Self-inflicted, the 2022 edition; The Chiefs' offense couldn't get out of its own way
Examining the self-inflicted offensive struggles against Buffalo that ultimately derailed the Chiefs' chances at seizing control of the AFC
Something that’s always fascinating in the aftermath of an important loss is the scramble to find the culprit who is responsible.
By that, I mean fans and analysts alike generally tend to rush to find “the” reason a team dropped a close game. Whether it’s Player X dropping a pass on a certain play, the offensive line, the pass rush, coverage, the quarterback, etc, it seems like it’s important for people to be able to find a primary source responsible for the loss.
So far this week, I’ve seen people place the blame on almost every facet of the Chiefs’ organization after an unfortunate 20-24 loss to the now-AFC-leading Buffalo Bills. Every position group has been looked at, both sides of the ball talked about in intense detail, and the coaching staff along with the personnel acquisition side of the franchise have taken their fair share of lumps. That’s a sign of a close game; there are many ways it could have gone differently, and thus many places that blame can be assigned.
Today, I want to talk about the offense. The Chiefs were able to hold (partly through their own play, and partly due to mistakes by Buffalo) the Bills to 24 points on the day, and on multiple occasions Kansas City had a chance to take control of the game and were unable to come up with any points at all.
To name just a few opportunities that were missed… the defense came up with a stop on the first drive of the game, and the offense failed to convert any points to take an early lead. When the defense forced a pair of punts on the Bills’ 3rd and 4th drives (after allowing only a field goal on their second drive), the offense punted the ball away both times, wasting a chance to grab a double-digit lead. When the Chiefs’ tied the game up at 17-all in the second half, the defense stopped the Bills on 2 consecutive drives, giving Mahomes and company a chance to take total control. Heck, the offense got the ball back up 3 points with 7:36 remaining in the game.
In other words, a LOT of opportunities were missed. So what happened? Even when we narrow the issue down to one side of the ball, people generally want to know who the primary culprit was in that area as well. Was Andy Reid not putting players in a position to succeed? Was the pass protection poor? Did Mahomes or his receivers fail, or perhaps the running backs?
The unfortunate truth is that the answer to those questions is, on various snaps, “yes.” In a return to something we saw far too often during the 2021 season, the Chiefs could not get out of their own way on offense, and the problem wasn’t limited to one area. That’s both good news and bad news. Let’s look at multiple potentially game-turning moments and what went wrong for the offense, then figure out if there’s a solution in sight.