Bills-chiefs figures to be an offensive treat
Forget those Thursday night snore-fests, Mahomes and Allen are ready to light it up
Bills at Chiefs on Sunday is the game of the year so far in the NFL and it really isn't close.
At least if you like offence. And scoring. You remember scoring in the NFL, don't you?
As every NFL fan knows all too well, point production is down this season, and not just in those Thursday night snore-fests.
Through five weeks, 16 teams — half the league — have yet to score as many as 30 points in any game.
Another nine teams have done so only once.
That leaves seven teams, and only three of them have scored 30-plus three times. Of those, only two have a winning record or have scored 38-plus twice — the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs.
That's mostly thanks to their superstar quarterbacks, probably consensus picks now as the premier passers in pro ball, Josh Allen of the Bills and Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs.
They might already qualify as the 2020s version of Bradshaw vs. Staubach, Montana vs. Elway, Aikman vs. Kelly, Manning vs. Brady.
They and their 4-1 clubs square off on Sunday, not in prime time (alas) but rather in the late-afternoon time slot (4:25 p.m. EDT, CTV nationally except B.C. and Alberta, and CTV2 in the Maritimes), with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo of CBS on the call.
Given the transcendence of the two QBS, the accomplishments of these teams thus far and the recent history between them, this is about as close to a playoff game in mid October as the NFL could hope to provide.
Though the Bills defence statistically is superior to that of the Chiefs — as usual this decade — this game likely will come down to which passer can best be protected, so as to outduel the other.
This will be the fifth time these two passers have met on the field, all of them coming this decade. Mahomes and the Chiefs have bested Allen and the Bills three out of the four times — once in the regular season (2020 at Buffalo, 16-10), twice in the playoffs (2020 at K.C. 38-24; 2021 at K.C. 42-36 in OT). The Bills won 38-20 at K.C. last October.
But for Buffalo's infamous 13 seconds at the end of regulation in this past January's epic playoff game in Kansas City, their head-to-head record would be square at 2-2.
During those 13 seconds, Bills coaches deployed a super-soft defence for the last two scrimmage plays of regulation, right after taking a 36-33 lead. That enabled Mahomes and crew, incredibly, to gain 44 yards in 10 seconds and send the game to overtime with a 49-yard field goal. The Chiefs went on to win it with a first possession OT touchdown.
This game marks the first time since 2011 that the NFL'S two leading touchdown throwers will square off in Week 6 or later. Last time it was Aaron Rodgers vs. Matthew Stafford in Week 12.
Here's an Allen vs. Mahomes tale-of-the-tape of sorts:
JOSH ALLEN
(Age 26, Year 5, California raised, 6-foot-5, 237 pounds)
■ No. 1 in the NFL in pass yards with 1,651.
■ No. 2 in the NFL in touchdown passes with 14.
■ No. 3 in the NFL in percentage of passes that go for a TD, 7.0.
■ No. 4 in the NFL in passer rating, 107.4.
■ Touchdowns vs. Chiefs since 2020: 12 (11 pass, one run).
■ Passer rating vs. Chiefs since 2020: 105.1.
■ Yards passing and rushing vs. Chiefs since 2020: 1,310.
■ Completion percentage vs. Chiefs in 2021 season: 66.7.
PATRICK MAHOMES
(Age 27, Year 6, Texas raised, 6-foot-3, 227 pounds)
■ No. 1 in the NFL in touchdown passes with 15.
■ No. 2 in the NFL in passer rating, 110.5.
■ No. 2 in the NFL in percentage of passes that go for a TD, 7.9.
■ No. 4 in the NFL in pass yards with 1,398.
■ Touchdowns vs. Bills since 2020: 11 (10 pass, one run).
■ Passer rating vs. Bills since 2020: 108.1.
■ Yards passing and rushing vs. Bills since 2020: 1,371.
■ Completion percentage vs. Bills in 2021 season: 66.7.