Plays that shaped the game: Josh Allen's leap was exclamation point on big win

Here’s a closer look at the key plays in the Bills’ 38-20 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs:

Leap of faith. Kansas City’s defense turned up the blitzes out of desperation in the second half. Josh Allen made them pay on the key play that kept alive the scoring drive that sealed the victory.

The Chiefs rushed six men at Allen on a third-and-4 play from the Buffalo 40 with 9:36 to go. With linebacker Ben Niemann and safety Daniel Sorensen blitzing up the middle, Allen saw the area off left tackle open. Allen left his feet at the 38, vaulted Sneed at the 40 and landed at the 42.

JOSH ALLEN HURDLED HIM 😱(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/OE2n8K8iTA

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 11, 2021

It wasn’t quite as big a leap as Allen made over Minnesota’s Anthony Barr in 2018. Allen covered 5 yards in the air and fell forward for another 3 on that signature play. But it was just as critical.

Josh Allen walks us through the hurdle. pic.twitter.com/bMVpGsd8z0

— Matt Parrino (@MattParrino) October 11, 2021

Tip drill. The Bills built their lead to 31-13 when Chiefs star receiver Tyreek Hill let a short pass on a crossing route bounce off his hands. Safety Micah Hyde was right behind him, caught the deflection and ran 25 yards for a touchdown.

Patrick Mahomes was not fooled by the defense, but the Bills did disguise the coverage. Hyde rotated from a Cover 2 look down toward the crossing routes, with Jordan Poyer taking the deep middle. That put Hyde in position to catch the tipped ball.

Siran Neal had tight coverage on tight end Travis Kelce on a deeper crossing route.

"Buffalo did a nice job against us," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "Way too many penalties, turnovers."

Final dagger. A good play design by Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll produced the final touchdown, an 8-yard pass to Emmanuel Sanders.

Isaiah McKenzie came in jet-sweep motion from the left side of the formation, stopped, and raced back to the left flat. Tight end Dawson Knox ran behind the line of scrimmage to the left seam.

All that action seemed to mesmerize the Chiefs defenders, who were in a Cover 3 zone. McKenzie was open, so deep-middle safety Tyrann Mathieu raced to get him. The fact Allen stared at McKenzie seemed to mesmerize Sneed who let Sanders go straight past him into the back left of the end zone. Sanders was wide open for the throw, and Sneed was too late when he realized he had blown the coverage.

Still fast. Allen hit Sanders with a 35-yard touchdown pass to give the Bills a 14-10 lead in the second quarter. It was an out-and-up route down the left side of the field, and Sanders’ fake to the outside turned Sneed around. Sneed is the Chiefs’ well-regarded slot cornerback.

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Sanders reached a speed of 10.33 mph in the first second of his route. What is the relevance? Sanders’ average maximum speed within 1 second of his routes is 9.57 mph, fastest in the NFL. He gets out of the blocks fast. Not bad for a 34-year-old in his 12th NFL season.

"I think hurdling over the guy and the pass to me was ridiculous," said Sanders, who was hoarse during the postgame news conference after celebrating on the field. "After I caught it, I didn't know what to do. I was like, 'That's crazy.' "

Patient approach. The TD to Sanders was set up by a 24-yard catch and run from Allen to Zack Moss. The key to the play was Allen had two receivers running deep crosses down the middle of the field. He didn’t try to force the ball downfield. He took the check-down pass, and Moss gained 20 yards after the catch up the middle of the field.

Bitten by disguise. Chiefs safety Daniel Sorensen tried to disguise the defense’s Cover 2 look on a 61-yard pass to Stefon Diggs. Sorensen was closer to the line of scrimmage, then raced back into position when the ball was snapped. He wasn’t quite in balance when Diggs gave him a fake to the outside and ran to the post.

Diggs was wide open. The play set up a field goal that gave the Bills a 17-10 lead.

Outside the pocket. Sorensen is one of the Chiefs’ most trusted defenders, with 93% of the snaps played the past two seasons. But he underestimated Allen’s ability to extend plays late in the second quarter on the 58-yard touchdown pass to Knox.

The Bills’ quarterback was flushed out of the pocket to the right as tackle Spencer Brown pushed defensive end Khalen Saunders behind Allen. As Knox broke down the right sideline, Sorensen stopped moving his feet about 25 yards downfield. Allen’s pass was a rocket 41 yards in the air, and Knox was wide open beyond Sorensen for the catch.

QB power. The Bills pulled a page out of the Baltimore Ravens’ playbook on their opening drive of the game when Allen ran a quarterback sweep off left tackle for 22 yards to the Chiefs’ 45. A key block was made by Knox on defensive end Mike Danna at the point of attack. Jon Feliciano and Mitch Morse pulled and wiped out defensive backs. Brown got a backside block on linebacker Anthony Hitchens.

The Chiefs gave up 107 yards on 16 carries to Ravens QB Lamar Jackson in Week 2.

But this was not something new for the Bills. Allen had 15 designed QB runs in the first four weeks, not counting QB keepers on short-yardage plays.

Bills window dressing. Each team’s first touchdown came on good scheming by the coaching staff.

Allen scored on a 9-yard run off right tackle, and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll's play design allowed the Bills to outnumber the Chiefs at the point of attack.

McKenzie joined Moss in a two-back backfield. Allen faked a handoff to McKenzie to the left. That drew both Hitchens and Sorensen toward the left. Dion Dawkins and Jon Feliciano pulled to the right, giving the Bills four blockers on three Chiefs defenders. Allen rumbled into the end zone for his second rushing TD of the season.

Window dressing. The Chiefs pulled out all of Reid’s creativity on their first touchdown pass. First Kelce lined up behind center, with Mahomes at wide receiver. Then Hill moved behind center. Then Mahomes went behind center acting like there was offensive confusion.

The ball was snapped and Mahomes’ first option was a shovel pass to Hill, running behind the line to the right. Defensive end Jerry Hughes smelled it out and hit Hill. But that gave Mahomes more time to roll toward the sideline and find Byron Pringle in the back of the end zone. It was just too much time for the Bills’ defensive backs to cover. Pringle got free of cornerback Levi Wallace.

NBC reported Reid called the play, “Who’s the QB?”