Game report | Josh Allen, Bills run past Chiefs, hand champs 1st loss

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Josh Allen ended the Kansas City Chiefs’ perfect season around 6:15 p.m. on Sunday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.

The Buffalo Bills led by two points and were facing fourth-and-2 at the Chiefs’ 26-yard line with 2:27 remaining.

Sean McDermott wasn’t interested in a field goal and a five-point lead, giving Patrick Mahomes a chance to drive down the field and win the game with a touchdown.

Heck, 13 seconds proved to be too much time three years ago in the AFC Divisional Round in Kansas City, so the Bills went for it and Allen delivered.

“I figured they probably would,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of McDermott's aggressive decision

Flanked by Ty Johson to his right and Khalil Shakir to his left in the shotgun, Allen faked a throw to the left after Johnson released behind him at the snap.

Right tackle Ryan Van Demark, who was starting in place of injured Spencer Brown, widened Kansas City defensive end George Karlaftis and pushed him upfield, giving Allen an avenue to escape to the right. He didn’t need an engraved invitation.

Allen burst forward to the right as Karlaftis flailed behind him. He outran defensive tackle Mike Pennel to the edge with a pump fake then cut back toward the middle of the field as linebacker Drue Tranquill stumbled trying to reverse field. Cornerback Nazeeh Johnson whiffed in the open field around the 15-yard line.

Nick Bolton tried to knock Allen off his feet inside the 10, but he mistimed his launch and merely sent Allen stumbling a bit. He met safety Bryan Cook at the 2-yard line, braced for contact and rolled on his back across the goal line.

“Our guys, they were hustling their tail off to get to him,” Reid said. “He did a nice job. I’ll give him credit. That’s a tough one there.”

As Buffalo celebrated and Bills Mafia went crazy, Jim Nantz declared, “It’s the play of the year in the NFL."

With the extra point, Buffalo led 30-21 and Kansas City was toast.

“That was a great football play,” Mahomes said. “I’ve seen the play that they ran; I saw it on the football field — and that was not really an option. That’s just a guy making a play in a big moment. Whenever the plays not there, he does a great job of making plays happen. That’s what he did on that last play.”

The Chiefs, who had been the last unbeaten team in the NFL, dropped to 9-1. They remain a half-game ahead of the Bills (9-2) in the race for the top seed in the AFC, which comes with a first-round bye and home-field advantage, but it’s going to be a race to the finish now.

Kansas City’s 15-game streak, including the playoffs, ended as did the defense’s streak of 30 straight games allowing fewer than 28 points and a crazy stretch of nine straight victories when trailing by seven points or more at any point in the game.

The Bills have now won four consecutive regular-season meetings against the Chiefs, but Kansas City’s won all three postseason games during that span. The teams have now met eight times in the last five seasons.

Allen finished the game 27 of 40 for 262 yards with a touchdown and interception, adding 12 carries for 55 yards and the game-icing TD on the ground.

Of course, Buffalo has been here before — and it won't matter much if they can't get past Kansas City in the playoffs in two months once again.

NO GRAY AREA

Noah Gray didn’t have a touchdown yet this season.

The Chiefs valued him enough to sign him to a three-year contract extension before the start of the season, but that didn’t mean he was suddenly going to become the focal point of the offense — until Sunday in the red zone.

Gray had his first career multi-touchdown game, catching a 2-yard score in the second quarter and a 1-yard TD in the fourth as the Chiefs tried to mount a comeback.

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He finished with four catches for 23 yards and two touchdowns, which now matches his career-best for touchdowns in a season as well.

ONE OF WORTHY’S BEST HALVES

Xavier Worthy might be on the Rashee Rice rookie plan.

Rookie wide receivers in Reid’s system have struggled historically. The concepts, the language — it’s advanced and not easy to digest.

But the Chiefs seemed to crack the code with Rice last season.

Head 36 catches on 46 targets, totaling only 420 yards and four touchdowns in his first 10 career games.

During his final six games, Rice made 43 catches on 56 targets for 518 yards with three touchdowns as he gained familiarity with the offense and Reid better understood the strengths of his game.

Rice, like most of the starters, sat out Week 17 with postseason seeding locked in.

Worthy’s usage Sunday might portend a similar surge in impact for another rookie receiver.

Through his first nine career games, Worthy has 20 catches on 43 targets for only 246 yards with three touchdowns plus another two rushing scores.

But he was a featured player for Kansas City’s offense during the first half, finishing with four catches for 61 yards and a touchdown.

“Offensively, I thought we did a good job spreading the football around,” Mahomes said. “Xaiver came out hot, making plays. Hopefully, we can keep him more involved throughout the entirety of the game. That goes with me giving him chances.”

Worthy didn't have a touch in the second half, but the four catches match a career-high and the 61 yards are the second-most of his career.

He was close to another big play on a deep cross early in the second quarter, but Worthy appeared to drag his foot too soon and wasn’t able to get it down inbounds after actually making the catch.

“Worthy will learn from the one on the sideline ... but we were close again on the deep ball,” Reid said. “... “He’ll get better with those and then we’ll get him the ball a little quicker.”

Mahomes was sacked on third down a few plays later as the drive petered out, but he took a measure of responsibility for the missed connection with Worthy, who narrowly missed a long touchdown against Tampa Bay when he backpedaled out of bounds.

