It’s just another game.
“It’s a Week 11 game. It’s no bigger or no less than the last 10 games we’ve had,” the Buffalo Bills quarterback maintained during his mid-week press conference. “I know the media perception, the fan perception and what this game means, but for us, it’s just Week 11 for us.”
Yeah, right.
The Kansas City Chiefs are coming to town as the NFL’s only undefeated team (9-0), and the matchup at Highmark Stadium is the biggest game of the NFL’s season – so huge that CBS will air its “NFL Today” show on location.
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Maybe, just maybe if the Chiefs stumble, a Buffalo victory could be a tiebreaker edge that would allow it to host the AFC Championship Game. And it’s become such a rivalry. The Bills have had Super Bowl visions for a few years now, but three of their past four seasons have ended with heartbreaking playoff losses to the Chiefs.
That makes Kansas City, two-time defending Super Bowl champs, a certified demon for Allen & Co.
Go ahead, tell yourself it’s just another game.
“It’s something we talk about, not making one game bigger than the next,” Bills tight end Dawson Knox, a sixth-year vet, told reporters. “So, we want to treat each game as the same size. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, looking forward to the playoff picture or anything like that. But they’re an incredible team. Every year since I’ve been here, we’ve played them. It’s always an awesome challenge.
‘But our focus is on us,” Knox added. “The most important thing is to just keep everything inside the building, focus on little things out on the practice field, not getting too far ahead of ourselves.”
You can’t knock the Bills (8-2) for such an approach. Although the Chiefs have ruled the NFL during this Patrick Mahomes Era, Buffalo has been a legitimate contender under coach Sean McDermott and owned the AFC East in recent years. With Tom Brady out of the way, the Bills have won four consecutive division titles. They know a thing or two about good football and the mindset to solidify a standard.
Shoot, the Bills have won the past three regular-season matchups against the Chiefs, winning each time at Arrowhead Stadium.
Yet, this is not just some ho-hum Week 11 game for multiple reasons.
First off, the Bills can end any discussion about Kansas City, winners of 15 consecutive games, possibly pulling off a perfect season. Sure, an undefeated season is a long shot. Yet imagine what it would do for Buffalo’s psyche to be the team that douses water on any thoughts of making such history.
Did somebody mention psyche? The Bills finally drew the Chiefs for a playoff game in Buffalo, in an AFC divisional-round matchup in January, and proceeded to lose with a second-half meltdown. The other playoff matchups in recent years were staged in Kansas City, where the Bills were 13 seconds from advancing to 2021 AFC title game – until Mahomes engineered a drive that set up a field goal that forced overtime. Nightmare at Arrowhead.
No, Week 11 or not, the Bills can do themselves a solid with a win. Obviously, a victory on Sunday won’t be the ultimate payback. The chance for that could come in January, in the playoffs, when the Chiefs will be trying to advance for a shot at making history as the NFL’s first three-peat Super Bowl champion.
Win now, though, and it’s a fresh measuring stick of what’s possible later for a Bills squad that has 17 players who weren’t on the roster for the last playoff game.
Then again, Knox’s point about making it about the Bills rather than the Chiefs has much substance. While Buffalo has won five consecutive games, just one of its victories this season has come against a team that currently has a winning record. And it took a monumental rally to beat Arizona in the opener. When the Bills faced Baltimore and Houston in back-to-back road games, they were trounced.
So, now comes the chance to measure themselves against the most quality opponent of them all.
And with the intense spotlight, there won’t be any issues in getting amped up.
“But sometimes that can be a negative thing,” Knox said. “If you get too hyped up, too ready to go, you might start having mental errors. So, there’s a lot of poise that needs to be involved and just falling back on our preparation. Not getting too excited too quickly. But it is always a little more fun when it’s a primetime game or a big matchup.”
Other side of the rivalry
After four years in Baltimore, Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen is now living on the other side of one of the NFL’s most intense rivalries. And with the Ravens (7-3) coming to Pittsburgh for a matchup on Sunday that will determine first place in the AFC North, he’s adding some fuel to the fire. As if extra juice is needed.
