaranteed. But there’s not another team in the AFC that belonged on the field with either of these teams. There is, however, a key difference if they do meet again — a difference that could become more convention, less abnormal.

They’ll be the underdogs.

Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/sp...#storylink=cpy

[Gary Cooper]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Patrick Mahomes II has never lost a road game in the playoffs

The Super Bowl doesn't count because it was a "neutral" (cough) site?

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

So Buffalo went all in financially, KC regressed this offseason and yet the regular season game against Buffalo was much more competitive than it was last year when they played? Even with 2 rookies starting at CB? Holding Buffalo to 24 this time?

Yea sounds like a real cpassing of the torch......or you could argue KC is still better this year than last......Likely to be 5-7 after 7 games when last year they were 3-4 after 7 with an easier schedule last year.

[AdolfOliverBush]

The Bills are getting treated like a kid in the Special Olympics, receiving a standing ovation because they broke 17 seconds flat in the 100 meter sprint.

The Chiefs couldn't get out of their own way, and still almost won the game.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by comochiefsfan

The new reality is we no longer have "the guy" at QB in the NFL.

Buffalo does.

For the first time in the Mahomes Era, we will have to find a way to beat a team in the playoffs that has an advantage over us at the QB position.

It's going to be a tall task for Reid, and I'm afraid we are lacking the personnel around Mahomes to help push him above Allen.

There's a long way to go until January though.

Jesus Christ what an unfathomably stupid take.

The Bills could offer Allen, Diggs, Davis, and 2 firsts for Mahomes and its still so hilariously not even close for their GM not to get laughed out of the building.

You are a very very VERY special kind of moron. A unicorn, if you will.

Imagine Mahomes backed by the best defense in football.

Now glance over what Josh Allen has done backed by the best defense in football.

[jjchieffan]

Every one of the media personalities seem to forget that last season, the Chiefs started 3-4 including a loss to the Bills at home. But come playoff time, the Chiefs were the higher speed and beat the Bills at Arrowhead. I'm not too worried about this loss. Everyone still has eleven games left to play. Plenty can and will change between now and then.

[AdolfOliverBush]

Originally Posted by comochiefsfan

The new reality is we no longer have "the guy" at QB in the NFL.

Buffalo does.

For the first time in the Mahomes Era, we will have to find a way to beat a team in the playoffs that has an advantage over us at the QB position.

It's going to be a tall task for Reid, and I'm afraid we are lacking the personnel around Mahomes to help push him above Allen.

There's a long way to go until January though.

This post is gayer than cum in a mustache.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Wallcrawler

Stupid ****ing ending to a stupid ****ing article. The Chiefs were already the underdogs at home. Multiple players on d out.

We need to be looking at this loss the same way Buffalo is looking at their loss to Miami. We had guys out. They took advantage. Good job doing what an NFL team is supposed to do, capitalize.

They very nearly didn't, and with all the talk of the Bills being a juggernaut, they sure did struggle to get to 24 on an injury riddled, rookie laden defense.

**** this article, and ANYONE who buys into this pussy ass bullshit.

Exactly, what he said!

Getting Gay back after Harris showing what he can be the last few games is pure win. This linebacking group is going to be excellent.

McDuffie? He is due to play soon if I am understanding correctly, this defense is going to be STRONG!

The offense is going to continue to improve with more time together.

This team has not yet begun to peak.

[MahomesMagic]

Buffalo's all in year and KC when they are rebuilding are similar teams.

[Chris Meck]

horseshit. /thread

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

KC when they are rebuilding

where does this nonsense keep on coming from

[LongSufferingToady]

Yeah, you're right guys, the article is horsedung. We're obviously going to the Super Bowl and the Chiefs have no personnel problems on the field or in the coaching. We're all good to go. (sarcasm)

[ThyKingdomCome15]

Retaining Wylie was not a mistake. Not getting someone better was.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by LongSufferingToady

Yeah, you're right guys, the article is horsedung. We're obviously going to the Super Bowl and the Chiefs have no personnel problems on the field or in the coaching. We're all good to go. (sarcasm)

All teams have flaws. It's a fact of the salary cap era.

No team is perfect.

KC is very young, starting a bunch of rookies, and still almost beat Buffalo-if not for 2 uncharacteristic INT's from Mahomes, we would have.

Are we saying that Mahomes is now an INT machine? because I doubt that's true.

He's human, as are all QB's.

Will we win the SB? I think it's absolutely as good of a bet as anyone else right now. That's legitimately all you can ask for 6 games into a season.

Anything else is a bunch of nonsense and hand wringing.


If you're looking at KC in week 6 and assuming this is the finished product, you're just being ridiculous. With all of these rookies learning on the fly, and all of these new guys in the WR room this team is not what they will be ten games from now. That's just reactionary stupidity.

So yeah, horseshit.

[Kman34]

Originally Posted by comochiefsfan

The new reality is we no longer have "the guy" at QB in the NFL.

Buffalo does.

For the first time in the Mahomes Era, we will have to find a way to beat a team in the playoffs that has an advantage over us at the QB position.

It's going to be a tall task for Reid, and I'm afraid we are lacking the personnel around Mahomes to help push him above Allen.

There's a long way to go until January though.

Shut your whore mouth Skip..

[Chiefspants]

JUST STANDIN' AROUND SUCKIN' ON A BIG OL' CHILI DOG