Kansas City Chiefs vs Buffalo Bills – NFL Week 9 | Field Pass Pregame Show 🏈

Kansas City Chiefs vs Buffalo Bills – NFL Week 9 | Field Pass Pregame Show 🏈

Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] This team is hungry. This team isn’t done. This team is not going to be denied. Energy all day. Energy all day. [Music] Nick Bolton makes the hit. It’s intercepted by Ryan C. Yeah. [Music] The Chiefs took care of business last week for our fifth win in our last six games. And now with a chance to ride a four-game winning streak into Dubai, we’re back in Buffalo for a showdown against Josh Allen and the Bills. We are two hours from kickoff. We’ve waited all week for this very moment, it’s finally here. It is time for football in Chief’s Kingdom. Let’s do this. My name is Matt McMullen joined by Voice of the Chiefs, Mitch Dolphus. This is Field Pass presented by Storage Mart. And Mitch, Field Pass was on a bit of a hiatus last week. We had some technical issues and couldn’t do our show on Monday Night Football. But we’re back this week for what might be the game of the year. We did a show. We did. Never happened. No one saw it. No one saw it. But it was a good rehearsal for this. We’ve waited all week, but it’s been a short week and a short week and go on the road and play a team of high caliber. It’s a challenge for the Chiefs, but one that you and I have felt good about all week long. Well, let’s talk about the Chiefs defense a little bit to start out. Uh, this is the number two scoring defense in the NFL. They’re only allowing 16.4 points per game and over the last 3 weeks they’ve allowed a grand total of 24 points. What’s impressed you most about our defense so far this year? Matt, we talk about offenses finding a rhythm and but defenses can too. And I really feel like really over the past four weeks or ever since the the um Jacksonville game, there has been a rhythm from this defense as far as we play so many combinations whether it’s three safeties, three corners and dime. We go through the corners and safeties, but linebackers, but they’re working in concert and uh they’re going to have to do that against this team today. But it’s a defensive team from a scheme standpoint, from a working together standpoint, a communication standpoint that’s on fire and they are in a rhythm. You know, we’ve been so good against opposing running backs, too. Specifically, uh we haven’t allowed a single runner to top a 100 rushing yards against us in a game this year. And we’ve played guys like Saquon Barkley, Jir Gibbs, Travis CTN, Derk Henry, and others. And looking at the last two weeks, they held Ashton Genty and Jaka Kroski Merritt. Two pretty good young players to a combined 46 rushing yards. They’ve been great against the run and we’ll need him at their best once again here today. Yeah. See, and Mike Panel is going to come walk by us. He’s back. He’s back. So, he’s going to be right behind us. That’s what’s fun. There he is. And he’s excited. Uh so, but the the run defense will be challenged in this game like no other this year just because and we’ll get into it. It’s the whole package of what Buffalo is doing now. They’re more committed to it than ever. Nobody’s running the ball more than the Bills in the whole NFL. You’re really, you saw Army at the end of September. They’re playing Army in the NFL version of it or the Ravens of a couple years ago. Uh or the Eagles, that’s what the Bills have become. Yeah, it’s surprising. You don’t think of Buffalo and running the football like this, but no one has run the football better than these guys this year. uh their 1,115 rushing yards lead the NFL. And that’s despite playing one fewer game than just about everyone else because they already had their by-week. They’re averaging 164 rushing yards per game this season. Their most as a team since 1976. Like you said, their 32 rushing attempts lead the NFL per game. Uh and at the center of of all of it is James Cook. What a season he’s having. Only Jonathan Taylor has more rushing yards this year. What he did last week was phenomenal. He had 216 yards and less than 20 carries. That’s only happened three other times in the history of the National Football League. Bobby Mitchell uh in 1959. Bo Jackson when he was playing for the Royals and the Raiders in 1987 then a couple year years ago with Derek Henry. But when you think about that kind of volume and you’re not carrying it 35 times, it tells you one very productive and very explosive. Got to slow him down. Also need to slow down their short passing game. So that’s been their bread and butter this year. For example, Khalil Shakir is our leading receiver this season with 356 receiving yards. Well, 298 of those yards have occurred after the catch. Only Jamar Chase has more among wide receivers. It’s pretty simple for the Chief defense today. You can’t let a 2-yard catch turn into a 20 yardd game. And the tight ends enter this picture, too. Dawson Knox and Daltton Concincaid, uh, who are both are very effective in that 5 to 7 to 12 yard range. And where they do it is is uh maybe the best version of RPO other than us in the fact that Josh Allen is so good on RPOS’s and a threat to run it that he can pull it out really quickly and find everybody we mentioned here for eight yards. So you’ve got to play the run. You’ve got to be disciplined, but you can’t forget the short passing game and then have it turn into a bigger game because of broken tackles. Well, you know what’s strange? You think about Josh Allen and the Bills. You think about the deep passing game, right? Well, Allen actually has the lowest