Buffalo Rumblings
While the Chiefs are almost guaranteed to have many of their missing players back, Buffalo may have some new injuries to deal with this week
The Kansas City Chiefs lost one game this season when they played their starting unit. That came in Week 11 against the Buffalo Bills in a hard-fought matchup that ended in a 30-21 score. As often happens with games in the middle of the season, both the Chiefs and the Bills had plenty of players banged up for the contest.
Kansas City was missing four key starters in Week 11, and a fifth player — kicker Harrison Butker — who contributes tremendously on special teams. Among those missing players, three of them were offensive players who will be in uniform this week. The Chiefs were also without stud wideout Rashee Rice, who suffered a serious knee injury in Week 4 and won’t play until next season.
Running back Isiah Pacheco was one of the Chiefs’ missing persons against the Bills, as he was on Injured Reserve (IR) with a fractured fibula. This marks the second straight season where Pacheco missed the regular-season tilt between the Chiefs and Bills before suiting up for the playoff matchup. Last year, Pacheco rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries against Buffalo in the playoffs — his highest total during last year’s postseason.
This season, Pacheco has struggled since returning from the injury. In two games before breaking his fibula, he carried 34 times for 135 yards and a touchdown. In the six games he’s played since returning, Pacheco has carried 54 times for 193 yards and one touchdown while splitting carries with veteran running back Kareem Hunt.
Marquise “Hollywood” Brown is also back in action for the Chiefs. He missed the first matchup between these two clubs because he was on IR thanks to a shoulder injury.
He’s played in three games since returning, nabbing nine of the 17 passes thrown his way for 91 receiving yards. While those aren’t big numbers, it just gives Patrick Mahomes yet another target to find in the passing game.
Adding Brown to JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeAndre Hopkins, Xavier Worthy, Noah Gray, and the most important piece, Travis Kelce, makes for a much more diverse offensive group.
Perhaps most importantly, the Chiefs will have a pair of defensive starters in defensive end Charles Omenihu and cornerback Jaylen Watson for this one. Omenihu was out in November while he was recovering from an ACL tear he suffered in last year’s AFC Championship Game.
Omenihu had just six tackles and a sack in his six regular-season games, but he had four tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble in last week’s 23-14 win over the Houston Texans. The Chiefs and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo do a great job disguising their intentions on the blitz, and Omenihu is just another weapon for the defensive mastermind to deploy.
Watson, on the other hand, is a fantastic corner, and while he split time with Nazeeh Johnson...
