AFC West Roundup: Week 13
By Justin Smith
A weekly update on the AFC West, to keep up with the Oakland Raiders and the rest of the division.
The Chargers were the only AFC West team to lose on the weekend, and they don’t really matter anymore as it pertains to challenging for anything important. As I’ve repeatedly said they could play spoiler down the stretch, but that’s about all they’ve got at this point.
The Broncos stout defense showed up again and made Blake Bortles look like, well Blake Bortles. Amazing stat overheard on the NFL Network — Bortles has more pick-sixes (11) than career wins (10).
Wow. Ouch. Thank you, Kay Adams — who definitely loves her some Raiders. That is a MESSY stat.
Anyway, that put the Broncos back into the second wild card spot. But the true victors on Sunday were the Chiefs. They rode an emotional Eric Berry homecoming in Atlanta to another crazy win and stayed one game back of the Raiders and in the first wild card spot.
The Raiders, after some offensive mistakes in the first half, absolutely turned it on in the second. Down 24-9, they outscored Buffalo 29-0 the rest of the way en route to a 38-24 win. Derek Carr did his thing. Khalil Mack continues to make a case for DPOY. It all set up a very juicy matchup on Thursday night.
Raiders-Chiefs is always good, usually close, and definitely physical. But the Chiefs humiliated the Raiders 26-10 on their home field. Both teams are playing at the highest level. They’re fighting each other for the division title.
Let’s check in on the AFC West.