passer rating of any quarterback in the NFL on throws of 20 or more yards this season. It’s crazy. I don’t totally buy it. It’s still Josh Allen. It’s still the Bills. But, uh, for what it’s worth, like we’ve talked about, their whole offense is designed around running the ball in the short passing game, and it might play right into our hands defensively. His passer rating of throws of 20 yards or more is 29. It’s crazy. Uh, he has had 18 incompletions, nine completions, and three interceptions. The crazy stat is he would have a better quarterback rating if he had all incompletions. It’s just not very Josh Allenike. But if you look at his receiving core, this isn’t the same, right? This isn’t Stefon Diggs on this team in his prime or a Gabriel Davis in his prime. Uh nothing against Khalil Shakir, but he’s an underneath guy. They don’t have Joshua Palmer today. And so, uh it’s just it’s just different in the way Buffalo’s doing their business. And I really think they’re doing it to protect their defense. They’re right now number one in the NFL. uh the Bills 33 minutes and 15 seconds of time of possession on the average on the average after seven weeks and they’re 21 and four in their last 25 when they win the time of possession possession battle. So they want to keep the ball. Uh they’re not chucking it down the field but still really dangerous and effective. Well, let’s talk about this Bill’s defense a little bit. It’s the number nine scoring defense in the NFL. That’s pretty good. But one area they’ve really struggled is against the run. This is the number 31 ranked run defense in the league this year. Only Cincinnati has been worse. Uh they’re allowing 150 rushing yards per game this season. What stands out to you about this Bill’s defense? Well, again, they’re different. They’re so uh outside centric. They got Joe Hibbosa, right? They invested in him, but they still have Rouso and Epanessa, but that’s where the strength of their defense is. And let’s be honest, they’ve had injuries. Yeah. No Ed Oliver, right? And uh they’re going to miss Dacoin Jones in this game, too. So in the middle even they’ve had Milano in and out, right? He’s had an injury plague last couple of years. So they’re just missing dudes in the middle there and they’re so outside centric that this is a team if you can get them and attack them like Atlanta did. Atlanta was a bad matchup for them. Atlanta just run rough shut over them. Yeah. Well, let’s talk about the run defense a little bit because really kind of jarring. Uh they allowed 238 rushing yards to the Ravens in week one, 189 rushing yards to the Saints in week four in that Falcons game that you were talking about. 210 rushing yards in that game back in week six. And also, for what it’s worth, they’ve only played one opposing offense this year that currently ranks in the top 10 in terms of scoring offenses. It was the Patriots a few weeks ago, and they lost that game. I’m not sure we even know about the Bills yet. Their strength of victory that alludes to I mean that leads me to that spot. Their opponents or their victories, their five victories opponents record is 10 and 29. It’s the next to worst strength of victory in the NFL. Only the Cowboys have a worst strength of victory. And what does that mean? Well, they have yet to beat a team like the Chiefs and so they’re and the one team they beat with the winning records Carolina at the time. So, uh they’re just I mean they’re trying to figure out who they are as well. But they’ve changed the way they played. Now, one thing I did not mention I want to mention is their offensive line. I think it’s probably other than Josh Allen and Cook the strongest part and those those all work in concert, their offensive line is outstanding. of the 216 yards that um James Cook had last week, he had 164 before he was even touched. Meaning he could have just stood there and got four yards. Um and so this offensive line, I think, is underrated. They’re good. Same cast of characters, Deion Dawkins, Spencer Brown at Lennox, Iowa. Uh but and Conor McGovern in the middle, not the Missou, Conor McGovern, the other one. Good offensive line. The Chiefs will have to handle them. You mentioned how they’re different this year though in a lot of ways. Another area they’re different is in the turnover margin. So last year these guys were plus 24 in the giveaway takeaway. Just like an astronomical number. It was crazy. It was historic. Uh they were plus 11 at this point last year. Now they’re plus two this year. Certainly not bad, but nowhere near where they were uh last season. And it’s not rocket science here. If you look at their two losses this season, uh they gave the ball away five times in those games. Only forced one turnover themselves. We need to win the turnover battle here today. Yeah. And easier said than done. They’re so long on the outside and talking with the coaches and players this week and I was talking to uh Patrick Mahomes about it. Think of uh his in 21 in the game at Arrowhead early on first drive of the game. He has a tip pass by Greg Rouso that he intercepts. Uh then Epanessa did it to him in 2023 meaning they’re so long that Bosa has four force fumbles. He leads the league in that category tied for the top and they have 10 force fumbles as a team. This is a rip and strip kind of team or a tip pass kind of team. And so we’re going have to deal with the length on the outside. What Buffalo wants to do in this game is control the ball, protect their defense, but when the defense is out there, think about what we were saying before the Ravens game when they were on fire or