Three ways the Chiefs can try to limit Josh Allen and the Bills

ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills walks on to the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter at Highmark Stadium on October 09, 2022 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)
ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills walks on to the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter at Highmark Stadium on October 09, 2022 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)

The defense of the Kansas City Chiefs faces a daunting task on Sunday as they host the Buffalo Bills: slow or even stop the visiting offense with Josh Allen at the helm.

Of course, the Bills face the same issue with Patrick Mahomes and company going to work on the opposite side, but neither team should feel comfortable about their ability to get the best of the other’s offense.

Allen leads the NFL in total passing yards 1,378 and he has 14 touchdown passes to go with only 4 interceptions. A couple of those tosses have been dumb luck and Allen has also sat out of the fourth quarter in multiple games after watching the Bills take insurmountable leads into the final few minutes of a game. In short, he’s very productive and no one has been able to stop him so far.

We asked a Buffalo Bills beat writer to tell how the Chiefs should best approach slowing or even stopping Josh Allen and company.

The Chiefs will also have to make sure to watch Allen as a scrambler who can keep plays alive as he eludes tacklers or even moves the chain himself. So far in 2022, he already has 225 rushing yards and 2 more scores on the ground.

In order to get a read on how to best approach the Bills when Allen and company are on the field, we asked our friend Brandon Croce, editor of Buffalowdown, to tell us what he would do if he was the defensive coordinator. Croce had three keys to the game—and even then he’s not sure what will work or not. Here’s what he said:

This is a great question and I probably would be able to make a lot of money because defensive coordinators have not been able to figure out this offense. Through the first four games, the Bills have been very methodical with their offense and showing they have an answer for whatever defenses try to do. If I was tasked with trying to contain this offense there would be three points of emphasis:

Limit the big play: I would play my secondary back and make sure I keep the ball in front of me. Against the Steelers, the Bills were able to beat Pittsburgh with those big plays and had four touchdown drives that went more than 50 yards and the Bills did it in three or fewer plays.

Don’t blitz Josh Allen: You don’t want to give a QB time in the pocket but bringing extra players seemingly actually gives Josh Allen an advantage because he is able to scramble and extend plays. This takes away players in coverage and Josh Allen has been excellent this season as evidenced by this tweet from Kevin Cole with PFF.

Focus on turnovers: There haven’t been many negatives for the offense this year but one thing that they have struggled with is ball security. Josh Allen already has four interceptions on the season and while it hasn’t impacted the outcome, because Buffalo has been winning by such large margins, in close games this could be a factor. In addition to that, I would have my defensive players practice the Peanut Punch this week made famous by Charles Tillman. The Bills have six rushing fumbles already this year with each of their top running backs recording one and Josh Allen two.

Schedule