All losses come with questions, and Kansas City’s defeat in Week 9 is no different. The Chiefs hit the road for a showdown with the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium on Sunday afternoon and came away with another notch in the loss column and significant questions about what happened.

The Bills 28-21 victory over the Chiefs sent K.C. into a deeper deficit in both their division and the entire AFC. In fact, if current playoff seeding holds true, Kansas City would be on the outside looking in. No one expects things to stay that way, but it’s also likely true that few would have believed Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs would be 5-4 heading into the bye.

Things don’t get any easier after their week off with tough games against the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts in back to back weeks. That’s why K.C. has to figure out some answers to questions that are lingering after a tough road loss.

Question #1: What happened on the 1-yard line?

The Chiefs know exactly what the Buffalo Bills are capable of, so why in the world would K.C. run the worst series of plays in the red zone to end the first half? While the whole series of play calls was confusing, especially when starting at 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard line after a long catch by Hollywood Brown, the Chiefs ended up kicking a field goal on fourth down after a Kareem Hunt run fell short followed by two incomplete passes.

There’s no world in which a 19-yard field goal is acceptable when you’re on the road against the Bills in an important game for playoff seeding considerations. The Chiefs knew they could be staring at third place and a two-game deficit in the AFC West coming in and that’s exactly where they sit now. Harrison Butker converted the short kick to at least gain three points, but everyone in the stands was more than happy to give 3 to K.C. going into halftime.

Question #2: Where was the downfield passing attack?

The Chiefs have put up 31 points per game over the last five weeks, much of which was fueled by the fact that so few teams have the sort of downfield weaponry at their disposal like Kansas City. Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, and Tyquan Thornton are all capable of taking the top off of defenses, but the Chiefs refused to challenge the Bills vertically for most of Week 9.

The playcalling was so conservative for most of an afternoon in which the Bills were playing so aggressively toward anything the Chiefs were attempting in the flats. Despite being smothered on multiple plays, the lack of a vertical challenge suffocated K.C.’s ability to move the chains on multiple drives.

Of course, some of the blame can be placed on the pressure coming from the Bills front line, which brings us to our next question.

Question #3: How worrisome is the offensive line?

At the present time, the Chiefs are missing their right tackle, Jawaan Taylor, who left the game with a right ankle injury and never returned. His injury wasn’t serious enough, at first, to designate him as “out”, but despite being “questionable to return” to the Bills game early in the fourth quarter, Taylor remained on the sidelines.

The loss of Taylor is compounded by the absence of Josh Simmons, the team’s first-round rookie who took over as left tackle from Week 1. Simmons has missed every game since Week 5 while dealing with a personal matter. The Chiefs remain tight-lipped about the situation, but insist that it’s positive and that Simmons is expected back at some point this season.

It doesn’t help matters to have OT3 and OT4 manning the bookends when a team is trying to even the score against a primary conference rival. To add salt to the wound, right guard Trey Smith was playing with back spasms after a week of limited practice sessions, and Kingsley Suamataia was also injured in the fourth quarter but stayed in the game.

The Chiefs can only hope that a week off will do this line a world of good. Perhaps it even brings Simmons back. At the very least, Andy Reid has to hope that Taylor heals up and that Smith and Suamataia feel okay or else things could unravel quickly against the Denver Broncos on the other side of a bye.