Buffalo Bills Beat Kansas City Chiefs to Open Season in Style

It was a good day for the Buffalo Bills, as the team opened the 2011 season by destroying the Kansas City Chiefs. It's OK to openly be a Bills fan again, and this was the best possible way the team could have begun the new campaign.

The Buffalo-Kansas City game was supposed to be competitive, and many of the NFL analysts felt that the Chiefs would win at home. This one turned out to be far from close though, as Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick had the game of his life on Sunday. He threw for 208 yards on 17-of-26 passing, but most importantly had four passing touchdowns and only one interception late in the fourth quarter. His favorite target was Scott Chandler, who caught five passes for 63 yards and two touchdowns.

The defense for Buffalo was equally up to the task on Sunday, holding Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel in check for the entire game. He would end up with just 119 yards on 22-of-36 passing with one touchdown and an interception. It's not what Kansas City fans wanted to see take place, and it spoke volumes about how this team didn't improve enough in the offseason. Losing by 34 points (41-7) to open the season is bad enough, but doing it in Arrowhead Stadium is something that fans are not going to forget.

Buffalo also had a great game from running back Fred Jackson, who ran for 112 yards on just 20 carries. Jackson didn't have a rushing touchdown, but he was crucial in getting the Bills to scoring position on nearly every offensive drive of the game. In a statement that makes it seem obvious that the Bills were dominating every aspect of this game, punter Brian Moorman even had a great day, averaging nearly 50 yards on each attempt that he had.

Getting a win like this one is very important for Buffalo; especially with how tough the AFC East is going to be this season. The early standings will have Buffalo tied for first place in the division, and the team is guaranteed to be ahead of at least one team because the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots play against each other on Monday night. It's certainly far too early to think about Buffalo as being a playoff team in the AFC, but this performance is going to go down as one of the biggest surprises in week one of the young NFL season.