Chiefs win again, hold fifth seed in playoffs

The Kansas City Chiefs moved to 6-5 on the season with a win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday but it was a costly victory.

The Chiefs lost Justin Houston, Eric Fisher, and Mitch Morse to injury. Jeff Allen also went down to injury but was forced to return when Morse went out with a concussion. All of these injuries happened after the Chiefs were already down Charcandrick West, Ben Grubbs, Dee Ford and Allen Bailey. The Chiefs still found a way to win without a lot of their team healthy enough to play or finish the game.

Kansas City now sits in complete control of its own playoff destiny as it holds several tiebreakers against teams with similar records. The question moving forward is can KC stay healthy enough to cash in against its easier second-half schedule? If Fisher, Morse, Ford and Bailey are still out against the Raiders in Oakland it will be very difficult to keep the winning streak alive against a good and young Raiders team.

In what started like a nightmare for the Chiefs and their defense, they were able to put the brakes on the Bills offense in the second half as they shut down Sammy Watkins. Shockingly, the Bills offense never targeted Watkins in the second half and the Chiefs tightened up the rest of the field throughout the final 30 minutes. The Chiefs were also helped by two missed opportunities for challenges by Rex Ryan.

The story of the day, though, was the play of Alex Smith. Smith took shots down the field multiple times and just missed a third touchdown to Chris Conley down the middle of the field. While Smith missed connecting with Conley he did connect on three deep balls to Jeremy Maclin and another to Travis Kelce. Smith put the team on his back early in the game and kept making gritty plays to keep the Chiefs in the game and eventually win.

A bigger story is that with five games to play the Chiefs have two players that have a very good chance to break 1,000 yards receiving. This with Smith’s history of never having had a 1,000-yard receiver in his entire career. After Maclin’s big 160-yard day with a touchdown he sits at 772 yards on the year. Kelce also had a good game with a touchdown and 69 yards, giving him 690 yards on the season.

Smith is having quite the streak himself as he has gone over five games without an interception and is within two games of testing Tom Brady’s record of just over 350 attempts without an interception. Smith already has the Chiefs record for most attempts without an interception and is also looking like he could eclipse his career best in passing yards as well.

On defense, the Chiefs pass rush has mostly disappeared. With Houston getting injured early in the game and Ford out, the Chiefs were unable to dial up much pressure on Tyrod Taylor. They will need to find a way to get to the quarterback next week against the Raiders to disrupt the offense.

Kansas City must find a way to get pressure or its secondary will struggle on Sunday against Derek Carr. The Raiders have two wide receivers that are having great years and they also have a young tight end that can make plays. The Chiefs will need their full secondary and hopefully will get Ford back who could put some pressure on Carr.

The Chiefs control their fate headed into the season’s 12th week and have tiebreakers over the Steelers, Bills, and Texans with the chance to hold tiebreakers against the Raiders as well. The Chiefs have hit the stretch run playing good enough to be on a five-game winning streak and will not face a team with a winning record going forward.

If they can continue their hot streak the next couple of weeks they should be able to make it to the playoffs and may end up heading to a rematch in Denver in early January.

What do you think, Addicts?