Toppling Their Chief Rival

It didn’t matter if the Kansas City Chiefs were undefeated or not. The Buffalo Bills had to win this game if they were to have any chance of home field advantage throughout the playoffs. With their victory thanks in large part to QB Josh Allen’s 26-yard touchdown run to extend the Bills lead, they have pulled to within one game of the Chiefs in the standings. With the tiebreaker going to them, they can wrap up the AFC East in short order and have their sights set on getting home field advantage if the Chiefs end up losing one or more games to finish the season.

The Wildest Outcome

I’ve said it many times before about how the Chargers should be referred to as the ‘Chokin’ Chargers’ for the many years they’ve blown leads late in games. If there was one coach that could put an end to that, it would be Jim Harbaugh. However, that rough history began to rear its ugly head for the Chargers on Sunday night. They had a 27-6 lead at the 10:34 mark of the 3rd quarter. The Cincinnati Bengals then scored 21 unanswered points in the 3rd and 4th quarters to tie the game with 12:28 left. I figured all would be lost for the Chargers at that point, but the Bengals missed two field goals on consecutive possessions in the 4th quarter. The Chargers still had a chance and finally took advantage of the Bengals miscues with an 84-yard, 4-play drive capped off by RB J.K. Dobbins’ 29-yard touchdown run to regain the lead with 27 seconds left. The ‘Bungals’ are still the ‘Bungals’ and the Chargers nearly were the ‘Chokin Chargers’ once again.

It Ain’t Happening

You can blame it on injuries all you want, but this 49ers team isn’t anywhere near what it has been the last three seasons. They’ve found ways to finish close games until it gets to either the NFC Championship or the Super Bowl. The way they’ve been playing this season it’s been the exact opposite. The defense can look dominant for one half, but play completely flat the next or vice versa. The offense has been wildly inconsistent and you can attribute that to not having RB Christian McCaffrey for most of the season. Yet, with him playing in the last two games now, the offense hasn’t looked any better. The biggest issue I’ve noticed with them is that their offense doesn’t finish drives when it is absolutely necessary. Case in point this last week at home against Seattle. They owned the Seahawks in the first half even though the score wouldn’t suggest that. They were controlling the game and when the defense stopped Seattle attempting to convert a 4th down run with 4:01 left in the game, the offense just needed to keep the ball moving and ideally score more points to put the game further out of Seattle’s reach with a 17-13 lead. That didn’t happen as they gained only 21-yards on 5-plays using up only 1:18 on the clock. Plenty of time for the Seahawks to then go 85-yards on 11-plays for the game leading touchdown run by QB Geno Smith, whom the Niners forgot could run the ball when it was warranted. If they lose anymore games the rest of the way, I doubt they will clinch a playoff spot. Their only hope is to win the division, but even if they do they will likely be a one and done playoff team in that case.