FIRST TAKE | Chiefs are UNSTOPPABLE with Mahomes is in MVP form! – Stephen A. WARNING Allen & Bills

FIRST TAKE | Chiefs are UNSTOPPABLE with Mahomes is in MVP form! – Stephen A. WARNING Allen & Bills

Hey, let me show you the AFC playoff picture. The AFC playoff picture is upside down, people. The Colts are on the top. The Patriots, the Broncos, the Steelers, and then you get to the heavyweights. There are the Bills. There are the Chiefs further down as we go. So, let’s play a game of contender kryptonite for these AFC division leaders. What are the things that could sidetrack them? Lewis, what is the kryptonite for these surging Indianapolis Colo? just to have another edge rusher to go with Liatu Lachu. A guy who can rush the passer on the outside to really kind of round out this defense because look in terms of number of sacks they’re right up there in the top 10 in terms of actual sacks but a pass rush win rate they need to improve that which means they need more juice on the perimeter. Look Anarumo hey last year remember he couldn’t coach this year all of a sudden now he’s got one of the best defenses in the NFL. They just need another piece. Yeah, when you when you score as many points as you do they’re going to get some sacks. Nick, how about the Patriots? What is their tonight? They give up too many big plays and they they’ve been a little bit better recently, but I think this defense is very good. The offense obviously has come along well with Drake May. But on defense, they they’ve blown coverages and missed tackles. While they play sound defense most of the time, when they get hurt, it’s because explosives. They too many hits. Jeff, let’s come to you on the Denver Broncos. What is their kryptonite? Well, I will say Bo Nicks’s accuracy here. I’m just going to say like if you Shawn Peyton’s going to get guys open like the bottom line is he understands how to script football. He gets that. Their defense is legit. They get after it. They have protected him exceptionally well. I think they’ve only given up. They lead the league. I think eight sacks. So, they’ve done an excellent job protecting him. It’s all going to boil down to his accuracy in big moments. You know, the the the common throws. Can he put him on time after time and stay consistent? If he does, this team is going to be reckoned with come January and February. And then Kmart, the Steelers. These are all the division leaders. Colts, Patriots, Broncos, and now Steelers. What is their kryptonite? You know what I’m going to say, Greenie? It’s that defense. Where’s the physicality? Where’s that bully mentality? Where’s the Pittsburgh Steelers of old where it’s like you don’t want to play them because they will knock your head off. It’s just not there right now. They’ve got the names on the back of the jerseys. These guys just need to play better. All right, so those are the four division leaders. I said it was upside down. Let’s go to the bottom of the playoff standings and look ahead to the match. Look, I I I always refer to this as a heavyweight fight, right? It’s like Ali Frasier. It’s Allen and Mahomes. We get to see them at least once a year, it feels like, and usually in the playoffs as well. Since 2020, their first meeting, the Bills are 4-1 in the regular year, 0 and4 in the playoffs. Buffalo’s defense has been the issue. Bills have allowed 14 more points per game in the playoff meetings compared to their regular season matchup. So, the question, Peter Scher, is we all understand these these are teams that are about January. I mean, that that’s when we will decide how their season was. So, what to you is at stake this Sunday? I I think so much is riding on this game for the Buffalo Bills. Psychologically, yes. We’ve talked about that at length. I also think the homefield advantage is playing a significant role here when we go to the playoffs. We’ve seen the Chiefs hold serve at Arrowhead. You don’t want to go in there obviously during during January football. It gives the Bills another shot, another edge if they can get that one seed, if they can beat the Patriots in the AFC East. To me, this matters long term. as much as it does just psychologically in the short term because these are two playoff teams. They are no matter what happens from here to then they will make the playoffs. If this game is a divisional round or an AFC championship game in Arrowhead, I find it very hard to see the Bills suddenly finding a way to win that game before the season began. This was the season of Buffalo and I feel like it stopped being that almost immediately. Are they not as good? Well, they’ve been as we think they Detroit on their defensive side last year. here. I mean, they’ve been they’ve been, you know, they’ve had a ton of injuries on the on the defensive side of the ball, and they’re not playing well on that side of the ball. And so, you just saw the stats in the regular season. They’re giving up 20 points a game against the Chiefs. They give up 34. It’s not Josh Allen’s side of the ball that struggles in the playoffs. So, if