One of the NFL‘s more surprising teams, the Buffalo Bills, couldn’t keep their 10-point lead and fell to the Kansas City Chiefs 17-13
In what has to be one of the more surprising battles of teams with winning records the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills to improve to 6-3 while the Bills dropped to 5-4.
Jamaal Charles led the way for the Chiefs, rushing for 98 yards and a touchdown on 15 attempts while Alex Smith was 17-of-29 for 177 yards and a rushing touchdown. Kyle Orton went 29-of-48 for 259 yards and a score to lead the Bills.
The Bills got the scoring started early. They got great field position on their opening drive thanks to a 22-yard Leodis McKelvin punt return. They went 51 yards in seven plays capped by a 25-yard touchdown toss from Orton to Chris Hogan.
The Chiefs countered with an excellent drive but had to settle for a 36-yard Cairo Santos field goal.
The second quarter was highlighted by poor offense and dominating defense. The only points came on a Dan Carpenter field goal after a fumble by Knile Davis set the Bills up at the Chiefs’s 31-yard line, making it 10-3 at the half.
Late in the third quarter, the Bills finally got things going on offense again, marching 73 yards in 11 plays. The drive stalled at the four-yard line and Carpenter’s 21-yarder made it 13-3 Bills heading into the final quarter.
That’s when the Chiefs got into a a groove, highlighted by one huge run. Facing fourth-and-one from the Bills’ 39-yard line, the Chiefs pitched it to Charles, who made his way 39 yards for the score.
After the Bills were forced to punt, the Chiefs went three-and-out and were forced to punt. McKelvin couldn’t handle the punt and muffed it, giving the Chiefs the ball at the 26-yard line. After an 18-yard Charles run, Smith scored from eight yards out to give the Chiefs a 17-13 lead.
The Chiefs punted back to the Bills with McKelvin returned the punt 23 yards to the Chiefs’ 25-yard line. After picking up a first down at the 15, Orton through three straight incompletions. Facing fourth-and-10, Orton pumped and badly underthrew his next pass intended for Sammy Watkins in the end zone. It was nearly picked off and Kansas City took the ball back with 2:27 to play.
The Bills gave up a first down on the next drive so the Chiefs didn’t have to punt the ball back to the Bills until there was 27 seconds to play. The Bills’ desperation laterals did not work and the Chiefs left with the win.
The Chiefs will host the Seattle Seahawks next week while the Bills will be in Miami to take on the Dolphins Thursday night.