This game was touted as the game of the century, but the first half has been rather uneventful. It’s certainly not the shootout that it was billed to be with only two touchdowns and a pair of red zone turnovers for each squad. Maybe the excitement will pick up in the second half with things all tied up at 10 heading into halftime.
Buy Chiefs TicketsHere are a few quick takeaways from the first half of play:
Zone coverage has been a little suspect
The Chiefs have been running quite a bit of zone coverage in the first half — and for a particular reason. Early on the Bills were running a lot of heavy personnel, leaving Kansas City to match with their base 4-3 personnel grouping. As to avoid a man coverage mismatch — like Nick Bolton covering Stefon Diggs — they’ve been calling a lot of zone defense looks. It’s a bit surprising because you’d think the Bills would want to take advantage of a depleted secondary (which they eventually seemed to realize in the first half). K.C. needs to show that they can get some stops out of that look to force Buffalo away from this particular strategy.
Pressure has been hard to come by for the Chiefs' defensive line
Getting Josh Allen sacked and on the ground has been a tough task for the Chiefs so far. They’ve had a number of pressures and they’ve even had him dead to rights a few times, but he keeps escaping the grasp of K.C. defenders. Even when they send the blitz, there has been no luck getting Allen on the ground. They don’t have a single sack on the day, but they also only have two quarterback hits, which shows you just how tough it has been to get Allen on the ground. I don’t know if the answer is to put a spy on him and send the spy late on a delayed blitz, but Steve Spagnuolo might need to get creative in this one.
Running game needs some life
Mahomes is throwing the ball all over the yard right now, but the running game hasn’t been particularly effective or consistent. They had a few good runs and play designs early, but there were also some run stuffs that hurt the offense. Edwards-Helaire has the most carries with four rushes for 16 yards. Isiah Pacheco is averaging the most with two rushes for nine yards, but also a tone-setting catch for 12 yards. Whatever happens in the second half, the Chiefs need to find a way to get a consistent run game going in key situations.
