The Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills have become the premier rivals of the National Football League. In the postseason, Mahomes and Co. have dominated. But Josh Allen and the rest of his herd have their boasting rights too, collecting regular-season wins against their conference counterparts, the latest coming in their Week 9 matchup.
Advertisement
Thanks to the triumph, Allen has now won five consecutive regular-season games against Mahomes, the most by any opposing quarterback. Allen is now 5-5 against Mahomes when we include the playoffs.
Yes, that statistic is glaring: Allen has a 5-1 head-to-head advantage in the regular season but is 0-4 down to Mahomes in the playoffs. So, this latest regular-season loss wouldn’t be an issue, but not this time.
The Chiefs are hoping to salvage their playoff hopes after an uncharacteristically bad start to the year. So the 28-21 loss will almost certainly continue to sting as the season carries on. However, Mahomes is choosing to view this as a learning opportunity rather than an outright defeat.
The lesson from Week 9 for Mahomes is “consistency.” During his post-game appearance at the podium, the three-time Super Bowl champion explained his learnings from the loss. “We gotta find a way to get in the end zone,” he began.
“Just after the big play and getting down at the half-yard line… We weren’t able to get two chances for me. I tried to get it to Trav, and obviously, he took the big hit, but we’ve got to find a way to get in the end zone. I’ve got to be better there… We didn’t really execute at a high enough level, and that’s why we got the loss,” added Mahomes, who admitted he has some room for improvement, too.
Mahomes was talking about “working the pocket” and knowing when to tuck it and run. Historically, he hasn’t had many issues with that, but for whatever reason, he did this Sunday.
Now that the Chiefs have a 5-4 record through the first two months of the season, the need for consistency, like Mahomes stated, seems more pertinent than ever before.
“We’ve had great moments. We’ve had bad moments. We’ve got to be more consistent as a team,” said Mahomes. “I’ve got to be more consistent at quarterback… We’ve been in a lot of these close, tight games in our history. They aren’t going our way now, so how can we deal with that adversity, be better, and learn from it?”
Mahomes and the rest of his tribe will now have the opportunity to regroup during their bye week before returning in Week 11 to take on the front-runners of the AFC West, the Denver Broncos. That contest is scheduled to take place in Denver, Colorado, so they won’t necessarily receive a standing ovation when they trot out onto the field.
However, Mahomes sports a 13-1 career record against the Broncos. So, unless Bo Nix has a bit of magic tucked up his sleeves, fans can expect the Chiefs to bounce right back after receiving a much-needed break from action.
