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C+ Chiefs
Credit Kansas City for rallying to take the lead after falling in an early 11-point hole. But the Chiefs weren’t able to put the game away after stealing momentum late in the first half and keeping it until midway through the fourth quarter. One big issue for the Chiefs offense was that the Bengals had a lot of success containing Travis Kelce while limiting the impact of Kansas City’s other skill players. Defensively, the Chiefs’ inability to make the Bengals one dimensional proved costly.
2022 NFL season, Week 13: What We Learned from Sunday’s games | NFL.com
Chiefs stumble down the stretch. Patrick Mahomes got his Michael Jordan moment, leaping over two defenders for a go-ahead touchdown, capping back-to-back TD drives to open the second half. K.C. was on the move again the following possession, but Travis Kelce’s fumble near midfield changed the game’s tenor. Leading by four at the time, the Chiefs could have dropped a hammer. Instead, Cincy took over and rumbled for the three-point lead. On the next drive, Mahomes was sacked on third-and-short, and Harrison Butker missed a 55-yard field goal that would have tied the game. The miscues highlighted a day in which the Bengals’ defense wiped out the big plays. The Chiefs generated just two plays of 20-plus yards (both catches by Marquez Valdes-Scantling). K.C. tried to air it out, with Mahomes averaging 10.1 air yards per attempt, but often came up shy. Even with Mahomes throwing for just 223 yards, K.C. still had a chance to extend its lead but fumbled it away.
Rushing offense: B
Against a defense that held Derrick Henry to 38 rushing yards last week, the Chiefs excelled. Isiah Pacheco ran hard and McKinnon was elusive. Pacheco finished with 66 rushing yards and a touchdown. McKinnon had 51. Mahomes called his own number on a 3-yard touchdown run, winning an airborne collision at the goal line. Skyy Moore’s first career rushing attempt went for 12 yards on a jet-sweep.
Passing defense: C
A potential huge play early, Juan Thornhill’s interception, was negated by a penalty. Not getting to Joe Burrow led to the Chiefs’ downfall in the AFC Championship Game, and they didn’t do much better on Sunday. Burrow wasn’t sacked until late in the game. The Chiefs couldn’t stop a Burrow-to-Tee Higgins completion on third-and-11 with two minutes remaining that might’ve given then a last chance to pull it out.
The Chiefs won’t get home-field advantage in the playoffs
Overreaction or reality: Overreaction
The Chiefs still have a shot at home-field advantage even with Sunday’s loss to the Bengals. Kansas City doesn’t play any AFC team with a winning record the rest of the way and only trails the Bills by a head-to-head tiebreaker. The Chiefs are still set up to win 13-plus games, which should be enough to get them at least a top-two seed.
The Bills have to play three of their next four games against teams with a winning record, two straight in the division. The Ravens and Bengals can’t be considered out of the race either at 8-4.
Offensive Line
The Bengals had to make a lot of changes to the o-line this offseason, and they have been getting better each week.
That was the case today as Burrow had a ton of time in the pocket all game, and they were creating great running lanes.
On top of that, Burrow was sacked just one time in the game and that didn’t come until the final possession as the Bengals were trying to run out the clock.
Burrow was clean all day and that time allowed him to dice up the Chiefs’ defense once again.
Around the NFL
Carr-Adams connection rallies Raiders past Chargers 27-20 | Fox Sports
Los Angeles led 10-0 early in the second quarter before the Raiders charged back by outscoring the Chargers 27-3.
Carr completed a 31-yarder to Adams early in the third quarter to give Las Vegas the lead for good at 17-13. Less than four minutes later, the duo hooked up on a 45-yard flea flicker for another score.
Adams finished with eight receptions for 177 yards, surpassing 1,000 yards for the fourth time since 2018. He also has 85 career touchdown catches, surpassing Calvin Johnson for fifth most for a receiver in his first nine seasons.
Packers earn title of NFL’s all-time winningest franchise after Week 13 win over Bears | CBS Sports
With their victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 13, the Green Bay Packers broke a tie with their longtime rivals for the NFL’s all-time lead in regular season wins. With Sunday’s 28-19 win in Chicago, the Packers have now won 787 regular season games, the most in the league’s 103-year history. The win broke a tie with the Bears, who have 786.
