The Chiefs’ AFC West foes all had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Sunday
The Chiefs could go into their game this Sunday night against the Broncos with a chance to wrap up the AFC West title.
With a 10-1 record, the Chiefs hold a commanding lead over the Las Vegas Raiders, 6-5. The Raiders play the winless Jets on Sunday, so it seems unlikely Vegas would lose and set up the Chiefs to be playing for a fifth straight division championship.
Then again, the Raiders laid an egg on Sunday, losing 43-6 to the Falcons in Atlanta. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who has complained about a lack of respect, turned the ball over four times. That included this awful pick-six:
Raiders coach Jon Gruden addressed Raiders fans after the beatdown.
“I’d just like to apologize to Raider Nation and compliment the Falcons, they played one hell of a football game, and we did not,” Gruden said. “Turnovers, the penalties, it’s inexcusable and it’s a reflection of me. We’re a lot better team than that.
“We’ve got to get up off the mat and fight better as a coaching staff and as a football team,” Gruden said. “That’s something we’ve got to take a look at — and like I said it’s a reflection of me, and I apologize to the Raider fans.”
Broncos
The Raiders weren’t the only AFC West team to get blown out on Sunday, and the Broncos looked equally dreadful in a 31-3 home loss to the Saints.
Denver can point to one key reason for its struggles Sunday: None of its quarterbacks were available for the game.
ESPN reported quarterback Jeff Driskel tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and contact tracing meant the other quarterbacks weren’t available because they had not been wearing masks when near Driskel.
Denver asked the NFL to allow offensive quality control coach Rob Calabrese to join the team, ESPN reported, but the request was denied. So Denver started practice-squad receiver Kendall Hinton, who had played quarterback at Wake Forest.
Hinton completed 1 of 9 pass attempts for 13 yards and two interceptions and a 0.0 quarterback rating.
“He did everything he could,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio told reporters. “He was excited for the opportunity. We had about a two-, three-, four-hour window to get him ready, which isn’t a lot obviously. He was excited for it. We were excited for him; his teammates were excited for him. That’s a big, big ask and it just didn’t work out.”
Fangio added he was disappointed in the quarterbacks for putting the Broncos in that situation.
Broncos starting quarterback Drew Lock apologized after the game.
Chargers
The good news for the other AFC West team is the Chargers didn’t blow a late lead. Instead their play-calling was, well, odd during a 27-17 loss at Buffalo.
Justin Herbert’s Hail Mary pass with one minute to play was caught by Tyron Johnson shy of the end zone. But the 55-yard completion to the Buffalo 2-yard-line put the Chargers in position to score.
But with no timeouts, the Chargers handed off to Austin Ekeler, who was stopped short of the end zone. That bled the clock and after two incompletions, quarterback Justin Herbert’s sneak was stopped short.
“I’m not saying that it’s been perfect at all. But what happened today at the end of the game was miscommunication,” Herbert told reporters.
Ekeler told reporters: “We needed to throw the ball there just to make sure it’s either a touchdown or an incompletion just to stop the clock.”
Chargers coach Anthony Lynn also said it was a miscommunication.
Also late in the first half, Lynn called a timeout before punting when he could have allowed the clock to run out.
Fortunately for the Chargers, the Bills didn’t return the punt for a touchdown or have a long return that could have set up a field-goal attempt.
Lynn’s reason for punting?
“No sense in taking all three timeouts to the locker room,” Lynn said after the game.
Yep, that was Lynn’s reasoning.
It was just part of a weird day for the Chiefs’ AFC West opponents.