“It’s probably just me throwing it more inbounds to a guy that’s wide open for a touchdown," Mahomes said. "If I throw it more inbounds, it’s a walk-in touchdown, so I just have to be better there.”

MAHOMES PICKED TWICE

The Chiefs’ first and last drives ended the same way.

Mahomes struggled with interceptions early in the season, throwing at least one in each of the Chiefs’ first seven games with a pair of two-pick games, but he’d avoided turnovers against Tampa Bay and Denver, an encouraging sign for an offense with little margin for error.

Two plays into Sunday’s game, Mahomes’ propensity for picks returned. He stepped up in a collapsing pocket and appeared ready to scramble up the middle before spotting Gray open downfield.

With DaQuan Jones wrapped around his legs, Mahomes lobbed a pass for Gray as he fell forward and the ball sailed high, allowing Bills safety Taylor Rapp to intercept the pass.

“I saw a guy wide open," Mahomes said. "I just got hit and threw it three feet over his head. I can’t do that.”

Buffalo marched 65 yards for a touchdown, missing the extra point, after the miscue.

Trailing late, Mahomes overthrew Kelce with 1:07 remaining, and Terrl Bernard, who finished with a game-high eight tackles, ended Kansas City’s comeback hopes with his second interception of the season.

Mahomes finished 23 of 33 for 196 yards with season-highs for touchdowns (three) and interceptions (two).

It's the third time in 2024 that Mahomes has thrown for fewer than 200 yards (Cincinnati and San Francisco), the second time he's had three TDs (Tampa Bay) and the third time he's had two interceptions (Cincinnati and San Francisco).

CHIEFS TROT OUT NEW KICKER

The numbers say Spencer Shrader wasn’t a great college kicker, but he’s been perfect in his NFL career so far — playing three games for three different teams.

Kansas City signed Shrader to replace Harrison Butker after he landed on injured reserve with a knee injury that required surgery.

In college, Shrader made only 68.3% of his field goals in five collegiate seasons — connecting on 28 of 41 field-goal tries at South Florida and 15 of 22 at Notre Dame as a graduate transfer last season — though he was fairly automatic on extra points (156 of 158) in 56 career games.

Shrader also displayed an NFL leg with four kicks of 50-plus yards with the Fighting Irish, including a pair of program-record 54-yarders.

Shrader, who spent time growing up in Indiana and Florida, went undrafted last spring but latched on with Indianapolis for training camp. He signed with the Colts’ practice squad to start the season and was elevated for the opener, hitting all three extra points.

The New York Jets signed Shrader to their practice squad in late October after he bounced back and forth from the waiver wire to the Colts’ practice squad a few times.

He was elevated for last week’s Jets game — making both field-goal tries, from 25 and 45 yards — before the Chiefs signed him off the practice squad to replace Butker.

Shrader didn’t see much action, but he did bomb through all three of his extra points, making him 6 for 6 on PATs and 2 for 2 on field goals in his NFL career.

“It was good to see our kicker kick," Reid said. "Spencer did a nice job with the opportunities that he had.”

INJURY REPORT

Kansas City escaped Buffalo without a significant injury but not completely unscathed.

Defensive end Felix Anduike-Uzomah apparently got dinged late in the game.

“Felix hurt his hand at the end but continued to play,” Reid said.

But that’s good news as the Chiefs look forward to getting back on track next week in Charlotte.

UP NEXT

Kansas City plays another road game with a trip to Carolina for a noon kickoff next Sunday in Charlotte.

The Panthers started the season 1-7 under first-year head coach Dave Canales, but they’ve won their last two games — beating New Orleans and the New York Giants before a Week 11 bye — after re-installing 2023 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young as the starting quarterback.

He was benched after two games this season, giving way to veteran Andy Dalton for five games.

Young has completed 55 of 88 passes (62.5%) for 521 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions, good for a 79.8 QB rating, since resuming a starting role.

He had completed only 55.4% of his passes with no touchdowns and three picks in his first two starts, so Young has shown progress but can expect one of the toughest challenges of the season from Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.

The Chiefs are 5-2 all-time against the Panthers, including three consecutive wins, and 2-1 all-time at Carolina. Kansas City has swept its two meetings under Reid — 20-17 at the Panthers in 2016 and 33-31 in 2020.

KSHB TO AIR BLACK FRIDAY GAME

KSHB 41 News announced Sunday that it will be the Kansas City-area broadcast partner for a Friday, Nov. 29, game against Las Vegas.

The game is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Amazon Prime.

WAS TAYLOR SWIFT AT THE GAME?

After wrapping up a three-night, sold-out stay in Toronto on Saturday, Taylor Swift opted against the two-hour trek around the eastern end of Lake Ontario to be at the Chiefs’ game in Buffalo, where she watched Kansas City’s AFC Divisional win 10 months ago.

Swift has three more shows in Toronto, Thursday through Saturday, before wrapping up The Eras Tour next month with shows Dec. 6-8 in Vancouver.

Swift started dating Travis Kelce last summer. She has attended all of the Chiefs’ home games this season — wins against Baltimore, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Tampa Bay and Denver — but has yet to appear at a road game in 2024.

Kansas City is 15-3 during the last two seasons with Swift in attendance, including a 10-game win streak dating back to late last season.

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