What we learned in NFL Week 11: Bills get gutsy, Steelers make a statement

Josh Allen tried to claim that Sunday’s date with the Kansas City Chiefs was just “a Week 11 game.” The Bills quarterback sat before the cameras in the days leading up to Buffalo’s showdown with the two-time defending champs and said it was “no bigger or no less (important) than the last 10 games we’ve had.”

On paper, perhaps. In reality, no way.

The Chiefs have sent the Bills home in the playoffs three times in the last four years. Kansas City remains the biggest roadblock for Buffalo in the franchise’s pursuit of its first Super Bowl title.

This year’s matchup carried with it immense postseason implications: the Chiefs entered a perfect 9-0, while the Bills were 8-2. The winner could very well end up earning the AFC’s No. 1 seed and coveted playoff bye. Allen’s play Sunday in Orchard Park, especially on the signature snap of Buffalo’s season to date, spoke to how badly the Bills want it.

On a fourth-and-2 with 2:26 left and the Bills leading by two, Allen charged through the teeth of the Kansas City defense for an MVP-caliber, 26-yard touchdown run. Six snaps later, the Bills intercepted Patrick Mahomes to seal the 30-21 victory, dealing the Chiefs their first loss of the season and giving the Bills a critical boost in their pursuit of the AFC’s top seed.

“Knowing how things usually go, we’ll probably see this team again at some point,” Allen said afterward.

GO DEEPER

NFL Week 11 takeaways: Bills make case as AFC’s best team, Bo Nix rookie of the year?

On the topic of potential No. 1 seeds, Detroit continues to look like the most complete team in the league. The Lions were so dominant Sunday that they might’ve expedited Doug Pederson’s exit in Jacksonville. A 52-6 loss — the worst in the Jaguars’ 29-year franchise history — could end up being the final straw for the veteran coach. After the embarrassment, Pederson, whose seat has warmed considerably in recent weeks as his team dropped four straight, was asked about his job security.

“I can’t control that,” he told reporters.

About a year ago, the Jaguars were 8-3 and in contention for the AFC’s top seed. They’re 3-13 since. The Lions, meanwhile, are 9-1 for the first time in 90 years.

In Tennessee, the Vikings (8-2) stayed a game behind Detroit in the NFC North with a 23-13 victory over the Titans. It’s Minnesota’s third straight win after consecutive losses in late October.

If the NFC North remains the deepest division in football — three teams are 7-3 or better — then the NFC West remains the most jumbled. Seattle’s 20-17 win over San Francisco on Sunday means the Seahawks, 49ers and Rams are now 5-5, with the Cardinals (6-4) just a game ahead.

In Miami, the Dolphins won for the second week in a row, beating the Raiders 34-19. After starting 2-6, Mike McDaniel’s team has rallied to keep its once-slim playoff hopes alive. Miami will face the Patriots next week for a chance to claim a third straight.

Those Patriots will be coming off a 28-22 loss to the Rams despite a career-best 282 passing yards from rookie quarterback Drake Maye. The issue Sunday wasn’t Maye, despite his game-sealing interception in the fourth quarter, but instead L.A. quarterback Matthew Stafford, who lit up the New England defense for four touchdowns. Puka Nacua finished with a game-high 123 receiving yards and a touchdown, while Cooper Kupp added 106 and two scores of his own.

In New Orleans, the Saints rode the full Taysom Hill Experience to rout the Browns, 35-14, their second straight win with interim coach Darren Rizzi. Hill did it all — a career-high 138 rushing yards and three touchdowns, plus 50 more in the air on eight catches. He also returned a kickoff 42 yards and completed a pass for 18.

Here’s what we learned across the NFL in Week 11:

McDermott plays to win

Entering Sunday, the Chiefs hadn’t lost since Christmas Day — a span of 15 games. They hadn’t given up more than 28 points since Super Bowl LVII — a span of 30 games. They had somehow rallied to win nine straight when trailing by seven or more — the longest such streak in NFL history.

Those streaks are finished, and the Chiefs have suffered their first loss of 2024.

“We’ll get back to work and try to use this as a spark so we can be a better football team in the end,” Mahomes said.

