Chiefs players promise to 'clean things up' after losing first game of season to Bills

For the first time in 16 games, the Kansas City Chiefs were on the losing end of an NFL contest in Week 11. The Buffalo Bills proved themselves to be worthy adversaries in Orchard Park on Sunday evening, and the Chiefs weren't able to answer them blow-for-blow, leaving K.C. with only 21 points compared to the Bills' 30 when time expired.

To hear Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal after the game, the loss is a lesson learned, whether he or the team wanted one or not.

The Chiefs made several mistakes on both sides of the ball on Sunday, and after taking in the loss, it was clear that Chiefs players believe they are to blame more than anything else. Players were quick to give credit to the Bills for being a good team, but they were also quick to note that the Chiefs knew what they wanted to do and simply could not stop it.

Chiefs players were in unison after their loss to the Bills when asked about what went wrong and how they fix it.

On offense, the Chiefs had two turnovers in the form of Patrick Mahomes interceptions. There were also stalled drives, costly penalties, and pressures allowed. Chiefs right guard Trey Smith summarized the Chiefs' predicament in one succinct phrase: "The cleaner we can play, the better we’ll be."

"I think it’s just about execution in the moment," he continued to reporter Darren Smith following the game. "For us to execute whatever our coaches have presented to us and do it at a high level consistently … the margin for winning and losing is just so small when there are two great teams playing against each other."

Cornerback Trent McDuffie and linebacker Leo Chenal both agreed that the Bills stuck to what they've done well to this point. Instead, it was the Chiefs who missed tackles and failed to generate pressure when needed.

"I don’t know if it was anything they did, really. The things that we saw on film kind of showed up throughout the whole game," said McDuffie. "We knew he was going to keep the ball in certain situations. I think they just executed better than us.

"We had a few late blitzes. We had a few missed tackles. When things like that happen in a game like this, they just start to tally up. We’ve gotta go back and clean things up and get back to the drawing board, because it’s the first loss of the season but we can’t hang our heads."

"Obviously they’re a great team," said Chenal. "Didn’t go the way we wanted, like you said. I just think it really exposed a lot of what we each need to work on individually. It’s definitely a learning lesson. You never want to say that coming out. You don’t want learning lessons. You want to come to each game prepared and fully knowing, y’know, doing your job and holding each other accountable. But that’s life. It’s not 100 percent realistic."