Not only did the Kansas City Chiefs lose at home to the Buffalo Bills 38-20 on national television in Week 5, but they also suffered injuries to several key players, one of which was a valuable starter on offense.
Starting left guard Joe Thuney suffered a fractured hand against Buffalo, according to head coach Andy Reid. The severity — and ultimately the recovery timetable — for Thuney’s injury is unclear at this point.
“As far as injuries go, Clyde (Edwards-Helaire) hurt his left knee. We’ll just see how it goes overnight here into tomorrow. Tyreek (Hill) also hurt his knee a little bit. Then, (Joe) Thuney fractured a hand. Then, Chris Lammons had a skin laceration, he’ll be fine. Then, (Travis) Kelce had a little bit of a stinger,” Reid said in his postgame opening statement.
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Chiefs Beat Down by Bills
In a highly-anticipated matchup between two AFC powerhouses, Kansas City was beat down by a Buffalo team that was clearly better on both sides of the football.
The Bills offense racked up 462 yards of total offense; quarterback Josh Allen threw for 315 yards and three passing touchdowns, and also had 11 carries for 59 yards and another score on the ground, per ESPN’s box score. As for Buffalo’s defense, they got the best of quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City’s offense in Week 5. Mahomes threw for 272 yards, two touchdowns, and also had two interceptions, one of which was a pick-six. He also rushed eight times for 61 yards and had one lost fumble.
“Yeah, when things aren’t going right, it’s not necessarily communication as much as it is the execution part of it and then maybe trying too hard to make something happen,” Reid said when asked if he saw communication issues on both sides of the football. “Whether it’s gaining an extra yard, whether it’s trying to make a throw, tipped ball, lineman keeping a hand down on it or handing it off, it’s one of all these things. I don’t know if that’s necessarily communication, but it comes across that way. I think people know what they’re doing, you’ve just got to do it and you can’t go above what you’re supposed to do, just let the play happen.”
Tyrann Mathieu on Defensive Woes
Following the game, Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu addressed what happened on defense against the Bills.
“To be honest with you, I think we are beating ourselves. If you look back on it, go back to the Ravens game, it was missed communication, blown coverages,” Mathieu said. “In the Chargers game it was kind of the same thing. Tonight, I think most of their explosive pass plays were guys running wide open down the field. Obviously, we don’t practice that. Our coaches don’t teach that. You’ve got to find a way to dig deep, man. Every team we play wants to beat us. They want to beat us bad. I think we have to understand that coming into these kind of games.”
However, Mathieu couldn’t quite put his finger on why these types of mistakes are happening.
“For one, you can’t keep every player. Our room has changed from the first year, to the second year to even this year,” he said. “There are some new faces. That is definitely not an excuse. I feel like we practice really hard and we detail our work. I don’t know what it is. Obviously, we are not going to give up. I’m not going to give up. Coaches aren’t going to give up. This is still a long season for us. We are only two and three. That is not our expectation. We do have a lot of football left to play. You look forward to turning the page going forward.”
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Chiefs’ Joe Thuney Suffers Injury vs. Bills, Recovery Timeline Uncertain