Queen, lured to Pittsburgh with a three-year, $41 million contract, maintained this week that he felt disrespected that the Ravens let him walk as a free agent. Never mind that Baltimore was rather salary cap-strapped, given the commitments to Lamar Jackson, Roquan Smith and Nnamdi Madubuike.
Nonetheless, it’s a spicy subplot for the looming showdown.
‘I wasn’t wanted back,” Queen told reporters in Pittsburgh this week. “I didn’t get an offer. It was definitely kind of upsetting being there for four years and the bond that you grow with your teammates. For the first few months, you definitely go through those feelings.”
What might that mean on Sunday?
‘I will definitely have feelings,” Queen continued. “Anybody in my position would this week.”
Through nine games, Queen has delivered what was promised to help Pittsburgh (7-2) take the division lead. With 62 tackles, he ranks second on the team to another former Raven, safety DeShaun Elliott (64). He’s also critical to the communication, wearing the green dot as the player with the radio device in his helmet to get the play calls from coordinator Teryl Austin. And, of course, in helping their cause, the Steelers – who have won three in a row and seven of the past eight games in this series – undoubtedly saw an additional perk in taking away a key player from a Ravens defense that allowed the fewest points in the NFL last season.
Baltimore brings a former Steeler to the party who is worth noting – even though Steelers coach Mike Tomlin downplayed the presence of wide receiver Diontae Johnson, who tied for the team high last season with five TD receptions.
Johnson, traded by Pittsburgh to Carolina last spring, was recently obtained by the Ravens in another trade. Asked this week for his take on Johnson, Tomlin sent a certain type of message.
“To be honest, I haven’t thought a lot about him,” Tomlin said bluntly, apparently unconcerned about providing bulletin board juice for Baltimore’s fourth receiver. “They’ve got more significant pieces with larger roles that have occupied my attention at this point in the week.”
Ouch. Let the rivalry resume.
Mafia move
With an extraordinary sample size measured by the fact that he logged starts at quarterback for nine teams during a 17-year NFL journey, believe Ryan Fitzpatrick when he contends that he had no better connection with fans than during his four-year stint with the Buffalo Bills that began in 2009.
So, naturally, Fitzpatrick, now an emerging analyst for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football show, seemed like a card-carrying member of the Bills Mafia when he offered to match the $12,000 fine slapped on Spencer Brown for coming to the aid of Josh Allen, pledging to donate that amount to the charity of the Buffalo guard’s choosing. Pretty cool, Fitz.
The Bills Mafia has a reputation for supporting charities of players – including those on opposing teams – to make a statement while raising cash when situations warrant.
Brown was fined for engaging with Nick Cross after the Colts defensive back went extra-curricular after the Bills quarterback finished off a short touchdown run last week.
Fitzpatrick’s tweet (and pledge) included some reasoning for Brown.
“Thanks for providing an example of what a lineman should be,” Fitzpatrick posted on X.
Charity benefits. Statement made. And another type of FitzMagic.
Quick slants
– Hindsight is clearly Kliff Kingsbury. The Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron on Tuesday and replaced him with Thomas Brown, fallout from the mess that has engulfed rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. This move came a week after the Raiders dumped their OC, Luke Getsy, who held the job last year in Chicago. The connection? The Bears and Raiders both considered hiring Kingsbury but rejected him. Bad moves. And in the Raiders’ case, the breaking point came down to Kingsbury wanting a three-year contract that was a year longer than offered. Kingsbury has merely gone on to ignite an emerging Commanders offense while pushing the buttons for star quarterback Jayden Daniels, the frontrunner for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
– Falcons safety Justin Simmons remains tight with some of his former Broncos teammates, so much so that he’s still part of a group chat. Yet business is business. Simmons makes his return to Denver this weekend, where the competition against former teammates will be a lot more intense than it was on the practice field during his eight seasons with the Broncos. Sensing as much, Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton told reporters of his message to Simmons: “I jokingly told him, ‘Hey, bro, if you see me coming across the middle, just remember we’re friends.’ “
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