The Kansas City Chiefs’ pursuit of perfection came to an end in Week 11, when the Buffalo Bills handed them a 30-21 loss that dropped them to 9-1 on the season. While the loss also snapped the team’s 15-game winning streak, quarterback Patrick Mahomes believes it can be an opportunity for his teammates to improve as they enter the season’s stretch run.
“You can use it as fuel,” Mahomes told reporters on Sunday evening. “That’s a good football team, so it’s nothing to hang your head [about]. We feel like we can play better, so we’ll get back to work and try to use this as a spark to be a better football team in the end.
“The undefeated thing was cool, but that’s not our ultimate goal. So we’ll keep building towards that.”
Unlike previous games this season, Kansas City’s mistakes — on both sides of the ball —proved too much for the team to overcome.
Mahomes threw two costly interceptions. One of them set up a Buffalo touchdown drive, while the other sealed the Bills’ victory on Kansas City’s final offensive play. Meanwhile, the Chiefs’ defense struggled in critical moments, allowing Buffalo to convert 9-of-15 third downs — including several in long-yardage situations.
But the game’s defining play came late in the fourth quarter. With just over two minutes left, Buffalo elected to go for it on fourth-and-2 while leading 23-21. If it failed, it would have given the Chiefs the opportunity for a game-winning drive. But Bills quarterback Josh Allen scrambled 26 yards for a touchdown — effectively ending the game.
“They’re a good team,” head coach Andy Reid said of the Bills. “If you have a few mistakes in there, they can capitalize on it. If you keep battling, normally good things will happen. But they did a nice job on that last drive. We’ve got to take care of business on those.”
So for the first time all season, Kansas City couldn’t summon the late-game magic that has carried them to victories in tight contests. Mahomes admitted that the team may have grown too comfortable in relying on clutch moments.
“I think more than anything, there was just a confidence that we were going to make it happen at the end of games,” he acknowledged. “Whenever games were close, they can go one way — or a guy like Josh can make a play and then the game is over.
“So I’m just trying to find ways to win games by not always just one score. Finding ways to have more urgency throughout the entire game will be important for us going into this next week.”
Despite the loss, there were a few bright spots for Kansas City — particularly on offense. Although his usual big-name playmakers didn’t produce as much, Mahomes got the ball to 11 different players — including wide receiver Xavier Worthy and tight ends Noah Gray and Peyton Hendershot.
“I thought offensively, we did a great job of spreading the football around,” Mahomes noted. “Xavier came out hot, making plays. Hopefully, we can keep him more involved throughout the entirety of the game — and that goes with me giving him chances. Other guys stepped up. Noah [had] two touchdowns. Peyton [had] the catch down in the red zone. You’ve got to have that — and I think that’s something we can build on, as well as just getting the entire offense going.
“You see when we’re rolling, we’re hard to stop. We just have to have consistency throughout the entire game.”
With Sunday’s loss, the Chiefs extended their regular season losing streak against the Bills to four games. There is, however, a silver lining: Kansas City is 3-0 against Buffalo in the playoffs since 2021. These two teams expect to see each other again in the postseason, so that’s something to keep in mind.
“At the end of the day, that’s a really good football team,” declared Mahomes. “It’s going to take your best football to beat great football teams — and we didn’t play our best football today. They went out there and beat us. That’s just how it rolls in the NFL.
“All the respect to them. That’s going to be a good football team — that we’ll probably see again.”
