[Lzen]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

All right, let's talk about the actual game.

How do the Chiefs win?

1. Be efficient on offense and protect the football. Stay ahead of the chains, wrap up on the ball in the open field. Get the ball out quickly.

2. Attack the Bills' back 7. The safeties aren't great - especially if Taylor Rapp does not play. The CB room is not great, especially if Taron Johnson is injured/lesser and Binford is out from the concussion (I expect him to play, though). The LB play hasn't been fantastic this season. Terrel Bernard hasn't been as good as last year (and has played through a lot of nagging injuries) and Matt Milano is playing with basically one arm right now.

3. Block Ed Oliver. He has been problematic for the Chiefs' offense in recent matchups.

4. Don't let Josh Allen and James Cook run wild. The Bills have a strong running attack and lean into it. The 6-OL approach has been successful. Can the Chiefs' respond to that and hold up against the run with the standard 43 set? Seems like Leo Chenal has to come up big against that 6th OL, a task we've seen him handle before.

5. Defend the middle of the field more effectively. The Chiefs' defense has been outstanding, except for when teams can exploit the middle of the passing field. KC did a pretty good job the first time around, and Buffalo ended up making some big plays down the field against man coverage (Nazeeh Johnson) that honestly were fantastic throws and catches by Allen and his receivers as much as anything else. Hopefully this is an area where Jaylen Watson can make a difference.

6. Be aggressive on 4th downs inside Bills' territory, because you know they're going to be aggressive on you. I'm not saying you pass up points if you're in FG range early (take the points in the first half), but 4th and 3 or shorter needs to be attacked.

7. Lean on Kareem Hunt in the run game. Especially on 3rd downs and in the red zone. It's amazing Pacheco has made it back to this point, but he clearly isn't fully himself right now (and his lack of vision is a real problem with this OL).

8. Spy Josh Allen on 3rd downs and especially on 4th downs that are not tush push. I'd love to see KC break out the game that has been used against KC - with power rushes to the QB's left hand, and a spy looping around for when the QB scrambles right. Allen is much, much better scrambling to his right than his left (though he is still dangerous there, both with his legs and his arm - as that amazing tight window TD pass to Shakir against Sneed in last year's divisional round shows).

9. Make the Bills regret trading with the Chiefs so they could get Xavier Worthy. We saw some of it in the regular season game. Go back to that. Especially with Hopkins fully integrated and Marquise Brown available.

Good breakdown. On #5, I'd say Jaylon Watson and Josh Williams should make a big difference in this game, not to mention other players, such as Charles O.