Bills Flip the AFC Script
What a Sunday for the Buffalo Bills.
Just as the Bills were erasing a 21-point deficit on the way to a 35-28 win at New England, the Los Angeles Chargers were about to beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
What that meant was not only are the Bills still alive to win their sixth straight AFC East title; the three-time conference champion Chiefs will not be back in the playoffs to try to make it four.
Buffalo’s win moved it to within a game of the Patriots in the East, but more importantly showed the newcomers that the old guys weren’t going away just yet.
Bills path to Super Bowl gets easier?
With the Chiefs eliminated from the postseason after the loss to the Chargers it took away the one team that has gotten in the Bills way to the Super Bowl.
Four of the past five years, including two AFC Championship Games, Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes have knocked off Buffalo and Josh Allen in the postseason.
That’s not going to happen this year.
The Bills may, or may not, win the East — New England still has a game lead and the tie-breaker. So they will likely be the No. 5 seed when the playoffs begin.
And it might not matter, with Mahomes and KC out of the way, Allen and the Bills just might be the favorites over youngsters such as New England’s Drake Maye and Denver’s Bo Nix and even Houston’s C.J. Stroud.
Those teams may all be seeded higher than the Bills when the playoffs start. But if you’re an opponent would you rather face any Allen, of those young QBs? You don’t want to face Allen.
The Bills QB willed his team to the comeback win Sunday. He threw for three touchdowns as the Bills scored on five straight possessions to erase the 21-0 Pats lead.
By the way, New England had been 121-1 when they led by 21 points, or more, at home.
Packing it in
Green Bay had a nine-point lead and the ball early in the second half at Denver in a game announcers Jim Nantz and Tony Romo kept billing as a “Super Bowl preview’’.
From his 19-yard line Packers quarterback Jordan Love went deep to speedster Christian Watson. Denver’s 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain made a great interception and Watson was sprawled on the field with a chest injury.
Green Bay would then lose star edge rusher Micah Parsons on the next series and star right tackle Zach Tom on the possession after that. Add to that to the team already missing its star tight end Tucker Kraft and best defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt and the Packers can forget Super Bowl talk.
It might have been without the injuries. You can’t lose that many stars and still expect to shine.
Passing the Bucs
Tampa Bay began the season 6-2. They were 4-1 in one-score games, just a +19 in point differential and a +13 in yard differential.
So it has all caught up to the Bucs. Since their bye in week nine, they are 1-5, 1-3 in one-score games are a -46 in points and -455 in yards.
Lamar vs. Joe
Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow met for the ninth time, Sunday. And Jackson won for the seventh time.
The Ravens needed Jackson to throw just 12 times (he completed eight for 150 yards and two touchdowns) in the easy 24-0 win.
Burrow had another rough day. He was 25-for-39 for 225 yards without a touchdown and with two more interceptions.
Myles to Go
There are two things you can count on when the Browns play (and it’s not a Browns win). Myles Garrett is going to get a sack and Carson Schwessinger is going to get a bunch of tackles.
Garrett got a sack-and-a-half in the Browns blowout loss to the Bears, Sunday and now has 21 1/2 on the season and is two away from breaking the record held by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.
Schwessinger, the first pick of the second round of the 2025 draft, had a season-high 14 tackles, Sunday. That’s six straight games of double digit tackles for him and eight games for the season with 10, or more, tackles in a game.
A First and a Third
Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence put his name in the record books after the Jags pummeled the Jets, 48-20, Sunday.
Lawrence became the first QB to ever throw for five touchdowns, run for another and rush for 50 yards in a game.
He became just the third QB in history to have five touchdowns, run for another and not have an interception. Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers both did it in 2019.
