Buffalo Rumblings
Is there another possible advantage for the Bills?
In a recent look at the Kansas City Chiefs, I noted some surprising facts about their defense and went into some possible advantages for the Buffalo Bills. Knowing I wanted to get a few GIFs, I left the broader conversation on one possible advantage for the Bills until now.
Quarterback Josh Allen’s penchant for escaping trouble looks to be quite the asset this Sunday. Let’s take a look.
Kansas City likes to blitz. Scratch that. They love to blitz! The Chiefs bring extra pass rushers 34.5% of the time, which is third in the NFL. Their blitz rate doesn’t quite match up with their success rate though.
Their sack rate sits at 6.55%, which is 25th in the league. Remember my rule of four. Teams in the top and bottom eight are considered outside average and the top/bottom four are significantly so. This means that Kansas City has a drastically high blitz rate to produce a statistically below-average result on sacks.
Being fair to KC, they do have the highest quarterback knockdown rate in the league, which accounts for hits to the QB after the pass is thrown in addition to sacks. They’re 11th in hurry rate and 10th in pressure rate — which combines hurries, sacks, and knockdowns.
If you put all of this data together it means the Chiefs aren’t bad at getting to the quarterback, they’re just not special either. If you don’t mind me piling on, it’s true for all teams that sacks can come in bunches, but for KC that’s especially true in 2024. Five of their sacks came in one game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Kansas City has 19 total, meaning that game accounts for over a quarter of their total.
Do you know who is special? The Bills when it comes to avoiding sacks. At a 4.3% sack rate, only the Green Bay Packers are better. How much better? The Bills are more accurately listed at 4.305%. Adding those extra digits to compare, Green Bay is at 4.301%.
Defensive end George Karlaftis can’t be taken lightly despite what I said above. Here he shows off a great long-arm approach, which keeps his jersey clean (from being grabbed) and allows him to disengage to make the sack. Watching all the Chiefs’ sacks so far this season, it’s clear Karlaftis brings some speed and finesse to their game and does have the ability to take over some one-on-ones.
Defensive tackle Chris Jones has been very complimentary of the wings here in Western New York recently, so it’s okay to like him a little bit... just not on Sunday. I don’t think Jones needs much introduction, but I wanted to show this particular sack as the hand-fighting to clear the arms is a lot of fun to watch. You know what would make it...
