KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
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Buffalo’s regular-season dominance against the Kansas City Chiefs continued Sunday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, where the Bills won 28-21.
It’s their fifth straight win in the series during the regular season, but the Chiefs have won all four postseason matchups.
In 10 meetings since the start of the 2020 season, the series now stands at 5-5 after Buffalo survived two Hail Mary attempts in the closing seconds.
“Against a team like this, both offensively and defensively, you’ve got to get off the field defensively and stay on the field offensively and score touchdowns not field goals,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.
The Chiefs beat the Bills 26-17 on the road 2020, but have lost five straight regular-season games — in 2021, 2022 and 2023 at home and each of the last two seasons at Highmark — in the five seasons since.
Of course, it’s a tradeoff Kansas City is happy to make given its 4-0 record against Buffalo in the postseason during that stretch.
The Chiefs beat the Bills twice in the AFC Championship Game — during the 2020 and 2024 seasons — and twice in the AFC Divisional Round — the 13-second game during the 2021 season and at Highmark during the 2023 season.
It remains to be seen if another postseason meeting awaits, but Kansas City will play at the new Highmark Stadium, when it opens adjacent to the current stadium for the 2026 season.
The AFC West and AFC East are slated to meet, according to the NFL scheduling formula.
Buffalo (6-2), which has won five straight division titles, currently sits second in the AFC East, while Kansas City (5-4), which has won nine straight AFC West titles, currently sit third in their division and wouldn’t be in the playoffs if they started today.
Now, the Chiefs will regroup and try to get healthy, especially along the offensive line, during the bye week.
TIGHT END TROUBLE
Playing man coverage against tight end Dalton Kincaid, linebacker Drue Tranquill tripped at the 12-yard line, giving Josh Allen an easy throw for a 23-yard touchdown.
It was the start of a long half for the Chiefs’ defense, which allowed 246 yards, including half on throws to Bills tight ends.
Kincaid, who had three catches for 75 yards, combined with Dawson Knox and Jackson Hawes to burn Kansas City’s defense for 123 yards on five completions to that tight-end trio in the first half.
The TD from Allen to Kincaid toss capped an 11-play game-opening drive that covered 84 yards and took exactly 7 minutes.
Kansas City went three-and-out on its first possession, but Buffalo’s offense couldn’t capitalize.
The Bills’ fourth-down gamble near midfield on their second drive failed when safety Bryan Cook broke up Allen’s pass intended for Khalil Shakir over the middle.
The Chiefs, who would return the favor with a failed fourth down in the closing minutes of the first half, scored the next 10 points, including a 46-yard Harrison Butker field goal for their first lead of the game.
But Ty Johnson capped a five-play, 70-yard rebuttal to reclaim the lead midway through the second quarter with a 3-yard touchdown. Kincaid had a 47-yard catch and run earlier in the drive to set up the go-ahead score.
A 30-yard bomb from Allen — who finished 23 of 26 for 273 yards with three touchdowns, including two rushing — to Dawson Knox on Buffalo’s next drive set up a 1-yard QB sneak for a 21-10 lead.
“They got us in one-on-one situations and did a nice job,” Reid said. “It’s a tough ask. We didn’t have enough pressure on them to make him rush it. He had a little time to allow that to happen.”
Kincaid finished with six catches for 101 yards, becoming the first 100-yard pass catcher against Kansas City since Cleveland's Jerry Jeudy had 108 yards in a December 2024 game, a span of 13 games.
COOK RUNS WILD
Running back James Cook, who entered the game as the NFL rushing leader, became the first running back to crack 100 yards against Kansas City’s defense.
Cook, who finished with 27 for 114 yards, the best rushing performance since Zamir White racked up 22 carries for 145 yards on a 20-14 Christmas Day win late in the 2023 season.
That's a span of 29 games in the regular season. Including the postseason, it had been 36 games since a running back topped the century mark.
“A lot of missed tackles,” defensive tackle Chris Jones, who had two tackles, said. “Usually, we’ve been doing a really good job of getting the tackle, wrapping them up and solidifying the play. Today, we had couple broken tackles, which led to bigger runs.”
Cook also caught an 11-yard pass that helped ice the game, leaving the Chiefs with only 22 seconds even after a missed 52-yard field goal by Matt Prater gave Kansas City one last gasp.
“They utilized Cook a great deal in their offense, whether it’s running the ball or getting him out of the backfield passing the ball. They had very, very good playcalling today and utilizing Cook. So, we didn’t execute on our end; they executed on their end, and they end up winning the game.”
Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson rushed for 122 yards in the 2024 season-opener.
He had 11 carries for 64 yards in the half.
RUNNIN’ RASHEE
Rashee Rice scored untouched from the Wildcat formation with Kareem Hunt and JuJu Smith-Schuster as the lead blockers on the first play of the second quarter.