Green Bay currently owns a record of 787-589-38. Founded by Curly Lambeau, the Packers began play 101 years ago. Lambeau led Green Bay to three straight NFL titles from 1929-31 and three more titles in 1933, 1939 and 1944. The Packers then went into a decade-plus long drought before the franchise was revived by Vince Lombardi, a former Giants defensive coordinator who guided the Packers to dominance in the 1960s. Green Bay won five titles in seven years under Lombardi that included the first two Super Bowls.
Chicago now owns an all-time record of 786-620-42. Founded by George Halas, Chicago has won championships in 1921 (its second year in existence), 1932 (its first title as an NFL team), 1933, 1940-41, 1943, 1946, 1963 and Super Bowl XX at the end of the 1985 season. The Bears are well-represented in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with 28 former players (who played the majority of their careers in Chicago) joining Halas and former Bears GM Jim Finks in Canton, Ohio.
Lamar Jackson Knee Injury Not Season-Ending, Ravens’ John Harbaugh Says | Bleacher Report
The Baltimore Ravens ruled quarterback Lamar Jackson out for the remainder of Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos with the knee injury he suffered in the first half.
Head coach John Harbaugh told reporters after the 10-9 victory that the injury will not end Jackson’s season but may take “days to weeks” to heal. He will undergo further testing Monday.
While Jackson was wearing a protective sleeve on his right arm ahead of a Week 3 game against the New England Patriots that he ultimately played in and missed five games last season, he has been fairly durable for much of his career given his playing style as a quarterback who uses his arm and legs.
Jimmy Garoppolo, the beloved quarterback who handled an awkward and trying year with class and grace, going from being told he would be traded to not being traded, from being part of the team to not really being part of the team, from being a backup to returning to the starting lineup, from being forgotten to being celebrated — yes, that Jimmy Garoppolo will not have a chance to author a fairy-tale ending to the 2022 season.
One series into the 49ers’ 33-17 victory over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday in Levi’s Stadium, he fractured a bone in his left foot when sacked by linebackers Jaelan Phillips and Jerome Baker, ending his day, his season and, possibly again, his career with the organization he helped reach two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl after being acquired in a 2017 trade with New England.
It was a sobering and dispiriting reality for teammates, who used words like “brutal” and “sad” upon learning of the severity of the injury, which will require surgery. And though they immediately threw their support behind Brock Purdy, the final selection of the 2022 NFL Draft and someone who performed capably on Sunday, there was no mistaking the bond that exists between them and Garoppolo. Many marveled at how he handled what can best be described as a surreal situation over the last year.
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
Patrick Mahomes: Bengals once again executed better than Chiefs
Speaking after another 27-24 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes credited Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s performance — while also ruing a slow start and missed fourth-quarter opportunities by his own team.
“First off,” Mahomes stated, “they have a great quarterback — a guy that’s won a lot of football games. Even though it was in college, he’s won a lot of football games now in the NFL. He’s someone who competes to the very end, too. They’ve got playmakers all over there. They’re well coached, have a good defense, and — at the end of the day — they’ve executed at a higher level in critical situations.
“We started off slow. We got back in the game, in the flow of things. Then we had a turnover late — and then the missed kick. If you’re playing good teams and you make that turnover on downs basically in the fourth quarter, those are the things that kind of bite you in the end.”
The late turnover was a fumble by the league’s best tight end. Travis Kelce had the ball knocked from his hand at the end of a 19-yard gain. At the time, Kansas City led by four —and appeared set to take a two-possession lead while draining crucial minutes from the fourth quarter.
Despite the game-changing turnover, Mahomes has no wish to see his best weapon be less aggressive.
“I just tell him to continue to be himself,” he said of his advice following the fumble. “We’ve seen Travis do that many times and get all those extra yards — those are hard-fought yards in this league. Obviously, they made a good play; they stripped the ball out right at the very end there. But I’m taking Travis fighting for extra yards every single time because that’s the type of competitor he is.”
A tweet to make you think
---> KC (24) @ CIN (27) <---
— 4th down decision bot (@ben_bot_baldwin) December 5, 2022
KC has 4th & 7 at the CIN 37
Recommendation (MEDIUM): Go for it (+2.6 WP)
Actual play: H.Butker 55 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Right, Center-J.Winchester, Holder-T.Townsend. pic.twitter.com/duT3iXTi9f
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