The only AFC West team to be victorious in Week 3 was the Kansas City Chiefs who not only look like easily the best team of the division, they are playing like one of the best teams in the NFL right now. This despite horrible defense from KC which makes their 3 and 0 start even more impressive. As for the rest of the division, the Broncos experienced their first loss being beaten by the Ravens, the Chargers fought hard but lost to the Rams, and the Raiders gave away a winnable game against the Dolphins.
Standings
Kansas City Chiefs 3-0 (1-0 DIV)
Denver Broncos 2-1 (1-0 DIV)
San Diego Chargers 1-2 (0-1 DIV)
Oakland Raiders 0-3 (0-1 DIV)
How we got here:
Kansas City Chiefs beat San Francisco 49ers 38-27
Another game and another terrific performance by Chiefs first year starter at QB Patrick Mahomes, it’s verging on ridiculous at this point. He completed 24 of 38 passes for 314 yards and 3 touchdowns and again threw no interceptions, his season stats are now 13 touchdowns to 0 interceptions. It will be interesting to see how he holds up when adversity finally hits him but so far Mahomes has been near perfect in his first year leading the Chiefs.
The craziest part is that he has not had a lot of help in the running game, Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt had 18 carries for just 44 yards against the 49ers. Hunt did add two short touchdowns runs though, both from the 1 yard line and both in the first quarter. Those two touchdowns gave Kansas City a 14-0 lead before the 49ers got a touchdown of their own to make the game 14-7.
After that 49ers touchdown though the Chiefs proceeded to rattle off 3 passing touchdowns before San Francisco managed to put a field goal on the board just before half time. With the Chiefs leading 35-10 at the half not much else was going to matter in this one, though the 49ers did at least make a game of it by outscoring KC 17-3 the rest of the way but the Chiefs victory never was in question in this one.
Denver Broncos lose to Baltimore Ravens 27-14
After starting out the year 2-0 despite not playing very good football, the Broncos got hit with their first loss of the season against the Ravens. Joe Flacco led the way for the Ravens with his 25 of 40 passing for 277 yards and 1 touchdown, not exactly awe inspiring numbers but enough for a Baltimore victory in this one.
The scoring actually started out with the Broncos with a 6 yard touchdown run from Royce Freeman, one of their two impressive rookie running backs. Their other rookie RB Phillip Lindsay had been even more impressive so far this season but not in this game, he was ejected for throwing punches right in front of a ref at the bottom of a pile of players.
After that opening touchdown by the Broncos, the Ravens responded with a running touchdown of their own from Javorius Allen which was then filed by a long 35 yard TD run from WR Emmanual Sanders. That was the last points the Broncos put up on the day though, after that it was all Ravens as they put up 20 unanswered points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters to cement their 27-14 victory over Denver.
Los Angeles Chargers lose to Los Angeles Rams 35-23
Jared Goff and the Rams are clearly one of the best teams of the 2018 season, arguably the best team even with their potent offensive and elite defense. The Chargers put up a decent fight against them actually by a blocked punt in the 2nd quarter ended up being crucial to the outcome.
Philip Rivers needed to have a great game to keep up with Jared Goff who completed 29 of 36 passes for 354 yards and 3 touchdowns. That didn’t happen, Rivers’ 18 of 30 passing for 226 yards and 2 touchdowns was just not going to cut it here. Both of those touchdowns went to Chargers rookie receiver Mike Williams who had 4 receptions for 81 yards with 2 of those receptions being touchdowns though, so that was somewhat of a coming out party for the rookie,
The Rams got on the board first with a 1 yard TD run in the 1st quarter but the Chargers answered that with a 42 yard touchdown pass to Mike Williams. The Rams quickly responded with a passing touchdown of their own to WR Robert Woods and then the Rams had the crucial blocked punt that they recovered for a touchdown. That was huge because it was the only time in the game one team scored twice in a row.
The two teams traded touchdowns back and forth the next two times until the 4th quarter when the only points scored was a Chargers field goal. The Rams defense held strong the rest of the way after that to hold onto their 35-23 victory. The Chargers did hold their own pretty well against the most complete team in the league though despite the 12 point loss.
Oakland Raiders lost to Miami Dolphins 28-20
Lastly, we have the Raiders who absolutely should have beat the Dolphins but did not thanks to another 4th quarter collapse. Oakland has started out each of the first two weeks moving the ball well on their opening possession, and that did not change in this one. They scored very quickly with the help of Jordy Nelson who had a 61 yard reception on the 2nd play of the game which set up his 12 yard touchdown reception 2 plays later.
The Dolphins started out the 2nd quarter with a 34 yard touchdown to Kenny Stills to tie the game before the Raiders added a field goal later in the 2nd quarter for a 10-7 lead at the half. That still was a huge win for the Dolphins though after they should have been down by more if not for a turnover on downs from the Raiders who failed to score from the 1 yard line earlier.
Oakland added a touchdown of their own to start the 3rd quarter though for a 17-7 lead. Then the wheels fell off with the Dolphins scoring 3 touchdowns to just one field goal for the Raiders the rest of the way.
The nail in the coffin was a Derek Carr interception on a fade throw to Martavis Bryant on 1st and 10 from the Miami 13 yard line after the Dolphins had just taken their first lead of the game at 21-17. The interception was a bad throw from Carr and with 3 minutes left in the game was the Raiders last real chance in this one.
After the Carr interception the Dolphins scored in less than a minute on a screen pass to Albert Wilson who took it 74 yards for a touchdown. The Raiders did get a field goal with just over 30 seconds left in the game but failed to get the onside kick so the final score ended up being 28-20.
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