It was the second straight game Kansas City snapped the ball directly to Rice in a goal-to-go situation.
Last week, Rice had a touchdown run overturned on expedited review — Hunt wound up with a 1-yard score instead during Monday night’s win against Washington — but there was no review needed this time.
Rice, who had picked up a first down with a 3-yard carry on an end-around in the first quarter, had two carries for 12 yards against the Commanders and added another two carries for 6 yards and a touchdown against the Bills.
He added team-highs of four catches and 80 receiving yards.
Kansas City trailed 7-0 after the first quarter, but had a first down at the Buffalo 3-yard line to start the second quarter after Hunt converted with a 6-yard gain on third-and-1.
Hunt, who had 11 carries for 49 yards, and the Chiefs have now converted 18 of 20 times on third- or fourth-and-1 this season using “The Hunt Bunt,” according to the CBS broadcast.
FURIOUS CLOSE TO FIRST HALF
Mahomes was 4 of 10 for 57 yards and Buffalo was threatening to blow Kansas City out when the Chiefs took possession with 1:33 remaining before halftime.
After a short gain to Hunt, the Chiefs’ offense, which was getting outgained 247-107 at that point, finally got untracked. Mahomes found Travis Kelce, who had been held without a catch to that point, for a 20-yard gain and Hollywood Brown on a 40-yard pass on back-to-back plays.
But Kansas City’s momentum stalled at the 1-yard line.
Buffalo was ready for the handoff to Hunt up the gut on first down, Mahomes got flushed and threw the ball away without spotting Kelce wide open in the front of the end zone on second down, and a forced third-down throw to Kelce also was incomplete.
“Situationally, we’ve got to be better,” Mahomes said. “We had a few of those where we didn't execute at a high enough level and that’s why we got the loss.”
The Chiefs settled for a 19-yard Butker field goal with 3 seconds left, trailing 21-13 at halftime, while Kelce headed to the locker room early to get his ribs examined after getting crunched with a shoulder in the gut by Bills safety Cole Bishop on the third-down throw.
“We’ve got to come away with points,” Reid said. “... Getting the field goal was the right thing to do there.”
Kelce returned for the second half and finished with a team-high four catches for 66 yards, while Brown had two catches for 73 yards.
Kansas City got the ball to start the second half, but went three-and-out as they had in the opening half.
FOURTH-DOWN MAGIC
Mahomes is no stranger to conjuring fourth-down magic, but he outdid himself midway through the fourth quarter.
Kansas City trailed 28-13, had just lost its starting right tackle Jawaan Taylor to injury and found itself in no man’s land.
Facing fourth-and-17 at the Buffalo 40-yard line, Reid decided to put the ball in his best player’s hands and see what happened.
All Mahomes did was complete a 29-yard pass to Rashee Rice for the longest fourth-down conversion of his career.
“Coach just trusted us,” Mahomes said. “We were kind of in that range where we were too long for a field goal, but there was no reason to really punt, so Coach gave us a chance,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, Rashee did a great job getting open in like the last window.”
Four plays later, Hunt plowed into the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown on fourth-and-1.
Mahomes, who finished 15 of 34 for 250 yards with no touchdowns and an arm-punt interception in the fourth quarter, then darted a two-point conversion pass to Kelce to draw the Chiefs within 28-21 with 11:32 remaining.
Mahomes' 44.1% completion rate was the lowest of his career and the first time he failed to complete at least half of his passes.
WHEN GROUNDING ISN’T REALLY INTENTIONAL
Midway through the third quarter, a promising drive went awry after a botched penalty call.
Mahomes and Kelce had connected for 28 yards on third-and-9 as the Chiefs escaped the shadow of their own goal line.
Brashard Smith ran for 4 yards on first down, but Mahomes got pressured and threw an incompletion on second down.
The refs huddled well after the play and flagged Mahomes for intentional grounding, even though the pass had been tipped and no penalty should have been called.
That erroneous penalty turned third-and-6 into third-and-16, which led Mahomes to hold onto the ball and take a sack that led to a punt.
“Obviously, they didn’t see the ball get tipped, but that’s part of the game, you know, you’ve got to move on from it,” Mahomes said.
He admitted that he hoped to “burn one” and throw the pass in the dirt in Noah Gray’s vicinity, but that shouldn’t have come with a loss of the down and 10 yards.
It became harder for Chiefs Kingdom to move on, though, when Buffalo marched 74 yards after the bad call for what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown.
Reid tried to have the play reviewed — and tipped passes are reviewable in the case of a defensive pass interference penalty — but Referee Carl Cheffers said no aspect of the play was reviewable and the call stood.
The apology email that the NFL surely will send the Chiefs should arrive at 1 Arrowhead Drive soon.
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