There was definitely a moment during the Kansas City Chiefs' eventual 32-29 win over the Buffalo Bills where it didn't feel like a three-peat was going to happen. A lot of that was due to how dominant Bills running back James Cook had been against the Chiefs defense.
Cook finished the game with 13 carries for 85 yards and two scores and had three catches for 49 yards. It felt like anytime Cook had the ball, he was doing some damage to the Chiefs defense, yet for whatever reason, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady went away from using him in the biggest moments of the game.
After the Chiefs had taken a 32-29 lead, the Bills had over three minutes to work the clock and make their way down the field to either tie the game or take the lead. On what ended up being their final drive of the game, Brady called six plays in total and none of them involved James Cook. According to Howard Simon on X, "James Cook had 139 yards and 2 TD's on 16 touches. That's 8.6 yards per touch. He didn't get a touch on the final 6 play drive."
Joe Brady foolishly went away from James Cook on the Bills' final drive of the game
Chiefs fans, of course, are thankful for Brady doing what he did. Instead of having Josh Allen hand off to Cook, the final six Bills plays were:
- Run by Ty Johnson that was good for -1 yard
- Allen scrambled for 13 yards
- Deep incomplete pass to Khalil Shakir
- Short incomplete pass to Curtis Samuel
- Five-yard pass to Amari Cooper
- Deep shot to Dalton Kincaid that (thankfully) fell incomplete
Not once did Brady think to give the ball to the second-best player on the offensive side of the ball even with how well he was doing against the Chiefs all day. Again, Chiefs fans are thrilled that an offensive coordinator once again got in his own head when playing the Chiefs and went away from what was working all game long.
Had Cook been given the ball even once during that drive, we might be sitting here singing a different tune right now. The Chiefs defense did not have a way to stop Cook yet in the biggest moments and we saw another team move away from what was working from them for whatever reason. We can only hope the Eagles follow suit with Saquon Barkley in the Super Bowl.
To sum up, Bills fans can blame the refs all they want for this loss but when push came to shove, they fell into the same trap that all of the Chiefs' victims have in the past: They went away from what was working for them and tried to get cute in the biggest moments of the game. Never do that against the Kansas City Chiefs.