“Great game to learn from for some of our young guys,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid added. “When two good teams play each other, the margin between winning and losing is small.”

The Bills have now won four straight over the Chiefs in the regular season, but the rivalry’s narrative won’t change until they win one of these in January. Buffalo is just a half-game back of Kansas City (9-1) in the current playoff race, and the Bills (9-2) own the first tiebreaker via the head-to-head victory.

Credit Bills coach Sean McDermott for the gutsy call at the end when choosing to go for it on that fourth-and-2 from the Chiefs’ 26-yard-line with 2:26 left. A field goal would’ve given the Bills a 5-point lead, but McDermott knew a field goal likely wouldn’t be enough. Not against that coach and that quarterback. “There have been too many games when Andy and Patrick have come back,” McDermott said later.

So he put the ball in the hands of his best player. Allen responded with an emphatic touchdown run, a play only a few other quarterbacks in the league can make — if any.

“Would have stood by (the decision) if it didn’t work out,” McDermott added.

That’s the right mindset to beat the Chiefs when it really counts.

This felt like an AFC North throwback. Defense ruled. Points came at a premium. It went down to the wire.

It took six field goals from kicker Chris Boswell, two first-quarter missed kicks from Justin Tucker, a rare fumble from Derrick Henry and a stop on a two-point conversion with 1:09 left. In the end, the Steelers maintained their place atop the division — and stayed in the running for the AFC’s top seed.

It wasn’t pretty, but Mike Tomlin’s team isn’t apologizing. The Steelers’ 18-16 victory over the Ravens is their fifth straight win and fourth since quarterback Russell Wilson stepped into the starting role. Pittsburgh (8-2) currently owns the third-best record in the AFC, behind only Kansas City and Buffalo.

More than anything, this was a statement by the Steelers’ defense: the Ravens entered the game leading the league in a number of offensive categories, including scoring, total yards, rushing yards and red-zone efficiency. Lamar Jackson was earning significant MVP chatter, and deservedly so.

But Pittsburgh’s second-rated scoring defense forced three turnovers and held the Ravens, who’ve averaged nearly 35 points a game over the last month, to just two touchdowns. On the game-deciding 2-point conversion try, linebacker Nick Herbig and cornerback Joey Porter, Jr. pressured Jackson — typically lethal on two-point tries — into a desperation throw that went nowhere.

The Steelers are rolling. With two games coming up against the Browns and a date with the Bengals sandwiched in between, they’ll likely remain in front of the AFC North as we inch into December.

Chargers hold off Bengals comeback

Outside of the splashy hire of Jim Harbaugh, the Chargers did very little in terms of headline-grabbing moves in the offseason. They were quiet in free agency, signing B-list veterans like Gus Edwards, Denzel Perryman and Hayden Hurst. They said goodbye to their top two receivers by releasing Mike Williams and trading Keenan Allen to Chicago. They kept veteran pass rushers Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack but convinced both to take pay cuts and drafted an offensive tackle — Notre Dame’s Joe Alt — fifth.

On paper, this is mostly the same team that finished 5-12 in 2023 and got Brandon Staley fired 14 games into the season. But the eye test doesn’t match up. Harbaugh’s version looks like a contender because no other coach in the sport rebuilds faster.

The Chargers are now 7-3 after a wild win over the Bengals Sunday night. Up 27-6 early in the third, L.A. withstood 21 straight from the Bengals, then rallied with an 84-yard drive in 27 seconds to finish off the 34-27 victory. With 26 seconds left, J.K. Dobbins burst through the Cincinnati defense for a 29-yard game-winning run. Justin Herbert, who finished 17 of 36 for 297 yards and two touchdowns, connected on two deep throws to get the Chargers in scoring range before Dobbins ended it.

The game felt like it was over before Joe Burrow started heating up. And no matter what Cincinnati’s record is, Burrow at his best is still good enough to carve up any secondary in the league. He did that most of the second half Sunday, avoiding about a dozen sacks and finding Tee Higgins deep for one touchdown and Ja’Marr Chase for two more. But two late misses from kicker Evan McPherson — one from 48 yards, one from 51 — proved costly. For a minute it looked like the Bengals (4-7) were going to pull off one of the biggest comebacks in franchise history. Instead, it’s their sixth one-score loss of the season.

