Week 14 sees one of the greatest rivalries in recent history renewed as the Buffalo Bills travel to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs. However, this year’s meeting has a very different meaning than previous battles. The Bills have had the Chiefs number in the regular season (the playoffs are a different story), and must desperately find that same juice this week to keep their playoff hopes alive. This game has been announced in recent years as a possible preview of the AFC Championship Game. This time it’s about two teams struggling to get back on track.
Kansas City enters Week 14 having lost three of its last five games, following a six-game winning streak. At 8-4, KC has a solid lead in the AFC West, but is fighting to stay in the race for home field advantage. The Chiefs haven’t looked the same lately, losing games they would normally win, like their Week 8 loss to Denver, 24-9. Before that, the Chiefs had beaten the Broncos 16 straight games dating back to 2015. Peyton Manning was still throwing wobbly balls across the yard for Denver. It had been that long since they had been able to argue with KC.
While Kansas City has struggled lately, Week 14 isn’t nearly as crucial for them as it is now Buffalo. At 6-6, the Bills are currently on the outside, hoping to jump back into the postseason picture. They are tied with Cincinnati and Denver and sit one game behind Houston (and a half-game behind Pittsburgh) for the final AFC playoff slot.
The Bills were nothing short of disappointing in a year when they ended up as so many people’s Super Bowl favorites. An alarm should have gone off for everyone in Week 1 after the Bills lost to the Jets, minus Aaron Rodgers. He played four plays before a torn Achilles sidelined him for a year. Despite Buffalo bouncing back from that loss, they were mediocre for most of the season. The Bills are 3-5 since Week 5 and even lost to the Patriots in October. Traditionally, losing to New England has been nothing to be ashamed of in the Bill Belichick era, but in a year where they are on their way to a top-five draft pick, that loss shows how far Buffalo has fallen.
While both teams need to get back on the winning side, it’s a can’t-lose situation for the Bills. Everything happening around the Bills organization this year makes it seem like drastic changes are on the horizon. Buffalo already parted ways with former offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey a few weeks ago. Then there is the story about the “motivational speech‘ from 2019 referencing terrorist leaks on September 11th, and now you have a full-blown drama.
None of that is what a franchise wants to be the focus of their season. The way this Bills team has been playing, this locker room may have McDermott turned off at this point. McDermott has been there for seven years and with all this talent they have reached one AFC title game, which they lost to Kansas City. After seven years that could well be the case time for a new philosophy in that locker room. And if the Chiefs get the Bills on Sunday afternoon, they might as well prepare for the winter break, because that’s the end of the postseason.