Chiefs or Bills face a steep fall from the top in Week 6

Either the Chiefs or Bills will be smarting after a far fall from the top in Week 6.

Think about this: in a matter of a single game, either the Kansas City Chiefs or Buffalo Bills are going to leave Week 6 wondering who pulled the plug on all of their momentum.

Heading into Week 5, the Kansas City Chiefs were already two games  up on every other team in their division. At 4-0, the defending Super Bowl champions were winners of13 games in a row, loaded with the promise of a “Run It Back” campaign that looked legitimate. The AFC West already seemed locked up, and the league’s best offense looked unstoppable.

Much of the same could be said for the Buffalo Bills. In the AFC East, the Bills, at that same time stamp, were sitting pretty in their own division, two games ahead of the New England Patriots for the lead in the AFC East. Their quarterback, Josh Allen, looked like an early MVP candidate. The biggest offseason addition, Stefon Diggs, looked like the ideal import. The defense looked stacked on all three levels.

Then came Week 5.

In the last few days, the Chiefs ran into a rival interested in making things interesting again. Meanwhile, the Bills learned that the Titans weren’t going to roll over just because half the team had the coronavirus. Within 48 hours, both teams lost their first games of the season which mean that Week 6 was going to bring a losing streak to someone.

On the other side of the Chiefs-Bills matchup, unless the teams are forced into a tie, someone is going to be watching their early season success slip away.

Nothing is inherently wrong with being 4-2 after the sixth week of the regular season. The Chiefs were 4-2 just last year and won the Super Bowl, so let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill here. But losing two games in a row only amplifies the questions and concerns that arose from the first one. Suddenly a new sort of momentum needs to be stopped. Doubt begins to creep into the locker room.

Even worse, in a conference where only one team will enjoy a first-round bye, the loser of the Chiefs-Bills game in Week 6 will put that team two games behind the current leaders. Everyone is already looking up at the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans with the Baltimore Ravens, and Cleveland Browns also sitting alongside the Bills and Chiefs. Some teams will fall away, but the competition should remain heated. It’s a vital bonus for the team that earns it.

All is not lost for the loser of the Chiefs visit to Buffalo next Monday—not by any stretch. However it does put a much greater weight upon that team to figure out how to stop the bleeding and regain the momentum that carried them through the first four games of the season.