the Lions game. You’ve got to steal a possession here or there. And that’s what the Bills want to do in this game. Well, fortunately, the Chiefs have been so good about protecting the football this year. Now, two interceptions last week kind of felt fluky, though, because after that, the Chiefs went on to score 28 points. It was the fifth straight game where the Chiefs scored at least 28 points, longest streak for any team in the NFL this year. What’s working for our offense right now? Everything. Uh it’s just there’s so many variations, so many formations, so many pieces of personnel that you’ve got to deal with. Now, not having Isaiah Pacheco today uh will pose a challenge, but I really think Bashard Smith can have a big game, not just running the ball. And think of Bashard differently than just an he’s not PCO, he’s him, he’s who he is. Um, and then Clyde Edwards Aair is going to be active in this game. How about that? How about that? Yeah. And his best day was on this field back in the co year. Uh, had 164 yards in that game. But 161, I think. But the offense is attacking defenses in such a varied way in both the pass and the run and it’s with formations and it’s with creating triangles and geometric attack. It’s been awesome. Uh, I was watching some of the NFL pundits today break it down and they’re like, I don’t know how you defend these guys right now. So, that’s uh that’s a challenge Buffalo’s got and if you don’t turn it over, you should move the ball and score on these guys. And and then the red zone’s been phenomenal. Uh the Chiefs have been incredible in the red zone. Uh and one of them’s like a kneel down, not even trying. They over the past month, basically, there’s only four times they haven’t got a touchdown when they’ve been in the red zone. Well, yeah. Since week four, the Chiefs lead the NFL in yards per game and first downs per game. And overall, Patrick Mahomes leads the NFL in total touchdowns with 21. He’s tied with Matthew Stafford with 17 passing touchdowns for the most in the league. And only Justin Herbert has more passing yards. Mahomes is playing at an MVP level right now. Well, since week four, you mentioned it. He’s the best quarterback in the league. But what did that tie into? Xavier Worthy coming back and then Rashi Rise coming into play. Now, the offensive line, we’ll watch how Trey Smith does today. That back, you know, has been uh kind of bugging him. Uh kept him out of the game last week, although Mike Kellyo did an excellent job. And then Jaylen Moore was missed some time because of being sick this week, but this offensive line, we talk about Buffalo’s offensive line. We need to talk about the Chiefs as well. Well, the Chiefs are spreading the football around better than anybody else in the league right now. Uh, eight different players have at least 250 scrimmage yards for the Chiefs this year, most of any team in the NFL. And it’ll soon be nine because Rashi Rice is off to a great start now that he’s back on the field. Now, I mentioned our technical difficulties last week. Uh, we were really excited to show you guys this interview we had with Rasheed about a season debut. couldn’t show it because we had no show, but he was great again last week with a touchdown. We figured why not show that again? So, here’s my interview with Rasheed from a few weeks ago. All right, Rasheed, after a calendar year of waiting, he finally got back out there on the field last week. Just how’d it feel to get back out there? Um, it felt great. Uh, I feel like honestly it feels longer than a year, you know, just because one full year is two seasons in all reality. So, in in my eyes, I was going for two two years of playing football. So, it just felt great to be back out there. And you were playing so well the last time we saw you, like in week three of last year, you led the NFL in catches. You were second in receiving yards. Did it kind of feel like you just picked right back up where you left off though against the Raiders? Yeah, 100%. Uh I kind of feel like uh personally, this is my only job and I don’t really have an excuse to come back any any less, you know? So, I got to come back falling out every time. And you get 10 targets in that game last week, two touchdowns. Did you find out at some point midweek that coach Ree was going to try to get you in the end zone or was that a surprise? How’d that all work out? Uh, I mean, we ran a couple plays to get me in the end zone, you know, during red zone day, but uh, all our plays we run is to score touchdowns. So, I mean, it just so, you know, it just so happened that I got to run a play right after Noah Gray’s big catch to get in the end zone. So, it’s not it wasn’t just about me, but I just got the opportunity to get in there. Now, a lot of hard work obviously for you to get to that point like with your rehab um, after the injury. Tell me about that process a little bit going through your rehab and getting ready for that game last week. Yeah, um rehab it it was a long long journey. Um I knew eventually that I would be back to myself just because I was able to talk to a lot of other athletes. Um basically they had worse injuries than me and they’ve always got back to their self. Um, I just kind of took those steps to look at other people’s prog progress and just kind of expected myself to work as hard as I can to get back to myself. And when you got out there for the first time, we saw you and Xavier and Hollywood all at the same time. We’ve been waiting on that for like over a year and a half now. How much fun was that to be out there with those guys? Uh, it was real