The Bills fooled Patrick Mahomes on final play with defensive scheme years in the making

Sometimes, a plan takes months to come to fruition.

Rarely do you get instant results and long-term improvement, but the Buffalo Bills might have done just that through their defensive talent acquisition and retainment this season. It all came to light on the final play of their 24-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Let’s set the stage: in 2021, the Bills signed LB Matt Milano to a contract extension worth $44 million, and it might be more of a value play now than it ever has been. Milano has simply been one of the best off-ball linebackers in the NFL, and his versatility in zone coverage and locking down bigger targets has been extremely valuable to a Bills team that plays a lot of man and zone matching coverages.

In October the Bills signed slot defender Taron Johnson to a three year, $24 million contract extension. Johnson has proven to be one of the best slot defenders in the NFL, a role that’s growing as the NFL moves their best receivers into the slot to try and create favorable matchups.

Once the Bills hit the offseason, they signed Von Miller to a six year, $120 million contract to rev up their pass rush, in hopes that when this game against this team came around, the results would be different.

And they were massively different, from the personnel all the way to the execution of the play.

On the final play of the game, the Chiefs came out in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs). They’re in a trips set with three receivers to one side and one receiver tight to the other side. The Bills matched this with dime personnel, with three pass rushers, two linebackers and six defensive backs. This is notable, because before this game, Dime personnel was not in the Bills defensive diet. This was the game they had to break it out, they knew they would need it against Kansas City.

What’s also notable is dropping eight people into coverage. The Bills also NEVER do that, but now that you have Von Miller, you can rush three and drop eight, while still getting pressure. It’s why you go get Von Miller.

Before the snap, Milano is lined up to look like a pass rusher, but when the ball is snapped, he becomes a spy, designed to pressure Mahomes the moment he breaks contain. Miller uses an inside rush to force Mahomes out of the pocket to Milano. This is important because on the previous drives, Miller ended said drives with sacks and pressures, taking the game over up front.

In coverage, the Bills run a version of Cover 2, with a “Trap” call to the three-receiver side. This means the outside corner, Christian Benford in this example, will cut off any out-breaking route by the second receiver, and the safety to that side will take any vertical route by the outside receiver. What makes this fun is that they’re running zone to one side, and man to another, meaning that this is a zone match coverage to the field side.

Zone match coverage is kind of like a scientific hypothesis: IF X does this, THEN I will do Y. For example, let’s use Taron Johnson in this case. IF the second receiver runs an out and Travis Kelce runs a curl, THEN I’ll break on any route threatening my zone. It requires a lot of communication and experience, which is why they went and extended Johnson. For plays and moments like this.

The pressure forces Mahomes to his right, and Milano triggers on his first outside move. Because Mahomes sees the corners in press alignment, he assumes that he’ll have Skyy Moore on the drag in case he gets pressured. That’s when Johnson jumps the route and seals the game.

For one play, in that one moment, the Bills building and offseason acquisition of Von Miller proved to be useful, because all of those moves were made with this one team in mind. To beat the boogeyman wearing 15 for Kansas City. The Bills got the one up on the Chiefs, and possibly hold the keys to the playoff picture in the AFC.