The Bills Have No Answers on Defense
You can give the Bills’ defensive coaching staff credit for at least trying something different on Monday. Buffalo made several changes to its defensive lineup, scratching Trent Murphy and Harrison Phillips and plugging Justin Zimmer and Bryan Cox Jr. into the lineup. They also used A.J. Klein exclusively at the linebacker position vacated by the injured Matt Milano. Tyrel Dodson played a grand total of zero snaps on defense.
Buffalo also employed an interesting strategy on defense. Sean McDermott hinted in his postgame press conference that the Bills were willing to concede rushing yards to the Chiefs in order to contain Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Kansas City’s downfield passing game.
Unfortunately for the Bills, whatever they tried fell woefully short.
While the Bills were successful at holding Kansas City to under 30 points, the Chiefs had the advantage the entire way every time they had the ball. The Bills simply could not get the Chiefs off the field as Kansas City took what the Bills gave them and ranked up a whopping 245 yards on the ground. Clyde Edwards-Helaire was the star as he carried the ball 26 times for 161 yards.
And while the focus was on stopping Mahomes and the Chiefs through the air, the Super Bowl MVP still completed 21 of 26 passes for 225 yards and tossed two first half touchdowns to Travis Kelce.
Buffalo had no answers for the Chiefs offense. You can argue that the strategy to let the Chiefs run the ball worked as Kansas City was held under 30 points and Hill had only three receptions for 20 yards, but the Chiefs were taking chunks of yards whenever they needed to. The gameplan may have worked better had the Bills kept Phillips and Murphy in the lineup. They went to a smaller personnel group up front and the Chiefs took full advantage.
The Bills were simply bullied in the run game. You have to wonder about the group the Bills have at defensive tackle. They are not holding up against the run and they are not generating any pressure up the middle. They also are unable to keep their linebackers clean. Ed Oliver is really struggling. Perhaps the knee injury he suffered in Week 2 at Miami is hurting him more than the Bills have been letting on.
Meanwhile, Tremaine Edmunds has taken a huge step back in his third season. He looked confused and out of place often on Monday. It’s clear that his shoulder injury is still limiting him physically, but his instincts have also been poor as he has often put himself out of position. An example would be the first touchdown by Kelce, where Edmunds got lost in coverage and was late to get to Kelce near the goal line.
Right now, you can’t count on the Bills defense to find that level they were at in 2018 and 2019. Regression has come and it has come hard for Leslie Frazier’s unit. The injuries have decimated this defense, but the overall personnel is simply not as good as it was a year ago. And the Bills once again have fallen short against a team with a good quarterback.
The good news for the Buffalo defense is that the schedule gets easier in the next two weeks. On Sunday, they visit a Jets team that is absolutely hapless on offense. The following week, they see a Patriots team that is suddenly struggling on offense as well. If the Bills’ defense can’t step up in the next two weeks, they can’t be trusted to help out at all this season.