3 Kansas City Chiefs to blame for ruining perfect season with loss to Bills

The Kansas City Chiefs' dreams of a Super Bowl three-peat may still be alive but any hopes of matching the 1972 Dolphins with a perfect season to do it are now well down the drain. Sunday's loss in Buffalo to the rival Bills was the first of the year for Andy Reid's team and it was a backbreaker too.

This was, as you'd expect with these two familiar foes, a back-and-forth affair that was tight throughout. In the waning minutes of the game, though, the Chiefs defense had an opportunity to put Kansas City in position to win. Trailing just 23-21, they had the Bills at fourth-and-2 in Chiefs territory and needed one more stop to get the ball back for a potential game-winning drive.

Instead, Josh Allen rolled through the defense for a 26-yard touchdown.

While Patrick Mahomes and Co. got the ball back, they fell short and took the 30-21 loss on the chin. All is not lost for the Chiefs, obviously. They remain atop the AFC standings and are primed still to contend for the aforementioned third-straight Super Bowl. Having said that, losing has been foreign to this team this season, so it's time to blame someone (or multiple someones) for why Kansas City's perfect season is no more.

3. TE Travis Kelce

We know two things pretty clearly at this point of the season with the Chiefs offense. For one, without Rashee Rice and (in theory) Hollywood Brown, this isn't the same unit that we'd come to expect for the first few years with the Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes combo at the controls. On top of that, however, we've also seen that star tight end Travis Kelce may not be the same consistently dominant force he once was for this unit.

Having said that, one thing that's largely been bankable has been Kelce showing up big when it comes to the most important games of the season. That's been most notable in the playoffs, including last postseason when he was near unstoppable. So you'd also think that'd be the case in a game of this high profile in facing the Bills.

That was not remotely the case in Buffalo, though. Kelce hauled in just two of his four targets on the day for a measly four yards. And while Noah Gray did his part to try and step up with two touchdown catches, the Chiefs have to expect more from their veteran star in Kelce. It's possibly it's just a blip on the radar but it was ill-timed even if that was the case.

2. HC Andy Reid and DC Steve Spagnuolo

Make no mistake, the Chiefs probably aren't even close to undefeated entering Week 11 if not for the coaching staff, specifically head coach Andy Reid and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. They've been wizards with getting everything they can out of both sides of the ball despite some obvious limitations that we've seen. Despite all of that, Sunday was not their finest moment.

Starting with Spagnuolo, I'm really just looking at one play in particular (though we could talk about tackling as a whole needing to be a focus). On the Allen scramble that ultimately secured the win for the Bills, there wasn't a Monday Morning Quarterback in the world sitting on their couch and watching the action who didn't heavily suspect that the most likely fourth-and-2 play call was going to be keeping it in Allen's hands.

And yet, the Chiefs were either wholly unprepared or completely blown off of the ball in that moment. Yes, the tackling was piss-poor that allowed the quarterback to get into the end zone but that might've been by design to give the offense at least some chance to spark a comeback. But the inability to stop Allen before the first-down marker seemed like a glaring defensive error.

As for Reid, he's a bit less at fault but it still wasn't his best effort. The fact that the Chiefs only ran the ball 17 times in a game wherein they averaged 4.6 yards per carry and that was close throughout is a tough look. Perhaps a bit more balance would've benefitted the Kansas City attack and not had the game slip out of their reach.

1. DB Chamarri Conner

There's a reason that the Chiefs were connected to the likes of Marshon Lattimore at the trade deadline. That deal obviously fell through but it still left this defense with lingering questions outside of Trent McDuffie in the secondary. And the Bills took full advantage of those questions or, more pointedly, at the fact that Kansas City didn't have any answers. Even more bluntly, Chamarri Conner was picked on brutally in this matchup.

Bills slot receiver Khalil Shakir led the team in receptions and yards with a 7-80 performance on the day while the other slot guy, Curtis Samuel, was second on the team with five catches for 58 yards and a touchdown. Conner, playing primarily in the nickel, was lost in coverage and Allen absolutely seemed to be looking at him as the target whenever he could, which the numbers back up.

If that wasn't bad enough, though, Conner was also dismal at trying to make plays in the open field as a tackler. The veteran looked more like a matador than an NFL defensive back with how many whiffs or broken arm tackles he was a part of, allowing the Bills to consistently chip away with more yardage and sustain drives.

Either Conner has to be better or the Chiefs need to even more seriously consider bringing in other options moving forward. Plain and simple.