The Bills didn’t play their best game in Indianapolis on Sunday, but they avoided the worst case scenario.
A strong defensive outing powered them to a 30-20 win on a day when the offense was shorthanded by injuries and hindered by turnovers. The win moved them to 8-2 on the season and set the stage for a slugfest in Buffalo against the Chiefs next weekend.
The chance to hand the 9-0 back-to-back Super Bowl champs their first loss of the season is a tantalizing one, but Bills head coach Sean McDermott said that he wants his team to approach this game the same way they have approached the first 10 contests this season.
“The expectations that we have for ourselves are the most important ones,” McDermott said in his postgame press conference. “We certainly understand everybody putting a lot into this coming game, and we will too, but we put a lot into every game. If we don’t, we’re doing ourselves a disservice. We owe that every week to ourselves and our fans to put the same preparation into every week. It’s a good football team that’s coming in, an undefeated football team and well coached. So, we have a ton of respect for them. So, we’ve got to see if we can get a little bit healthy here, and put the week of preparation in and move forward from there.”
One reason for the Bills not to make too much of next weekend’s game is their recent history against the Chiefs. They’ve won their last three regular season games against Kansas City, but they’ve also lost three playoff games to the AFC frontrunners in the last four years. That puts any result next Sunday into perspective and offers a reminder of how much football will be left regardless of the outcome.