In the regular season, the Buffalo Bills still have the Kansas City Chiefs’ number

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – During the Patrick Mahomes era, the rest of the NFL has watched the Kansas City Chiefs rack up impressive numbers that have underscored their dominance.

Whether it’s AFC West division titles, AFC Championship Game appearances or Super Bowl victories, the Chiefs – led by their superstar quarterback – often have outscored their opponents. A notable exception is when the Chiefs face the Buffalo Bills in the regular season.

The fact is, before the calendar flips to January, the Bills have confounded the Chiefs, and their mastery continued Sunday in a 28-21 victory at Highmark Stadium.

In the latest installment of the AFC’s most compelling rivalry (heck, the NFL’s best?), the Bills again outplayed the visiting Chiefs, who appeared wobbly from the start. On the game’s opening possession, Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill, who’s usually steady in pass coverage, fell while running alongside Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid, who caught a 23-yard pass from quarterback Josh Allen and sauntered into the end zone.

And with that, the Bills were off.

In head-to-head meetings during the regular season, Allen improved to a sparkling 5-1 against Mahomes. The reigning NFL Associated Press MVP had another big performance in the series, passing for 273 yards and the touchdown to Kincaid, and rushing for two touchdowns.

More importantly for the Bills (6-2), they remained only a game behind the surging New England Patriots (7-2) — who have won six straight — in the AFC East. At the moment, the Chiefs have bigger worries than again failing to earn in-season bragging rights against their nemesis.

After an 0-2 start, the Chiefs (5-4) won five of six to climb back into the AFC West race. But they failed to keep pace Sunday with the division-leading Denver Broncos (7-2) and second-place Los Angeles Chargers (6-3), who both won.

Now, after finishing on the wrong end of a scoreboard yet again against the Bills, the Chiefs enter their bye week with some soul-searching to do – and a lot of heavy lifting ahead.

Understandably, the mood in the visitors’ locker room was dour. Mahomes even took no comfort in the fact that when Chiefs-Bills showdowns matter most – in the NFL playoffs – Allen has never broken through: Mahomes is 4-0 in such encounters, including 2-0 when battling Allen for the AFC Championship.

Playoffs? That couldn’t be further from Mahomes’ mind.

“We gotta get there first,” said Mahomes, who completed only 15 of 34 passes for 250 yards with an interception and no touchdown passes after having three TDs in each of the Chiefs’ previous three games.

“We’ve got a lot of good teams in our division, and they’re playing really good football; we’re down there in third place right now. We get back and get ourselves right. We gotta play better football.”

Until their unproductive trip to western New York, the defending AFC champs were playing quite well.

Since No. 1 wide receiver Rashee Rice returned from suspension, Kansas City’s offense has been in top gear. It scored 89 points during a three-game winning streak, and the team’s defense also fixed many of its issues after a rough start.

From watching the first half Sunday, one couldn’t tell that Buffalo was the team supposedly in a rough spot. Two defensive starters – tackle DaQuan Jones and nickelback Taron Johnson – were sidelined because of injuries. And in their previous three games, the Bills went 1-2.

After the opening kickoff, however, they were the aggressor.

In the first half, the Chiefs made too many mistakes defensively, helping the Bills take a 21-13 halftime lead.

“A lot of mental mistakes,” Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “Some mistakes in the first half that kind of bit us in the butt.”

That’s not typical of the Chiefs, whose discipline and attention to detail helped them rattle off an NFL-record 17 consecutive victories in one-score games. The streak – which began in the 2023-24 regular season and continued into the 2024-25 regular season and postseason – ended during Week 1 of this season.

All four of the Chiefs’ losses have occurred in one-score games. In such games, the Chiefs must regain their winning touch – quickly, Mahomes said.

“We’ve been in a lot of these tight, close games in our history, but they’re not going our way now,” Mahomes said. “How can we deal with that adversity? How can we be better and learn from it? You gotta learn from it fast.”

For the first time this season, the Chiefs had major issues in pass protection.

That has been one of their strengths despite the mysterious absence of rookie left tackle Josh Simmons, the Chiefs’ gifted 2025 No. 1 draft pick, who earned the starting job in training camp and then dazzled early in the season. Since Oct. 12, though, Simmons has been away from the organization due to a “family situation,” and Chiefs officials have provided few details about his whereabouts. Simmons is expected to return to the franchise soon, possibly as early as this week.

Playing in place of Simmons, backup swing tackle Jaylon Moore has performed admirably. But with Moore in the starting lineup, the Chiefs’ depth has been weakened, which was magnified Sunday when starting right tackle Jawaan Taylor was sidelined in the fourth quarter after injuring his right ankle.

With Simmons in the lineup, Moore would have replaced Taylor. Instead, third-string offensive lineman Wanya Morris, who was exposed often in pass protection last season, entered for Taylor. To put it kindly, that move didn’t work out well for the Chiefs.

In part because of Morris’ deficiencies, Mahomes, clearly, was rushed during his dropbacks. The Chiefs’ comeback attempt fell short.

Now, their break begins.

“We’ve had great moments [before their bye], we’ve had bad moments. We gotta be more consistent as a team,” Mahomes said. “I gotta be more consistent as a quarterback. We gotta be able to battle. But I think our guys are up to it.”

Soon enough, the Chiefs will find out. And so will the rest of the NFL – which always delights in numbers not adding up in the Chiefs’ favor.