John Murphy, the longtime Voice of the Bills, is writing columns for WIVB.com this season. Find more of his work here.
John Murphy: Bills look ahead to archenemy Chiefs visiting Orchard Park
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Here it comes. The heavyweight matchup we’ve been waiting for.
The team that short-circuited Buffalo’s Super Bowl hopes in three of the last four years is coming back to Orchard Park to face the Bills in a regular season game.
But first, the Bills had to deal with Indianapolis, and they did, winning 30-20. Indy turned it over four times and didn’t make much of a game in the second half. The Colts scored their only second half points when there were two seconds left and the issue was decided.
And in the postgame locker room the Bills were talking about next week and the Kansas City Chiefs.
“It’s a good football team coming in,” coach Sean McDermott said about KC. “An undefeated football team and well-coached. We’ve got to see if we can get a little healthier here and put the week of preparation in and move forward.”
The Chiefs are 9-0 and their victory Sunday was indicative of how the season has gone. They needed a blocked field goal on the game’s last play to save the win over Denver. They’ve outscored their nine opponents by 58 points.
The Bills have a 97-point advantage over their 10 opponents so far. They’ve outscored Seattle and Miami by 21, Tennessee by 24, and Jacksonville by 37. But the Bills don’t expect an easy out against the Chiefs.
“The expectations we have for ourselves are the most important ones,” McDermott says. ”We certainly understand everybody putting a lot into this game and we will too. But we put a lot into every game.”
Just another game according to Josh Allen.
“It will be Week 11,” he said. “We’re just trying to put our best foot forward, have a good week of practice, and try to win against a really good team. It’s the biggest game because it’s the next one.”
The Week 10 victory over the Colts wasn’t bad either, given that the Bills were without wideouts Amari Cooper and Keon Coleman and top tight end Dalton Kincaid left the game in the second quarter with an injury. And their defense was down some personnel.
But defensive coordinator Bobby Babich tuned up, made some changes, and Colts RB Jonathan Taylor got seven yards on five carries in the second half after torching the Bills with 107 yards in the first half.
“Bobby called a really good game in the second half based on what the Colts showed in the first half,” McDermott said. “Run defense is usually fundamentally based and I thought they did a phenomenal job.”
Defensive MVP? How about Taron Johnson who sacked Joe Flacco on the second play of the second half snuffing out any Colts hope of a quick comeback. And the Bills nickel corner picked off Flacco on the Colts first play of the game and ran it back 23 yards for a touchdown.
“You never know when your opportunity is going to come,” Johnson says. “I’m just doing what I can to make the play when it comes.”
A nice, understated way to make a difference. It may be enough to beat the Chiefs this Sunday.