Arrowhead Pride
The conference’s top two teams will square off for the head-to-head tiebreaker in playoff seeding.
For the eighth time in five seasons, the Kansas City Chiefs (9-0) will take on the Buffalo Bills (8-2) in a perennially important matchup. This year’s regular-season bout will take place on Sunday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. Kickoff is set for 3:25 PM Arrowhead time.
It will be the Chiefs’ third try at improving on a 9-0 record in franchise history. Victory would cement this year in organizational lore, but it would really help towards accomplishing the unprecedented task of winning a third-consecutive Super Bowl.
A successful Sunday would give the Chiefs a four-game cushion for home-field advantage on Buffalo, the Baltimore Ravens, the Houston Texans, and the Los Angeles Chargers. The Pittsburgh Steelers would be the only team within two games of the top spot in the conference.
The Bills could close that margin to just one game by taking care of business at home. That makes this a pivotal moment in the Chiefs’ season. Here are five things to watch in the battle of AFC contenders:
Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen has been one of the NFL’s cleanest passers this season, whether having the fifth-lowest interception rate among full-time starters or being sacked at the lowest rate in the same category.
“He’s doing a great job with the ball,” Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid said of Allen on Wednesday. “He’s using everybody, and he’s not forcing anything in there, obviously. I think he is doing great with his decision-making.”
The four interceptions have come in the last three games, but all four came within the structure of the play. Allen has managed chaos well this season — ranking fifth among qualified passers in EPA per dropback under pressure — because he is great at escaping and extending a disrupted play by throwing or running.
Chiefs’ defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo needs penetrative pass rush, and needs the front four to corral Allen without blitz help. Allen registers a 128.4 passer rating versus the blitz, with a league-leading 11 touchdowns to zero interceptions.
“He runs like a fullback,” Spagnuolo described on Thursday. “We know what we’re in for, we’ve gone against him quite a bit, we have a lot of respect for him, we have our work cut out with him.”
On pass downs, a linebacker will likely keep an eye on Allen for this reason. Former Chief Willie Gay Jr. primarily handled that role in the past.
Since wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins entered the mix, quarterback Patrick Mahomes has found a better rhythm. He has completed 72% of his passes over the last three weeks, with six touchdowns to only one interception.
Now wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster is set to return: he was taken off the final injury report, recovered from a hamstring injury suffered in Week 7.
It gives Mahomes three pass catchers that can...
