Bills-Chiefs Recap

As usual, the Bills fought hard in a close game but were unable to...what's that, they won? Good God.

Yes, I've double checked and it turns out the Bills have defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 41-7 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Bills dominated in all three phases of the game against the defending AFC West champions, turning three Chiefs turnovers into 17 points. New starting tight end and resident yokel Scott Chandler caught two touchdown passes from Ryan Fitzpatrick, who threw four total on the day (the other two were to Stevie Johnson and Donald Jones).

The Bills much maligned defense (dare we say it) dominated the Chiefs offense, allowing only 227 total yards against a team that run for 274 yards against them last year. The Bills surrendered only one long touchdown drive, an 11-play, 81-yard drive at the end of the first half. Jamaal Charles, who last year torched the Bills for 238 total yards, managed just 65 yards (although he did score the Chiefs lone touchdown).

Thoughts:

- Excellent use of waggles and rollouts by Bills offense. Using Fitzpatrick's mobility helped keep the Chiefs defense off balance, and more importantly, kept him off his back.

- Speaking of keeping Fitzpatrick off of his back, a hat tip is due to the Bills O-line. I'm sure most of us were expecting our line to be 1600 pounds of human misery against even an average pass rush, but they did very well, even if Tamba Hali did manage to rack up a sack.

- No one who watched the game could doubt that value of Fred Jackson to this offense, but I thought Spiller ran reasonably well during his few carries. I'm sure folks will have a problem with this stat line (5 carries, 16 yards, 1 TD), but I thought he was much more decisive than what I'd seen last year. He didn't get a lot of assistance from the line in his limited carries, but he made the most of them.

- The defense was much better at dealing with delays and draws. They did allow one big play to Dexter McCluster, but in general they were able to hold contain.

Next up for Buffalo are the Oakland Raiders, led by undead owner and GM Al Davis. It'll be another excellent test of our re-vamped run defense, and also a chance to use some of the value pack garlic the Bills picked up at Costco.

(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Three Quick Keys to Beating Kansas City

1. Play with discipline defensively.

I was going to headline this bit with something slightly more dramatic, like "Please stop the run. For the love of all that's holy, please stop the run". I would then curl up into a ball and ask for warm milk. I have my pride though.

No one was worse at stopping the run last season than the Bills, and no one was better at running the football than the Chiefs. A stout run defense hinges partially on the size/physicality of your defense (something the front office has concentrated on improving), but mostly on technique and discipline. Buffalo's defense will need to stack and shed well, and tackle better. A lot of responsibility will fall on the outside linebackers, who routinely failed to set the edge in 2010. Merriman and company will need to make sure that Jamaal Charles is funneled back to the strength of the defense. This defense is simply no longer built to deal with someone of Charles's speed and agility in the open field.

2. Hit Tamba Hali every play.


Last year, Hali had 1.5 sacks against an overmatched Bills line (well to be fair, just about everyone was overmatched against Hali- he was second in the league in sacks). If anything, the offensive line is less settled than it was last year, with both starting LT Demetrius Bell and starting LG Andy Levitre shuttled in and out of the lineup during the preseason. Neither Bell nor very tall journeyman RT Erik Pears is going to be up to the task of handling Hali on pass downs.

What the Bills do have going for them are three old fashioned blocking TEs in starter Scott Chandler (6'7" 263) and backups David Martin (6'4" 264) and Lee Smith (6'6" 269). They also have one of the NFL's best blocking running backs in Freddie Jackson. Expect to see a lot of chipping and double teams on Hali. Make him fight off consistent double teams, both in the pass game and the run game.

3. Forget about last year.

This seems an odd suggestion at first glance, I'm sure, but in many ways last season's game against Kansas City was the quintessential Bills game of 2010. They played extremely hard for nearly five full quarters and almost beat a playoff bound club. They failed to do so partly because of their terrible run defense, and partly because of self inflicted wounds. This game won't be about getting payback for last year's loss, this game will be about starting 1-0.