Even when the Bills don’t play, they rise.
Heading into the weekend, the Bills were second in the NFL in total defense at 281.5 yards per game. But they jumped into first when the Niners gave up 529 yards of offense in a 44-23 thrashing by the Chiefs.
After fattening up on some weak offenses early in the season, the Niners have allowed 72 points and 818 yards of offense in successive losses to the Falcons and Chiefs — who continue to lead the NFL in scoring at a shade under 32 points a game.
The Niners were simply no match for Patrick Mahomes and K.C., which scored 30 points in the second and half and averaged a gaudy 9.1 yards a play on the day. The Chiefs had six touchdown drives, the longest of which took 5:02 off the clock.
The Bills’ defense got stronger as the game went on in a 24-20 win at Kansas City last week. The Niners wilted on their home field, as Mahomes and Co. shredded them for chunk plays. The Chiefs had 10 plays of 20 or more yards against the San Francisco defense.
The Chiefs ran the ball effectively against the Niners, gaining 112 yards on 21 carries, a 5.3 average. They had just 68 yards on 18 tries (3.8 per carry) against the Bills and their longest run was 11 yards.
It was fashionable to elevate the Niners as a Super Bowl contender when they traded for star running back Christian McCaffrey last week. But the last two losses raise serious questions about a defense that was clearly not as good as its ranking after the first month of the season.
Who would have guessed that after seven weeks, the Seattle Seahawks would be sitting alone atop the NFC West, half a game ahead of the defending Super Bowl champion Rams and two ahead of the Niners and Arizona Cardinals?
Seattle won its second in a row, stunning the Chargers on the road, 37-23. A reborn Geno Smith threw for 210 yards, the Seahawks rushed for 214 yards, and the defense forced Justin Herbert into two turnovers.
The Eagles, who were on the bye this week, remain the only unbeaten team in the league. But the Chiefs’ rout of the Niners on Sunday will only confirm what many observers believe: That the two best teams in the NFL are the ones with the two best quarterbacks in the sport:
Mahomes and Josh Allen.
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Jerry Sullivan is an award-winning journalist who joined the News 4 team in 2020 after three decades as a sports columnist at The Buffalo News. See more of his work here.
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here