Bills playoff chances take hit in loss to Chiefs
KANSAS CITY - Calling for Rex Ryan to be fired, as many of the lunatic fringe on social media were Sunday afternoon, is a bit much, but the Bills' head coach did not have a very good day at Arrowhead Stadium.
Neither did his team.
In what should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the recent history of the Bills, they failed in yet another big spot, losing 30-22 to the Kansas City Chiefs on a miserably rainy and cold Midwestern afternoon, dealing themselves a near mortal wound in their quest to earn an AFC wild-card playoff berth.
"We knew the magnitude of this game, we knew how important it was," said safety Corey Graham.
It's an old storyline for the Bills who so rarely seem to rise to the big challenges, which this certainly was. But there was a new chapter to this particular story that went beyond a lame performance by Ryan's pride-and-joy defense, and a second-half disappearance by the offense. Ryan and his spotters in the booth made a mockery of the NFL's challenge system, and it cost them dearly.
There were four plays where the Bills should or shouldn't have challenged, and every one went against them.
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Let's start with the biggest one. Kansas City receiver Jeremy Maclin appeared to lose control of the ball on a 37-yard reception down the right sideline that set up Spencer Ware's 3-yard touchdown on the next play which got the Chiefs back into the game after they'd fallen into a 10-0 hole.
It should have been second-and-10 from the 40, but Ryan did not throw the red flag, he claimed, because the guys upstairs in the press box never saw a replay and couldn't give him a go signal. "That's the first time you don't see any plays," Ryan complained afterward. "I think there's a league rule that you need to usually get to see some. Maybe I'm wrong on that. I wasn't aware (that he'd dropped it) because again, I wasn't seeing the video on it, so from my vantage point, I thought he caught the ball."
In the third quarter, the Bills now trailing 21-16, Robert Woods bobbled a pass that should have been caught cleanly, but the receiver insisted that he was able to gain control as he went to the ground. He didn't, yet Ryan decided to challenge and thus wasted a timeout when the obvious was revealed. Instead of Woods making the catch for a first down, Tyrod Taylor was sacked on a third-and-6, fumbled, and the Chiefs recovered and went on to kick a lead-extending field goal.
On the last play of the third quarter, Ryan could have challenged a questionable spot on a run by Alex Smith on third-and-11. The officials gave Smith the first down, but it looked like he was short. However, fearing he'd lose his last challenge and another timeout, Ryan let it go. The Chiefs held the ball two more minutes and kicked a field goal to make it 27-22.
And then late in the fourth quarter, on the Bills final possession, the NFL again proved how utterly non-sensical its catch/no catch rule is. Chris Hogan caught a ball over the middle, took three steps, and then bobbled the ball as he was going down, but was able to recover the misplay himself. It should have been a catch and a fumble, and a first down. Instead, Ryan opted again not to risk being wrong and losing the timeout, and didn't challenge.
"I thought I caught the ball and made a couple steps," said Hogan. "Obviously he made a good hit on the ball, but it's not my call."
That led to the final offensive snap two plays later, which Ryan did challenge when it looked like Taylor earned a first down with a scramble on fourth-and-9. But of course, the NFL said he hadn't when it looked like he had.
Add it all up, and the Bills fell to 5-6, now buried in the AFC behind the 6-5 Steelers, Chiefs, Texans and Jets in the wild-card race with five games to play. It's not a good place to be, but aren't we all used to this by now?
Maiorana: Bills defense flops in key game
Ryan was far more disappointed by the way his defense played than he was about the inadequacies of the replay challenge system. Six days after the Bills had Tom Brady looking to the skies in frustration, the defense put forth a clunker.
The Chiefs, not exactly known for their explosiveness, put up 30 points and 413 yards, with Smith throwing for 255 and two touchdowns while playing turnover-free for the fifth game in a row, all games the Chiefs have won. As much as Smith dissected them, the defense also yielded a season-high 158 rushing yards even though the Chiefs were down to their third-string back, Ware.
"I loved the way we started the game," said Ryan, and he should have been as the Bills jumped to a 10-0 lead and had the Chiefs offense stalled. "Then there was a streak there where it was like 'you've got be kidding me.' It was a snowball. They came out and ripped us on some runs and then they converted some big third downs on us and threw the ball over our heads."
The Maclin play got the Chiefs going, and Kansas City went on to score on six of its next seven possessions, and the only one that failed was when kicker Cairo Santos hit the crossbar on a 54-yard field goal to end the first half. It was a big-time beat-down.
"It was very disappointing," said Graham. "As a defense, we didn't do well enough to win the game, especially us DBs. We didn't make the plays we were supposed to make. As a defense, we have to be better."
Offensively, the Bills started great as Taylor completed six passes to Sammy Watkins for 158 yards and two touchdowns in taking a 16-14 halftime lead. And then when the Chiefs altered their coverage, Watkins never caught a pass in the second half, though the Bills had the ball only 11 minutes because the defense couldn't get off the field.
"We're out of mulligans," Ryan said. "We have to take care of business, we have to win our game coming up (against Houston)."
Even if they do, this loss looks and feels like one the Bills won't be able to recover from.
MAIORANA@Gannett.com