Buffalo’s defense and special teams dominated the latest edition of Brownie Points.
Buffalo Bills Insider Chris Brown gives out his ratings from last week’s win over KC.
Here’s a look at four critical plays in Buffalo’s victory over the Chiefs that may have been overlooked in our latest edition of Brownie Points.
After every win there are the highlight reel plays that everyone remembers that were critical to victory. But there are always a handful of plays that were critical to the outcome that often go unrecognized. After each Bills win I’ll be highlighting a few plays that were important to the victory that you may not have noticed.
In addition I’ll be assessing Brownie points for those players responsible for making those plays in a race for the Golden Brownie award at season’s end. Here’s a look at the players earning Brownie points for the Week 12 win over Kansas City.
More on how Bills fans can nominate players for Brownie Points after Buffalo victories below.
Play 1 – Charging the Hill
4th quarter – 13:35 left – Facing a 3rd-and-2 and down 16-10, the Chiefs go into their bag of tricks to try to catch the Bills defensive front off guard. They line up initially with Alex Smith in the shotgun. He retreats to almost nine yards into the backfield in an inverted wishbone look with Tyreek Hill on his left and Kareem Hunt on his right. TE Travis Kelce then pulls off the line and gets in the shotgun between Hill and Hunt to take the snap.
At the snap, Kelce plays read option with Hill, who comes across his face left to right. By the time Kelce gives the ball to Hill, Buffalo’s defensive line has blown the Chiefs offensive front off the line of scrimmage. Kyle Williams wins immediately versus center Mitch Morse with a swim move. Lorenzo Alexander beats both RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardiff and RT Mitchell Schwartz with the same swim move as he sidesteps their double-team down block to help hold the edge with Shaq Lawson.
Chiefs LG Zach Fulton pulls to the right side of the formation, but barely gets a piece of Alexander, who he tries to seal since he has no chance of climbing to a penetrating Matt Milano.
Milano has already shot through the gap, but his shallow entry point keeps him just inches from making the tackle. His penetration however, force Hill to take a wider run to the corner.
Tre’Davious White and Micah Hyde are grappling with Albert Wilson and Hunt to hold the corner and force Hill back inside to the pursuit.
Hyde gets to Hill first and Lawson overlaps the penetrating Milano to finish the cornered Hill for a loss of two to force a punt.
8 points – Micah Hyde
Play 2 – Burying them
1st quarter – 12:49 left – Forced to punt after an opening drive stalls at midfield, Colton Schmidt comes on and kicks an Aussie-style punt (point of ball down) 43 yards. His directional effort is spot on as it goes out of bounds at the Chiefs eight-yard line. The punt establishes an early field position edge for the Bills that they would maintain for most of the game. Schmidt dropped four of his seven punts inside the Kansas City 20-yard line.
6 points – Colton Schmidt
Play 3 – Crashing them
1st quarter – 5:53 left – On a 1st-and-10 at the Buffalo 42-yard line, Tyrod Taylor hands off to LeSean McCoy for an inside run play. Before McCoy reaches the line of scrimmage, the entire offensive line opens a gaping hole on the back side.
The line blocks down to their right and McCoy steps in that direction on the hand-off. Fullback Pat DiMarco lead blocks in the front side hole. Jordan Mills and Vlad Ducasse have capably sealed their defenders outside as DiMarco climbs to the second level to take care of LB Kevin Pierre-Louis.
Chiefs NT Rakeem Nunez-Roches works to squeeze the hole by driving Eric Wood into it, but Reggie Ragland has over pursued the play. Richie Incognito reaches him before he can reverse his field and seals him from the back side.
McCoy has already spotted the opening. Dion Dawkins ensures that McCoy gets through the hole untouched as he outflanks DE Jarvis Jenkins driving him to the ground and taking Ragland with them in the process. McCoy rips off a 10-yard gain. The drive results in Buffalo’s only touchdown in the game.
4 points – Dion Dawkins
Play 4 – Down Hill
1st quarter – 8:59 left – In a scoreless game, the Chiefs are facing a 3rd-and-7 at their own 22-yard line. Alex Smith facing a four-man rush, steps up in the pocket and delivers a pass underneath to Tyreek Hill, who is coming across the field underneath an umbrella coverage by the Bills.
Four Buffalo defenders are guarding the yard to gain. As Hill makes the reception at the Chiefs 25, he needs just four yards to convert the third down.
Leonard Johnson is about 10 yards away from Hill at the point of the reception, but quickly closes the space and drives his full weight across the receiver’s midsection and drops him at the Chiefs 24.
The stop forces the Chiefs to punt and helps to maintain Buffalo’s early field position edge.
2 points – Leonard Johnson
Brownie Points Leaderboard
1 – Tyrod Taylor – 16 points
2 – Colton Schmidt – 14 points
3 – Micah Hyde – 12 points
4 – Dion Dawkins – 10 points
T5 – Kyle Williams – 8 points
T5 – Joe Webb – 8 points
T5 – Jordan Poyer – 8 points
T5 – Andre Holmes – 8 points
T9 – Preston Brown – 6 points
T9 – Jordan Matthews – 6 points
T9 – EJ Gaines – 6 points
T9 – Khari Lee – 6 points
T9 – Taiwan Jones – 6 points
T14 – Brandon Tate – 4 points
T14 – Jerry Hughes – 4 points
T14 – Lorenzo Alexander – 4 points
T17 – Leonard Johnson – 2 points
T17 – Nick O’Leary – 2 points