we’re talking about what are our weaknesses, the Bills need to figure this part out against the Chiefs this week of of what do we need to do well to get prepared for when we do face them come playoff time. I think there’s two things with Buffalo. We’ve talked about the defense at length, right? especially the run defense and their ability to rush the passer and everything that they’ve done from a personnel perspective is to deal with Patrick Mahomes come playoff time. The other point I remember asking Josh Allen this was what’s the next level for the offense? It’s the outside explosive passing game down the field. They can run the football against anyone. They’re the best offensive line in football, but when they have to throw it and they have to produce those explosives, is Khalil Shakir enough? Yeah, cuz does is Josh Palmer going to come along? that they have to get someone else on the outside to be able to stretch the field vertically because I think their offense is coming becoming a little bit more condensed now with this running game and Josh can only do so much Shakir made a great play last week in explosive but I think to your point it’s not only the ability to make the plays it’s the ability to threaten to make those plays and that’s when I understand that we have to respect what Brandon Bean’s done so far with this offense but they don’t have a guy that on game plan Wednesday where we all walk in and we say where’s this guy we got to protect him. You need that compliment to your rushing attack and I think they want Coleman to come along and be that but he hasn’t been it yet. So all the conversation in Buffalo right now is like where are the deep passes? Where’s the deep passing game on this team? Where’s that Josh Allen? What makes him so good? That deep threat. I will say psyche I’m always cuz I covered the Bills before since J you know since Bean has got there feel like when they’re counted out I actually think they’re better. Like I actually think psychologically the Bills are play better when nobody believes they can do anything. It’s the matchup of to me it’s the the matchup of the NFL season. Nine. We’re on a week nine. Watch. Peter, what are you watching this week? I know all eyes were on Lamar or Huntley, but gosh, I saw a thing that I recognized. That was a Ravens defense and it showed up last weekend against the Chicago Bears. Ravens defense got Rocoan Smith back. He looks tremendous. Alohi Gilman is now playing safety, meaning that Kyle Hamilton can breathe the chess piece we expect him to be. And when they needed it most, right here, Nate Wiggins made the play of the season, an interception that would lead to a touchdown. I don’t know if it’s Ed Reed and Suggs and Ray Lewis just yet, but I saw something that looked like a Ravens defense and they needed Kmart. What are you watching week nine? Different AFC North team. Can the Steelers actually upset Jeff’s Colts? This would be the kind of game that the Steelers would win where we’d be like, wait, how did they just beat the Colts? This defense has been disappointing over the last two games. 922 yards given up in the last two games. They’ve given up 30 points four times and they’ve only played seven games. So, they need this is quite a test for them, but I’m going to be looking to see if they can pull it off. That’s a one of It’s a great weekend, Slake. That’s a very interesting game. Nick, obviously, Casey and Buffalo, what are you watching for? Oh, it’s a measuring stick game for the Bills right now. I think they’ve had some surprising losses and this defense has been kind of poor so far this season. But I think we forget all that if that O line can pave the way in the rushing attack and they can get a win against Kansas City. We start to forgive some of those previous things and I think they start to believe in themselves again the way that this season started. We like the Bills were one of the favorites. They had an easy schedule. This offense was figured out. The defense will create turnovers. None of those things have kind of come to fruition as consistently we expect from a good team. So sometimes in sports conversation we try and dumb things down, make it as simple as we can. Let’s smart things up a little bit here. So you were a part of a rivalry that reminds me a lot of this, right? Chiefs, Bills, Allen, Mahomes, you were part of that. Colts, Patriots, Brady, uh, Manning. Yeah. The the playoff games, there were so many of them. And obviously those mean everything. So what do the regular season games mean? I mean, beyond seating, which we all understand is still enormous. What do they mean? You’re gleaning the information for what it’s going to look like in the future, right? you’re figuring out what’s their weak spot and how are we going to exploit this not only for that game but in the future right because you know it’s about matchups like when you watch people play other opponents you can’t always take something because you don’t do similar things so you’re seeing hey this is what this is what they wanted