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The players in the Buffalo Bills locker room will want you to believe each one of them had no idea the Kansas City Chiefs were their opponent in Week 5 throughout last week.
But… c’mon.
They knew, and now it’s finally time for the Bills (3-1) to face that reality after their 40-0 annihilation of the Houston Texans on Sunday. Ready or not, it officially became Chiefs week the second that game ended.
But even so, the Bills aren’t ready to lend any motivational narratives to the Chiefs (2-2). Following their win over the Texans, several Buffalo players were already asked to look ahead. Vastly different approaches were taken.
The player that’s going to be at the center of this one for Buffalo (as usually is the case) is quarterback Josh Allen. The QB finally admitted he knows who the Bills’ next opponent is… but pointed the finger toward the media in terms of who’s making a big deal about the game.
“I mean, yeah,” Allen said via video conference. “It’s no surprise that I think you guys are gonna make a big deal out of it. But again, it’s one game. It’s the biggest game that we got because it’s the next game. But we won’t turn our attention towards them until tomorrow. Gotta get in and watch the film from this one. Learn what we need to learn from our tape and then turn our attention toward them.”
Like the PR-friendly quarterback, Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott took a coach-speak approach to the upcoming contest. He’s already tipping his cap to Kansas City head coach Andy Reid.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for them,” McDermott said. “Andy Reid always has his team ready to go.”
But at least we did get some fun answers from a few players, particularly on defense. Safety Micah Hyde was perhaps the most candid.
The AFC title loss to the Chiefs last year still stings from the sound of it.
“Any time you lose a game, you’re angry; any time you lose the AFC Championship Game, you’re a little angrier,” safety Micah Hyde said via press conference. “But I think at the end of the day we’re going to come in here and watch this film, we’re going to correct it, and then watch film on (the Chiefs) and see what we can do to get better.”
Defensive tackle Ed Oliver took an approach that the Bills have to use their trip to Kansas City to show exactly who they are as a team and defense… and in some respects, win or lose, Oliver’s going to continue feeling that way.
“We really ain’t proved nothing,” Oliver said. “It doesn’t matter until you get into them later months, the playoffs, that’s what I found out in this league; it don’t matter what you do right now, it’s about how you play then. We’re building up to play well then.”
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