fun. Um, kind of felt like we were unstoppable. Uh, I’m just looking forward to every other game because I think it’s going to be fun like that every time we’re out there on the field together. I asked Xavier about it and he’s like, “Well, we only played three quarters and scored 31 points, so it was pretty good.” Yeah. No, facts. We did play three quarters. Uh, I didn’t really think about that. Like that’s how much fun we were having. I guess we just sitting on the sideline the whole quarter. I didn’t really realize. So, you couldn’t be here the first three weeks, but you were here in week four. Even though you weren’t playing, you were in the building. and Coach Reed and all the guys talked about how your energy was kind of infectious and you helped this team even though you weren’t playing yet. What’s that mean to you when you hear that? Um, I mean it means a lot just to know that just my presence without me being on the field has an impact. Uh, I mean, it’s kind of it’s kind of cool to hear just because I mean, not necessarily when I’m out the building, everything’s bad, but when I come in, uh, I’m just trying to be the same person every day. And if me being me is giving everybody else energy, then that’s what I’ll do. So, 31 points against the Raiders on Sunday. How do we keep this going here now and find some more success offensively now that you’re back here for good? Um, we just keep doing what we’re doing. We go out there, have fun, work hard in practice so that games are easy. You have a message for Chief’s Kingdom about what this offense can achieve this year moving forward. Uh I mean we 415. If anybody know where that area code’s at, you know about it, we’ll be there. All right. Great stuff there from Rashi. We just got the inactives for today’s game. Let’s go over those really quickly. Our timing is awesome today. Like we paid for this with our technical issues last week. Our timing was just on point today. Um, so for the Chiefs, uh, some good news here. We are watching Jaylen Moore at left tackle. Uh, he was sick on Friday. He’s active here today. That’s great news. Trey Smith active here today with that back injury. Didn’t play last week, but as you’re listening on the radio, you’ll be helping me. We’re going to keep uh a look on those guys. Yeah, we we’ll keep an eye on those guys, but they are active, which is great news. Uh, not going to have Josh Simmons. We knew that already with the personal stuff. And running back Isaiah Pacheco not going to play here today. And Clyde Edwards air, as he predicted, is active today. How about that? And he’s going to wear number 26. If you’re watching and listening, you can listen, of course, on the largest network in the NFL. But you’re thinking, well, wait a minute. He can’t have 25 because that’s Elijah Mitchell. Uh he’s wearing 26. He’s been wearing 44 in practice, but he’s going to be as close to 25 as he can get. Now, looking at the Bills, some big news here. Uh they’re not going to have corner Taran Johnson. This is a huge deal. One of their better corners. He got hurt in practice on Friday. He has a groin injury. questionable coming in. Not going to play here today. That’s a big deal. Other than the outside guys, we mentioned Rouso and Epanessa and Joey Bosa and then Milano. It’s him. It’s him. He’s in the middle of this defense. They play nickel as much as anybody in the league. It’s really their base defense and he’s the nickel guy. So, he’s this hybrid guy like let’s think Chamari Connor here. And so to have him out of there is really kind of like taking a nicolan out of your defense because he basically is running the defense along with Milano. They’re not going to have Ed Oliver either in the middle of their defensive line. A really good player. I think he’s their best defensive player. Uh not going to have him. He was placed on injured reserve uh this week. Uh Dcoin Jones, another starter for them on their defensive front. Not going to play here today due to a calf injury. Another big deal. Josh Palmer, we saw him for several years with the Chargers. Kind of always seemed to kill us. He’s not going to play uh here today with a knee and an ankle injury. That’s a big deal. They are getting some help back at linebacker. Matt Milano and Terrell Bernard have both missed time in recent weeks. Both those guys are coming back. Shaq Thompson though at linebacker who’s played well for them this season. He’s not going to play here today. Also a good special teams player and Codrington’s not going to play either. He has been a punt returner for them. So special teams could be affected by this injury report as well. Well, we’ll close with this Mitch. I think we’re watching history every time the Chiefs and Bills get together at this point. Uh these are the kind of games like in 20 years I think we’ll look back on and say it’s pretty cool. We were there for that. It’s never easy against the Bills. But I’ll tell you what, no team is playing better football right now than the Kansas City Chiefs. And what better way to go into the buy than on a four-game winning streak and beating these guys in Buffalo. For Mitchas, I’m Matt McMullen. Thanks so much for watching everyone. Let’s go get a victory. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] down. [Music]

Voice of the Chiefs Mitch Holthus and senior team reporter Matt McMullen are back with an all-new episode of ‘Field Pass,’ the official pregame show presented by StorageMart, providing an in-depth preview of Sunday’s NFL matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills.

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