the Patriots how they wanted to play Pton Manning right they wanted to play rush three drop eight or what whatever their formula was for that time that’s what these teams have to see and I would say from the Bill side which is from the Colts side when they the Chiefs keep getting their number Right. The Patriots kept getting our number. We realized physicality in the run game were going to be kind of the way that we had to open that up. It would open up the pass game, but we had to be physical. That’s what Buffalo has done. They go get a good offensive line. They got James Cook. You have to put pressure on them because not only are you being able to score points, but you’re keeping Mahomes off the field very similar to how we had to play Tom Brady and that Patriots team. I I guess I get it and and all of that is great. What I’m trying to get at is the Bills keep beating them in the regular season and then losing in the playoffs. So I’ve got people Chris Russo yesterday said the Bills need to win this game because you know you know Josh never gets it done. But but the point I’m trying to make here as I take myself into a terrible mad dog it’s pretty good is um is if they beat them in the regular SE like I don’t I don’t even know what psychological difference it makes. We keep hitting them and then we keep losing them. How? However, what you’re not asking is on the other side if they lose to them. So, like I think that the beating them consistently in a regular season does help. It’s something it’s better than losing to the regular season. And to Jeff’s point, you learn what they think of you because you see uh you get a look at their entire game plan. You learn where they think you’re weak, how they think they can take advantage of you. And that gives you, I think, the advantage going into the postseason. It hasn’t worked out for them for whatever reason. We can go back to those games and point to single plays here and there. It’s not because the Chiefs were like definitively better than them every single time. And I think part of that being able to be competitive in those situations comes from showing yourself and showing them that we can beat you. Were they you were with the Bills last week and you were there trying to break up a fight? Were they already talking about Kansas City? Uh, no. A lot of guys in the locker room, I talked to Dion on the field about, you know, the how critical was it to get this win? As you turn the page and look at Kansas City, he’s like, we’re not even focused on Kansas City right now. Obviously, you know that their whole season is we’re looking at Kansas City, right? Um but but here’s the thing. Going into that game, I talked to players like Greg Russo about their run defense and how they were second worst in the NFL and stopping the run. And they were going up against Rico Dao, who to that point had been a monster. Well, they shut them down and two guys, Larry Ogen, Joby and Michael Hoy, came off of suspension to join the Bills defensive line and that did do something. Now, they’ve lost at Oliver. So when you’re looking at the pieces that they have, their run defense isn’t fixed, but I was encouraged based off of how they performed and then you add in the James Cook element. They’re 10 and one when James Cook goes over 100 yards. So I I think the Bills are in a good one of the pressure points in Buffalo, whether it be on talk radio or all offseason, was they don’t have that number one wide receiver. They don’t have that guy that can take the top off. And if you’re going to be in a shootout with the Kansas City Chiefs, can you rely on just giving it to James Cook? Do you can Shir do it? And I’ve spoken to Brandon Bean, the GM of the Bills, several times. Their whole mantra is everybody eats. Everybody eats. And they invested their money in the offensive line. They invested their money on defense. And they invested their money in a quarterback and a running back. That said, if they’re going to keep up with this Chief’s offense, which looks electric right now, like they look like they were in 2021, 2022. Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman Coleman is the one that really these guys, someone needs to step up because Concade’s banged up. You can’t just rely on your tight end. And we know that Josh Palmer got hurt a couple weeks ago. So, it’s like one of these guys needs to step up if you’re going to score it. I think it’s going to be a shootout in this game. Yeah. When I look at strategies though, like from the Bills perspective, in my opinion, a shootout is not the direction you want to go. You don’t want to go that way. It’s going to be tough to win. And and Momes for whatever you think about how good he is, if he the greatest ever, the dude don’t lose when it comes to shootout time. He finds ways to get the ball last, even in miracles. I mean, we saw it in playoff games, miracles stuff. So, I got Eduardo standing by. I come back. We’ll come back.

FIRST TAKE | Chiefs are UNSTOPPABLE with Mahomes is in MVP form! – Stephen A. WARNING Allen & Bills