AFC West Recap - The Chargers Have A Better Record Than The Patriots
Now that you’re here to yell at me, lets do a little recap! The Chargers continued their streak, the Chiefs had their most complete team win, and the Raiders are a team in the National Football League.
This was a painful game to watch considering how bad (1-8) Oakland is and how good (7-2) LA is supposed to be. The Raiders played poorly, allowing a ton of chunk yardage on the ground but also holding the Chargers to a season low in offensive yardage, doing particularly well in the first half. But, just like every game this season, they let the floodgates open up and weren’t able to answer back to close out the game, and the Bolts moved on 20-6 to take their 6th straight.
The Chargers offense struggled mightily in the first half, only managing to score their first touchdown at the close of the second quarter. This lead to another score on their opening drive of the second half, with Melvin Gordon scoring on a 66-yard catch-and-run. Gordon had a monster day, rushing 18 times for 93 yards and taking in 5 catches for 72 yards. Keenan Allen added 6 catches for 57 yards and his second touchdown of the year. Philip Rivers played great yet again, going 18/26 for 223 yards, 2 touchdowns and one bonehead interception to Marcus Gilchrist.
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The Raiders offense was non-existent. Not being mean, just saying the truth. In fact, they were so bad that the player in the tweet above was apparently Jordy Nelson, who is mulling retiring today.
Derek Carr went 24/37, failing to score on their lone red zone shot, getting stuffed on 4th and goal by Derwin James. Doug Martin had a decent game, averaging 4.1 Yards per rush on 15 attempts only to be overshadowed by Johnny Townsend’s 42 yard rush on a fake punt.
General rule of thumb, you don’t want your Punter to have the offensive play of the day. Actually, I give that award to Jared Cook.
On defense, the Chargers had a great showing. They sacked Carr 4 times, with Melvin Ingram stripping him on one. Ingram and Derwin James were the stars of the game, applying pressure throughout the game and helping out tremendously in the run game as well. Jatavis Brown also had his second straight amazing tackling performance, totalling 11.
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The Raiders defense was not so lucky. Tahir Whitehead lead the team in tackles again, and Mo Hurst had the lone sack of the day for the team. They managed to hit Rivers 6 times, but that failure to get the quarterback to the turf has been a problem all season. Ex-Charger Marcus Gilchrist picked off an awful throw by Rivers as well, for what that’s worth.
Takeaways for LA: It really shouldn’t have ever been this close. I know it was in Oakland, but their team has been reeling and the Chargers are supposed to have one of the best offenses in the NFL. This is one of those “close” wins that has me afraid for their limitations come playoff time. I would very much like for Joseph Bosa to be active again.
Takeaways for OAK: *Exasperated Sigh* Just look forward to the draft, folks.
Notes for LA: Trevor Williams, Geremy Davis, Chris Landrum, Cole Toner, Trent Scott, Forrest Lamp and Joey Bosa were all inactive. Denzel Perryman went down with a knee injury early in the game and did not return. As of me writing this, they still don’t know what exactly is wrong. They host the Broncos on Sunday.
Notes for OAK: Marcell Ateman, Fadol Brown, Kony Ealy, Justin Murray, Denver Kirkland, Emmanuel Lamur and Ian Silberman were all inactive. Martavis Bryant went down with what is feared to be a PCL tear. They go to Arizona on Sunday.
In my opinion, this was the (9-1) Chiefs most complete win of the year as they clicked totally on both phases of the ball to defeat the Cardinals 26-14.
Just have to note, they lost the coin toss. This ended an unprecedented 9-straight win streak. Anyway, on offense they clicked great to start the game, scoring on the third play from scrimmage with a BOMB to Tyreek Hill, who ended the day with 7 receptions for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns. Pat Mahomes streak of 300 yard games came to an end, as he went 21/28 with 249 yards and 2 touchdowns. Kareem Hunt had an efficient, but less spectacular game compared to recent weeks, rushing 16 times for 71 yards and having his lone rushing TD vultured by Spencer Ware. Mahomes second TD put him ahead of the legendary Len Dawson for the most in by a Chief in a single season.
I think I’m going to just keep noting some leaderboard stats for the offensive players. As it stands, Mahomes is 1st in Yards and TDs and 2nd in Passer rating. Tyreek Hill is 5th in yards, T-2 for TDs, and has the most 20+ yards receptions. Travis Kelce is second in yards and TDs amond tight ends. Hunt is 4th in rushing yards, T-4 in rushing touchdowns and 3rd in total scoring among non-kickers.
The defense played probably their best game of the season, bolstered by the return of Justin Houston. He had a nifty pick to go along with Steven Nelson‘s and the unit managed 5 sacks and 13 hits on Josh Rosen. They had him on the run all game, and it felt like Dee Ford sacked him maybe 200 times. Chris Jones also continued his 5000000 game sack streak as well.
Takeaways: The return of Houston was huge, and he will be imperative as this unit moves to close out the year on a high note. Defense is obviously their most glaring weakness going into the playoffs, and for good reason. However, between Houston’s return and Jordan Lucas‘s increasing snap counts, they’re finally seeming to figure out how to stop professional offenses.
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Notes: Eric Berry, Kahlil McKenzie, Justin Hamilton, Sammy Watkins, Josh Shaw, Frank Zombo and Mitch Morse were all inactive. They play the Rams in Mexico City for MNF in what will be an insane game for sure.
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