Buffalo Bills' Offense Is Letting Their Defense Down

It wasn’t the prettiest game you’ll ever see, but for the better part of Sunday’s contest, the Buffalo Bills outplayed the Kansas City Chiefs. Their offense wasn’t outstanding, but was able to move the ball, while their defense played as well as they had all season. But it was the offense’s failures in key moments that doomed the Bills in their 17-13 loss to the Chiefs. It’s always a shame to see such great defense go to waste, but the Bills have gotten away with it in the past and it finally came back to bite them.

While Kyle Orton has certainly brought a sense of stability to the quarterback position, the offense hasn’t exactly taken off in his tenure. The Bills have struggled to find the end zone at various times this season. Even in their 43-23 drubbing of the New York Jets, the Bills’ offense left plenty of opportunities on the field. That was the case once again against the Chiefs as the Bills squandered another fantastic performance by their defense.

Outside of a long Jamaal Charles touchdown run, the Chiefs couldn’t get anything going offensively against Buffalo, totaling just 278 yards of offense and going only 3-of-13 on third down. Alex Smith had a long day at the office, getting sacked six times and getting hit even more than that.

That has been a common theme for opposing QBs against the Bills’ defensive line, arguably the best in the league. There might not be a defensive tackle in football playing better than Marcell Dareus right now. He recorded three more sacks on Sunday, bringing his season total to 10. His linemates Mario Williams, Kyle Williams and Jerry Hughes are no slouches either. In total, those four have combined for a whopping 27 sacks this year. If only their offense didn’t put so much pressure on them to be consistently great.

The two biggest factors that have killed Buffalo’s offense this year have been turnovers and inefficiency in the red zone. Unsurprisingly, those were the two biggest factors in their Week 10 loss.

The Bills looked ready to take a commanding lead in the third quarter when Bryce Brown fumbled just before the goal line. Scott Chandler failed to recover and the ball went out of the back of the end zone for a touchback. Had Brown held on to the football, it would have been very hard to see the Bills losing with the way their defense was playing.

Meanwhile, Orton and the rest of the offense looked utterly lost in the red zone, failing to score a touchdown in four trips inside the Chiefs’ 20, two of which ended in zero points. The first was Brown’s fumble; the second was on a questionable decision to go for it on fourth down late in the game when the Bills could have settled for a field goal and still had a reasonable chance to win.

To be fair, the Bills’ two best offensive players, Sammy Watkins and Fred Jackson, were clearly not at 100 percent and weren’t expected to play heading into the game, let alone contribute. But sooner or later, injuries or not, the Bills are going to need to give their outstanding defense a break.

Nick Richardson is an NFL blogger covering the Buffalo Bills for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickSonofDave, Like him on Facebook or add him to your circles on Google.