Patrick Mahomes couldn’t solve Bills’ dime defense: NFL Week 9 Quick Outs

The NFL followed up an entertaining slate of Week 9 games with a frantic trade deadline. Here’s what we’ll be talking about in the latest Quick Outs:

• Patrick Mahomes’ brutal day in Buffalo.
• How Talanoa Hufanga is impacting Denver’s defense.
• Do we need to pump the brakes on the renewed J.J. McCarthy hype?
• A closer look at Payton Wilson’s interception.

Let’s get into it.

QB charting: Patrick Mahomes

Mahomes had been on a heater since the Chiefs’ 0-2 start. He’d started to blend the boring, efficient play of his 2022-24 seasons with all the fireworks that made him a phenom to begin his career. For the nth time, he was looking unstoppable.

Then came the Buffalo Bills and their dime defense. Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich played dime defense (six defensive backs) on 45.6 percent of the Chiefs’ offensive snaps — the highest mark ever in a Bills game since McDermott became head coach. Conversely, the Bills didn’t play a single snap of base defense (four defensive backs).

It was all speed, all the time versus the Chiefs. Mahomes didn’t have a great answer for it.

The Chiefs’ issues were twofold.

Firstly, they tried to attack the Bills downfield too often without setting it up with play-action. All of their downfield shots were pure dropback scenarios in which they just believed they could block the Bills’ front with five or six guys and without the use of a play fake. They were regularly wrong. Mahomes was pressured on six of those plays. Moreover, some of his accurate passes weren’t caught, including his second-to-last throw to Tyquan Thornton in the end zone.

Secondly, the Chiefs struggled to get their quick passing game going.

Mahomes’ first quick throw of the game resulted in a drop by Hollywood Brown over the middle. From then, the Bills’ secondary — namely, safety Cole Bishop — did a phenomenal job closing on routes. Bishop had multiple breakups in the short area to stall out some Chiefs drives, stripping Kansas City of the efficiency it is so accustomed to.

I didn’t come away from this game believing Mahomes was any worse, but I was left thinking the Chiefs might have some issues against teams that can stay in lighter defensive personnel and sell out to stop their passing game.

Needle-mover: Talanoa Hufanga

Hufanga is starting to find his place in Vance Joseph’s defense. His performance against the Texans was by far his best of the season and a complete showcase of his capabilities.

The numbers paint a clear picture of Hufanga’s impact. According to Next Gen Stats, Hufanga had six “stops” (tackles that result in negative EPA for the offense), the most among defensive backs this week. He blew up a run at the line of scrimmage on the second play of the game, and then later in the first quarter, raced off the left edge as the pursuit player on the goal line for another stop.

He also made stop after stop in the passing game, holding Texans tight ends and running backs to minimal gains.

For example, Hufanga exploded Harrison Bryant in the flat on a boot-action play for a short gain in the second quarter. In the fourth quarter, he flew downhill as the flat player in a funky Cover 2 look to stop running back Woody Marks for a two-yard gain on third-and-4. On those two plays, you felt Hufanga’s confidence and playmaking speed really coming back.

And that doesn’t even get to his two pass breakups — one on a checkdown to Marks; another on which he whipped around like an outfielder as the deep middle safety to nearly intercept a post route intended for Nico Collins.

Hufanga was everything the Broncos hoped he would be when they signed him this offseason. Sure, the Texans don’t exactly have the world’s scariest offense, but this kind of performance has been boiling for Hufanga. To see it finally come together was a beautiful thing.

Scramble drill: Let’s relax on the J.J. McCarthy mythmaking

Winning football games has the same effect as the “Men in Black” memory eraser. Flash the “W” across the screen after a game, and it’s like all the bad plays never happened.

That’s especially true when it comes to young quarterbacks. And I get that — I’m as guilty as anyone when defending a young QB in the face of middling production or losses.

With that in mind, though, the McCarthy hype needs to slow down. The Vikings are 2-1 with him as the starting quarterback, and he’s made a couple of exciting plays per game, so it’s easy to buy that things are going to plan. On a down-to-down basis, though, McCarthy has been troubling, even compared to other young quarterbacks in their first few starts.

McCarthy is a second-year player but has started only three career games. To compare McCarthy’s level of play, we can look at quarterbacks who have made their first three career starts and thrown at least 60 passes in their first two seasons. That leaves us with 72 quarterbacks since 2016.

Of those, here are McCarthy’s ranks (per TruMedia):

• 63rd in EPA per dropback (-0.37); average: -0.11
• 57th in dropback success rate (33.8 percent); average: 40.5 percent
• 70th in sack rate (17.5 percent); average: 8.5 percent
• 68th in pressure-to-sack rate (38.9 percent); average: 21.9 percent

The only other player below -0.30 EPA per dropback in their first three starts who held onto a starting job is Jared Goff, who was completely drowning on an awful Los Angeles Rams team. The only starters below McCarthy in success rate over that span are Goff and (sort of) Justin Fields.

It’s not just the numbers, either. Though McCarthy did throw a couple of nice out-breaking and vertical routes last week versus the Detroit Lions, he had many more moments of inaccuracy and generally looked overwhelmed.

McCarthy missed multiple crossing routes, including one he threw behind Jalen Nailor that Terrion Arnold intercepted. He was often slow to see and beat the blitz. Almost none of his throws went to the middle of the field (which I’m willing to admit may say more about what I personally want to see from quarterbacks than something that matters objectively, but still). There were also several occasions when McCarthy and his running back disagreed on which side a run or play-action fake was going to.

TA SAID GIMME THAT#MINvsDET 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/ZurYFAKbeE

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 2, 2025

It was a discombobulated performance, carried by a small handful of throws and a strong Vikings defense.

This all seems harsh — and it probably is — but it just feels like McCarthy’s enthusiasm is guided more by winning than by his actual play. Though we can credit the Vikings for getting it done around McCarthy, we should pump the brakes on what the quarterback himself is doing until further notice.

Anatomy of a highlight: Payton Wilson’s INT

Daniel Jones was brutal on Sunday. There’s no two ways about it. He made a few sweet throws outside the numbers, but the Steelers had his head spinning. The turnovers and sacks didn’t seem to end.

At the same time, there’s a case to be made that the interception Jones threw to Wilson was more circumstantial than a truly awful decision by the Indianapolis QB.

PICKED OFF BY @payton_wilson21‼️

📺 #INDvsPIT on @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/1dADVCOcKu

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) November 2, 2025

Right before the snap, tight end Tyler Warren motions across the field from right to left. Nickel corner Jalen Ramsey runs with him, signaling that man coverage is on the way. In theory, that makes decision-making easy for Jones — he knows where all the pieces on the board should be if everyone is getting one-on-one coverage.

With that being the case, Jones assumes Wilson is going to fly down to the right-hand side of the formation to cover Jonathan Taylor out of the backfield. He’s betting that Taylor will pull Wilson out of the way so he can throw the whip route to Josh Downs near the right hash marks.

Taylor gets hung up on chip blocking T.J. Watt, though. He isn’t fast out of the backfield, which means Wilson doesn’t have to be fast to the flat to cover him. Wilson can take his time and get eyes on the quarterback, knowing that Taylor isn’t an immediate threat to the perimeter. That slight hiccup in the timing of route distribution means Wilson is sitting in the throwing window when Jones assumes he won’t be — and Jones throws it right at his chestplate.

So, again, I’m not saying Jones made a good decision here — the quarterback has made a mistake when he throws the ball right at a defender. The point is that sometimes quarterbacks do have to make assumptions about coverage or where defenders will be, and the smallest detail can be the difference between them looking right or wrong.