Getty Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Mike Danna and cornerback Rashad Fenton.
When the Kansas City Chiefs host the Buffalo Bills on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 5, it will be a rematch of last season’s AFC championship game. The Chiefs won the previous matchup 38-24, which lifted them into Super Bowl LV against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a game that Kansas City eventually lost.
The Bills have done very little to provide bulletin board material for the Chiefs leading up to their Sunday Night showdown. However, they have briefly spoken about the bitterness that still remains in the locker room regarding their loss to Kansas City in the playoffs last season.
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Sanders: Bills Still Bitter Over Loss to Chiefs
“The bruises are definitely there,” veteran receiver Emmanuel Sanders said of Buffalo’s feelings regarding the loss to Kansas City in the postseason, via Syracuse.com. “Just hearing everybody kind of speak up about, I could have been better here or been better there. And (now) trying to correct it and trying to go out here and get a win again in a hostile environment.”
While Sanders wasn’t part of that playoff battle last season, as he signed with the Bills this offseason, he’s obviously hearing the saltiness in Buffalo’s locker room from those who were part of that loss to Kansas City.
However, despite the loss last season, Buffalo can smell blood in the water in Week 5, and that blood is coming from the defending AFC champions.
Chiefs’ Poor Defense vs. Bills’ Elite Offense
The Bills and Chiefs are both coming off wins in Week 4. Buffalo shut out the Houston Texans 40-0, meanwhile, Kansas City beat the Philadelphia Eagles 42-30. Despite a win, what’s worrisome from the Chiefs’ victory wasn’t the points they scored, but rather, the points they gave up.
Eagles’ second-year quarterback Jalen Hurts threw for a career-high 387 yards and two touchdowns with zero turnovers against Kansas City. Philadelphia’s offense scored a total of 30 points against the Chiefs in that game, despite their offense only averaging 23.5 points per game this season even after the outing against Kansas City, according to ESPN.
Now, the Bills offense, which is second-best in the league in points per game, averaging 33.5, is coming to town. This is why some, like NFL analyst and former safety Ryan Clark, are predicting a record-breaking point total for Buffalo on Sunday Night Football in Week 5.
“Listen — I was probably washed in my last year in anyway. But for what I’m seeing from the Kansas City Chiefs, they have to give me a tryout,” Clark said during ESPN’s morning show, Get Up!. “I figure, you put me back there with Tyrann Mathieu, I can’t do any worse than they’re doing already. If you go back to halftime yesterday — 18 for 24, almost 250 yards, 25 yards rushing, and that was Jalen Hurts, the Jalen Hurts who couldn’t move the football against the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago, the Jalen Hurts who couldn’t move the football against the Dallas Cowboys. The Kansas City Chiefs are Swiss cheese; nobody even likes Swiss cheese, you don’t put Swiss cheese on anything, and that’s what the Kansas City Chiefs are.
“You have Patrick Mahomes, hell, let him play defense,” Clark continued. “Put Travis Kelce at defensive end, Tyreek Hill at cornerback, can’t be no worse. Turn it into a fricken flag football team, because that’s what you’re playing on defense anyway.”
Host Mike Greenburg mentioned that the Chiefs are going to play the Bills in Week 5, which prompted Clark to interrupt Greenburg.
“[The Bills] are going to score 78 points,” Clark said.
The Chiefs’ defense is so bad, @realrclark25 is about to come out of retirement and try out 😅
“I can’t do any worse than they’re doing already!”
With cornerbacks Rashad Fenton and Charvarius Ward returning from injury after missing the team’s Week 5 game, and defensive end Frank Clark trending towards returning to action as well, the Chiefs should be close to full strength on defense in Week 5. But based on the way the unit has played this season — being ranked 31st in the league in total points allowed through four weeks (125), 30th in rushing yards allowed (584), and 27th in passing yards allowed (1,167), according to ESPN — Kansas City is in line to give up a lot of points to the Bills.