The Chargers have their fourth win in a row, and suddenly, they’re just two games back of the Chiefs in the AFC West.

Richardson, Williams bounce back

Following a tumultuous month, two young quarterbacks badly needed bounce-back games Sunday. Both got them. But only one left with a win.

The Colts’ Anthony Richardson, benched the past two weeks for veteran Joe Flacco, returned to the starting role Sunday against the Jets and delivered one of the best games of his young career in a 28-27 win over the Jets. Richardson flashed the type of talent that led the Colts to draft him fourth in 2023 with his 272 passing yards — on a 66.7 completion percentage — and two bruising touchdown runs, the second of which provided the game’s deciding points. He is a physical specimen the league has rarely seen at quarterback.

“It’s pretty cool, especially to do it against the Jets and Aaron Rodgers,” Richardson said after the first game-winning touchdown of his young career. “I’ve been watching him since I was a kid. So, it’s a blessing just to be able go against a legend.”

The win snaps a three-game skid for the Colts (5-6), who remain alive in the AFC wild-card race. As for the Jets, it’s the latest blow in what’s become a lost season. New York is now 3-8, 1-5 since firing coach Robert Saleh.

Anthony Richardson led the Colts on the first game-winning drive of his career on Sunday. (Al Bello / Getty Images)

In Chicago, Caleb Williams played his best game in a month, and the Bears’ offense found new life after the firing of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. All of which made the result — a 20-19 loss to the Packers — even more gutting.

Three weeks after their Hail Mary loss in Washington, the Bears suffered more last-second heartache. Maybe this team is cursed. Williams drove Chicago 42 yards on seven plays to set up a 46-yard field goal attempt from Cairo Santos that would’ve won it as time expired. But Green Bay defensive end Karl Brooks penetrated Chicago’s line just enough to get a finger on the kick, and his block sealed the Packers’ win.

It’s Green Bay’s 11th straight victory over its longtime rival and keeps Packers coach Matt LaFleur a perfect 11-0 in the series.

Even in defeat — Chicago’s fourth in a row — there were positives for the Bears. Williams ran for a season-high 70 yards and threw for 231, his highest since Week 5. It was a strong debut from new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, who got Williams going with some quick throws and helped revive a run game that piled up 179 yards. The Bears were also much more efficient on third down: after converting 6 of 40 the last three games, they were 9 of 16 Sunday. And the Bears’ streak of 25 straight drives without scoring a touchdown is finally over.

Nix cuts into Daniels’ Offensive Rookie of the Year lead

For a stretch, it seemed like the Offensive Rookie of the Year race was Jayden Daniels’ to lose, and it still might be. But another quarterback has, at the very least, climbed into the conversation. And it’s not Williams, last spring’s No. 1 pick.

Bo Nix has been excellent of late and shined in the Broncos’ 38-6 rout of the Falcons on Sunday, Denver’s biggest win at home in a decade.

The Oregon product missed just five throws all day, finishing 28 of 33 for 307 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. Nix’s 84.8 completion percentage is the third-highest for a rookie QB (minimum 30 attempts) in NFL history, and he joined Peyton Manning as the only rookie QB with at least 200 passing yards and multiple touchdowns in four straight home games.

Nix just might be the quarterback the Broncos have been looking for since Manning left. A rebuild that was supposed to take some time is coming together quickly. Nix has had a lot to do with that.

Stats never tell the full story — both rookies have been instrumental in turning their teams around this season — but Nix’s numbers stack up well against Daniels’. Nix has thrown for 2,275 passing yards with a 66 completion percentage, piled up 18 touchdowns and thrown four interceptions in the Broncos’ 6-5 start. Daniels has 2,338 passing yards with a 69 completion percentage, 14 touchdowns and three interceptions for the 7-4 Commanders.

Most importantly for Denver, after a pair of losses to Super Bowl contenders in Baltimore and Kansas City, the Broncos rebounded in a big way. If the playoffs started today, they would own the seventh and final playoff spot in the AFC.

(Photo: Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)