What a Super Bowl weekend, huh? Reporting was new, the hype was new, everything was new! After all, it was a Cincinnati Bengals v. Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl, that’s a new match-up that we haven’t seen before. What a game too! The weeks leading up to the Super Bowl and all its reporting was pretty homogeneous and it was clear: it was a battle of the quarterbacks: “Is Joe Burrow the new QB to beat?” and these words have been hanging in the air like in a constant cartoon text bubble, as they were heard around the world, repeatedly.
For the Kansas City Chiefs, the Cincinnati Bengals were a tough opponent, after all, against them only losses were recorded during the 2021 season. The question stands though, are the Bengals their new big AFC Conference rival, or are the Buffalo Bills still the team to beat during the 2022 season and beyond?
Let’s start with the win/loss records:
Against the Bengals, the Chiefs have a losing record: 14 Wins – 17 Losses. The losing record holds true against Buffalo as well: 24 Wins – 27 Losses – 1 Tie. Clearly, the Chiefs have had more meetings with the Bills, but what’s even more important than the complete record, is the win/loss record during the years Patrick Mahomes has started, as that’s where the real beef started. Patrick Mahomes currently holds a record of 2 Wins – 1 Loss against the Bills, and a record of 1 Win – 2 Losses against the Bengals. These records themselves are small, but the rivalry that is being started between these teams is huge!
Josh Allen has been a quarterback that has been on everyone’s watch list since he came into the league. He’s one of the new young guns that gets compared to Patrick Mahomes frequently in they have been in a race to be the best quarterback, which is especially true now that Tom Brady has left the building. Looking back at the 2021 season, it’s obvious that Josh Allen is a power player. Mahomes surpasses him in just about every passing category, but not by much. Looking at the rushing stats though, it’s Allen that leads in just about every way.
Well, that’s obvious right? Josh Allen has always been a runner. Some have even compared him to Lamar Jackson, the current public favorite of run-proficient QBs. It’s obviously no secret that Josh Allen is the power player he is, as Chris Broussard from “First Things First” puts it,
I’m firm in my stance that Josh Allen and the Bills will be a problem for a while. When the Chiefs lost against the Bills in 2021, they lost by 18 points, which is a hefty number for them to let go. After that loss, the atmosphere was stale and Kansas City Chiefs fans nationwide knew that the next time they’d meet the Bills, it would no longer be a “won and done” situation, and the Chiefs would have to fight for the win even more.
Josh Allen’s mix of passing skills and running hunger, makes for a dangerous weapon. It’s something that the Chiefs defense needs to capitalize on. As established in my first two articles for ArrowheadOne, 2021 Chiefs: The Inconsistent Season and Chiefs: Can This Defense Help Win a Championship, the most important thing for the Chiefs defense to do is to make more assertive plays: more sacks, more interceptions, more forced fumbles. With Josh Allen, it might be more difficult to read the offense because he can either throw a Hail Mary successfully whenever he wants, or run for a 1st down conversion whenever he wants.
In the same vein, this almost always opens up a bigger opportunity for more assertive plays by the Chiefs Defense. If the defense is able to read the offense successfully, at least on the plays where Allen is in a designed run mode, it’ll be much easier to make those forced fumbles, and make bigger plays. The name of the game against Josh Allen is to read, read, read. Too many times, surprises and hesitations have slipped by to allow him to run. This needs to be stopped to stop Allen.
Well, what about Joe Burrow and the Bengals? Is he just as big a rival as Josh Allen? Right off the bat I’ll tell you my opinion: I don’t think so. It is truly amazing what Burrow has done this 2021 season, and huge credit for making it to the Super Bowl during his first full year as their starting QB — since he got injured in 2020, his rookie season with the Bengals — but, there’s just not enough history there to call anything.
In total, the Kansas City Chiefs have played many more games against the Bills, so already there’s a foundation for a rivalry, and even though the Mahomes v. Allen, and the Mahomes v. Burrow record holds the same amount of total games played (3), the Bills have been a long time competitor, and Allen has had time for his skills to get established since 2018. Mahomes has been in the league since 2017 and Joe Burrow has been in the league since 2020, only playing his true first full year this past season. So, Joe Burrow hasn’t had the time to completely show what he can do. Sure, it is definitely possible that the Cincinnati Bengals go on to stomp through the AFC next year, and that Joe Burrow puts up insane numbers,. However, he hasn’t had the time to prove himself, and his 2021 performance, hasn’t been comparable to the Allen v. Mahomes rivalry, so far.
Looking at Joe Burrow’s stats this past 2021 season against Allen and Mahomes, it’s clear that he didn’t put up the same numbers as each of them did. Allen was higher in almost every stat, both passing and running, and Mahomes was also higher in almost every stat, both in passing and running. The fact that Patrick Mahomes dominates more passing statistics, and Allen dominates more running statistics, and both of the Mahomes’ and Allen’s QB’s stats are consistently better across the board compared to Burrow, proves that “Joe Cool” has more work to do.
Let’s not get it twisted: Joe Burrow is by no means a bad QB or unskilled. In fact, quite the opposite. He lifted the Bengals up, brought them to a Super Bowl appearance, and showed skills what not many QBs show in their first two (2) years out of college. To answer our question today though: is he a bigger rival than Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills? I have to reiterate: no.
Burrow’s stats weren’t up to Mahomes’ or Allen’s, and he’s only played one full season in the NFL. Could he become the bigger rival over time? Absolutely. Especially if he keeps crushing it. Plus, I’m sure we will see him again. Do I think that the Bengals are a rival at all? Absolutely yes! The Chiefs two (2) losses to them during the 2021 season were tough, and solidified that the Bengals are and were going to be a problem. However, it’s much too easy to get caught up in the media hype — during the aftermath of the Super Bowl — to see that the Bills are our bigger rival.
Both rivals, and both quarterbacks, are phenomenal, but the Bills are the bigger rival that we need to keep our eyes on. The Bengals can’t be forgotten or ignored, but there’s simply more grief in the beef for the Chiefs, going up against Josh Allen and the BUFFALO Bills.
Go Chiefs!
You can follow me, Chief Dennis, on Twitter at @ChiefsKingdomCo
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Chief Dennis — ArrowheadOne
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