The Kansas City Chiefs headed into Buffalo with a cushion of momentum and that confidence that usually comes with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes in November. Well, they came out with a 28–21 loss, and their playoff hopes diminished a little. After the game, the head coach and quarterback had some interesting things to say.

Andy Reid came to one conclusion after watching his team get outclassed. “Against a team like this, you got to get off the field defensively, and you got to be able to stay on the field offensively and score touchdowns, not field goals,” he said. Yeah, the Chiefs had a chance to really close the gap before halftime itself.

Late in the first half, they moved the ball all the way down to the Bills’ 1-yard line after a 40-yard strike to Marquise Brown. It felt like the Chiefs would dial it in to level the game, but they chose to settle for a field goal from Harrison Butker. And against a defense like Buffalo’s, you need to prioritize those seven points.

“They got us on 1 vs 1s,” Reid added. Buffalo’s receiving corps has been criticised for weeks now. But the Chiefs might’ve made them like like championship caliber tonight. Tight end Dalton Kincaid caught all six of his targets for 101 yards and a score. RB James Cook racked up 114 yards. They let QB Josh Allen have an 88.5% completion rate.

“Can’t start the second half the way we did. That’s my responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen — and it did,” Reid remarked. On third-and-7, Mahomes took a deep shot down the right sideline to Brown, which was broken up by safety Bishop, who had help from DaQuan Williams pressuring up the middle. One incomplete pass, one 49-yard punt later, Buffalo had the ball again. And they made it count. Suddenly, it was 28–13 after three quarters.

“Listen, I could’ve helped the guys out, and I didn’t do a very good job of that. And then we’ve got to obviously do a little better when given that opportunity,” Reid added. But you can’t pin tonight’s loss entirely on him. Mahomes didn’t really look like his usual self. There were missed reads, the offensive line wasn’t solid, and the protection broke down way too often.

To make things worse, right tackle Jawaan Taylor suffered a right ankle injury. Reid confirmed it postgame, but said the team won’t know the full extent until further testing. That’s the last thing a struggling O-line needed.

And Patrick Mahomes held the locker room accountable.

Patrick Mahomes wants more consistency

“We’ve had great moments, we’ve had bad moments. We gotta be more consistent as a team. I gotta be more consistent at quarterback. We gotta learn from it fast. But I think our guys are up for it.” Yeah, after so many weeks of looking like genuine contenders, the Chiefs looked like a shadow of themselves on Sunday, November 2.

For all the talk about Kansas City finding its groove again, Buffalo reminded everyone just how wide that gap can be when the Chiefs aren’t firing. The Bills outgained Kansas City by 99 yards, held the ball nearly 10 minutes longer, and finished with seven more first downs.

And the intentional grounding call made things even worse. “I was trying to throw it closer to the guy down the field…Obviously, they didn’t see the ball get tipped, but that’s part of the game. You gotta move on from it,” Mahomes said.

On third-and-16, Mahomes dropped back and fired deep, only for defensive end Michael Hoecht to get a hand on it at the line. The ball fluttered, landed short, and out came the flag. Intentional grounding. Drive over. The Chiefs were down 21–13, and whatever momentum they had pretty much vanished. Their offense was held to just three conversions on 13 third-down attempts.

“There are no easy games coming up, and there are no more chances that we can really take losses. So, I mean, you got to learn from it fast, and we got to be better as a team offensively,” Mahomes added. Yeah, the Chiefs have a tough road up ahead as they face the Denver Broncos after their bye week.

After weeks of looking like MVP Mahomes again, tonight felt like a crash back to earth for him. He went 15-for-34 for 250 yards and an interception. The Chiefs head into their bye week with a long list of problems and a short time to solve them before facing a Denver team with the best red-zone defense in the league.