By: Joshua Brisco
During Wednesday’s press conferences, the Kansas City Chiefs had a relatively consistent theme: learn from Sunday’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders to prepare for Monday’s matchup with the Buffalo Bills.
The team’s first loss of 2020 was also their first loss since November 10, 2019, when they lost to the Tennessee Titans before going on a 13-game winning streak that included their Super Bowl championship.
On Wednesday, head coach Andy Reid was asked about the challenges of bouncing back from a loss — something the Chiefs haven’t had to do in a very long time.
“Well, first, you don’t ever want to get used to it,” Reid said. “So that’s a part of it, but we’ve been fortunate to win enough games there to where we haven’t had to deal with that much, but the primary focus is getting better at those things. Learn from the things that took place [against the Raiders] and let’s make sure we correct those. That’s what’s real. And then get yourself ready to play a good Buffalo team. … All of our energy and time should be spent on those couple things there, learning from your mistakes and then jump in and exhaust yourself on learning about Buffalo.”
Among the mistakes the Chiefs can learn from, quarterback Patrick Mahomes had some keys in mind as well. Pairing consistent pressure from the Raiders’ pass-rush with some mistakes from Mahomes on Sunday, the offense failed to get going in the second half of the loss. Wednesday, Mahomes said he and the offense have plenty to work on.
“We just didn’t execute like we wanted the entire game,” Mahomes said. “We had some shots here and there that we hit, and we were able to score some points. But we just didn’t execute and play to the level and efficiency that we’re used to playing at, and when you play against a team that’s a great opponent and you’re not executing at a high level and putting your defense in bad situations, usually you don’t win the football game.”
Now the Chiefs sit at 4-1, no longer clear front-runners to win the AFC’s top seed and lone first-round bye, and Monday afternoon’s matchup with the Bills, who are also 4-1, could go a long way in that race for the top seed in the conference.