Buffalo Bills Vs. Kanas City Chiefs Week 2 Game Preview

When: Sunday, Sept. 16
Time: Noon, Central Time.
Where: Ralph Wilson Stadium, Buffalo, NY.
TV Broadcast: CBS – Spero Dedes, Steve Beuerlein, commentators. DIRECTV – 706.
Radio Broadcasts: Over 60 radio stations on the Chiefs Radio Network, see KCChiefs.com for affiliates, Mitch Holthus, Len Dawson, Kendall Gammon, commentators.
SIRIUS: 137 (KC), 112 (BUF). XM: 231 (BUF)
Two teams with preseason playoff aspirations that crashed to Earth in Week One, the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, will try to right the ship on Sunday. On paper, all the trends go Buffalo’s way including the fact that the Chiefs haven’t won a game in Buffalo since the 1980’s, and that the Chiefs defense makes Bills QB, Ryan Fitzpatrick, look like Hall-of-Famer, Jim Kelly.
While the Chiefs went comatose in the second half in a 40-24 loss to Atlanta last week, the Bills self-destructed on a monumental scale and lost 48-28 to the NY Jets. Both teams will be somewhat desperate to turn their fortunes around even though it’s only the second week.
None of the Chiefs players would come out and say that this week’s game is a “must-win” situation, but luckily it seems like that might be what they’re thinking.
An 0-2 start wouldn’t mean the end of anything mathematically, obviously, but the Chiefs will be underdogs in their next three games (@New Orleans, vs. Chargers, vs. Ravens). An 0-5 start to the season doesn’t exactly take a lot of imagination to believe.
A win in Buffalo and an upset in one of the next three games would leave the Chiefs at 2-3 in their first five and they will be right in the thick of things in the AFC West – especially if one of the wins is against the Chargers. After Week 5, the Chiefs schedule begins to ease up and most Chiefs fans could see them winning these games. Well, some of them, at least.
Here are three things the Chiefs must do on Sunday to pick up their first win of the season:

• Do. Not. Turn. The. Ball. Over!!!! Ok … ok … this could be written every week, but after the Atlanta game (since Cassel obviously didn’t read my article last week when I said more than one turnover would kill the Chiefs’ chances of winning), it becomes even more important. It’s not rocket science, but when the Chiefs offense hangs onto the ball, their chances of winning increase dramatically. Cassel’s turnovers on three consecutive possessions turned an exciting and close game into heartache for the fans in Chiefs Red. This week, Buffalo can be an even bigger turnover machine than the Chiefs are, so keeping turnovers to one or less to sneak out of Buffalo with an upset win is critical.

• Therefore, take advantage of a turnover-prone Buffalo offense – Unlike the Falcons, the Bills don’t have multiple Pro Bowl caliber threats on offense, so Romeo Crennel should be able to game plan to stop WR Stevie Johnson and RB C.J. Spiller. Johnson, of course, is the one who cheap-shotted Chiefs safety Eric Berry last season and put him on the Injured Reserve list for the year. It would be hard to imagine ANYONE on the Chiefs defense losing track of where he will be at all times. Spiller is Jamaal Charles-lite and can kill the Chiefs with big plays. He’s the type of back where the Chiefs can stop him 10 rushes in a row and then he busts one for 75 yards and a TD. But he tends to fumble the ball. This is the time Glenn Dorsey, Dontari Poe and Tyson Jackson must make their presence felt against Buffalo’s O-line so that the linebackers can hit Spiller at the line of scrimmage and keep the big gains to a minimum. Finally, Tamba Hali needs to be foaming at the mouth to get to Fitzpatrick because he has more interceptions thrown than any other QB in the league over the last 12 NFL games. Pressure in his face will cause much-needed turnovers for the Chiefs defense.

• Brian Daboll needs to continue to diversify the Chiefs offense. The Bills made the Jets offense look downright invincible last week and even though you cannot bank on it happening with the Chiefs this week, KC showed in the first half against Atlanta that they can move the ball effectively. Sure … if Charles and Peyton Hillis are ripping off five yards per carry, then they’ll keep running the ball. However, offensive coordinator Daboll needs to keep the pressure on for the whole game and that means taking shots downfield to Bowe and Breaston and attack the middle with Boss and McCluster. When Jon Baldwin catches a pass or Tony Moeaki stops batting passes up in the air so they’re intercepted, they can become a bigger part of the offensive game plan.

Everything points towards Buffalo continuing their winning streak against the Chiefs other than the fact that KC has won 4 of their last 6 road games. The fan says that the Chiefs will rise up and cause three or more turnovers (while committing none) and sneak out of Buffalo with a 17-16 win. The realist that has been watching this team for the last month thinks the misery continues for another week:
Prediction – Buffalo 24, Chiefs 13