Colin Maruscsak, Staff Writer |
Last week in the NFL we saw lots of upsets and surprise victories, as well as some close rivalry matchups. To start off the week, the Los Angeles Chargers took on the Oakland Raiders on Thursday Night Football. These two teams are battling it out for second place in the AFC West division below the Kansas City Chiefs. With that in mind, the Chiefs have had some frustrating losses within the past few weeks, so there is always potential that one of these two teams could storm to the front of their division with a little bit of luck. The game was close all the way through, ending with a final score of 26-24 in favor of the Raiders. After the loss, the media was quick to speculate about the Chargers potentially throwing the rest of their season. It will be interesting to see as they aren’t far enough out of the wild card hunt to give up with good conscious, but it’s rare to have an approximate .500-win percentage team in Week 11 make any headway in the postseason, much less even make it in the first place. The Raiders on the other hand will look to try and scoop up an easy victory this week against the winless Cincinnati Bengals.
One of the biggest upsets was the Atlanta Falcons defeat of the New Orleans Saints. Drew Brees and the Saints were not able to find the endzone at all, with only nine points all from field goals. This win doesn’t appear to make any significant postseason changes, but it does do all the other first place teams a favor potentially giving them home field advantage in a crucial playoff game. One thing this will do for the Saints is force them look toward their offensive line, which didn’t get it done last week. The Saints only had 56-rushing yards across all their running backs and quarterback scrambles. New Orleans will look to get back on track against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers whom they have already beat once this season.
The Tennessee Titans victory over the Kansas City Chiefs was another big upset this weekend. The Chiefs have been out of luck the past couple weeks losing four out of their last six games. While some of that can be attributed to Pat Mahomes’ injury, it isn’t right to pin him for the loss. With 446-passing yards and three touchdown passes, he showed his knee is just fine. The Titans played well, with an outstanding performance from Derrick Henry who rushed for 182-yards and had two rushing touchdowns. Ryan Tannehill’s last minute pass to Adan Humphries gave Tennessee the lead late in the fourth quarter, and Kansas City needed a field goal to tie and send the game to overtime. The Chiefs stormed down the field but Tennessee blocked the potential game winner, sealing the 35-32 win.
The Cleveland Browns beating the Buffalo Bills was another notable upset last weekend. Browns fans are always happy to see a win, with a strong performance from Nick Chubb, who rushed for over 100-yards. Bills fans are nervous to have this loss against the previous two-win Browns, as they would like to get a larger lead in the wild card race. Also, the Miami Dolphins beat the Indianapolis Colts 16-12 this weekend. This was a disappointing loss for the Colts, as they would have been tied for first in their division if they managed to get a win. While the Dolphins are riding high on a two-game win streak, there is no chance they make any postseason news, apart from beating teams in contention.
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