And the beat goes on.
Another action-packed slate of games is upon us as Week 11 of the NFL regular season offers four high-stakes divisional matchups and another three contests between projected playoff teams.
Philadelphia and Washington faced off in the City of Brotherly Love Thursday night when the Eagles improved to 8-2 and took control of the NFC East with a 26-18 win. Sunday, NFC North foes Chicago and Green Bay meet in the Windy City while the AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers host the rival Baltimore Ravens. Out West, the San Francisco 49ers host the Seattle Seahawks.
And that’s not all.
A potential AFC Championship Game preview takes place in Buffalo as the Bills host the Chiefs. Two rising teams meet in Denver, where the Broncos host the Atlanta Falcons. And the Sunday night matchup features a pair of marquee quarterbacks and their teams as Justin Herbert and the L.A. Chargers host Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Here are the most compelling storylines across the NFL this weekend. (Find the Week 11 schedule here.)
1. Mahomes vs. Allen, Round 8
The NFL schedulers probably should have made this the Sunday night contest. How could a showdown between two of the NFL’s most elite quarterbacks not garner top billing?
Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen share a storied history, and none of their seven meetings has disappointed. Allen holds a 3-1 edge in regular-season contests. Mahomes, however, boasts a 3-0 postseason record against his rival. Those regular-season contests have been decided by an average of 8.5 points while the postseason games were decided by 7.7 points per contest.
The last time these teams met in the regular season, last December, Allen and company prevailed 20-17 thanks in part to a Tyler Bass field goal with 1:54 left to play. However, the Chiefs still had a chance and thought they had sealed victory 29 seconds later. Mahomes completed a 25-yard pass to Travis Kelce, who then flipped the ball to wide receiver Kadarius Toney, who scored from 24 yards out. However, the touchdown was called back because Toney had lined up offside. Buffalo’s defense forced three straight incompletions and a loss of downs to clinch the win.
Kansas City, however, avenged the defeat in the divisional round of the playoffs. An Isiah Pacheco touchdown run early in the fourth quarter gave the Chiefs a 27-24 lead they never relinquished.
Once again, these star quarterbacks have their teams ranked among the league’s elite. Mahomes and the Chiefs descend on Buffalo with a perfect 9-0 record. Meanwhile, Allen’s Bills also boast one of the top records in the league at 8-2.
How will the fifth regular-season installment play out? Can Buffalo end Kansas City’s perfect run while extending its win streak to six games? Or will the Chiefs again find a way to overcome obstacles to remain perfect and maintain their firm grip on the AFC’s top seed? (Chiefs at Bills, 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday.)
2. The Bears’ desperate response
After a promising three-game stretch, the Chicago Bears find themselves on a three-game slide plagued by offensive ineptitude and signs of regression from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. After his team scored only 27 points combined and one touchdown during that skid, Bears coach Matt Eberflus fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and replaced him with pass-game coordinator Thomas Brown, who shared play-calling duties in Carolina last season. The hope is that Brown can help restore balance to the sputtering offense and position William for more effective execution.
However, this is a tough week for the Bears to try to pull off a season-saving rebound. They welcome the Packers, who are coming off a bye and eager to get back into the win column after a 24-14 loss to Detroit in Week 9. Before that, the Packers had won four straight and six of their last seven. Green Bay’s defense ranks second in the league with 19 takeaways and will try to pressure Williams, who has been sacked a league-high 38 times. Chicago’s defense is the bright spot and could give Jordan Love and the Packers some problems. The Bears rank seventh against the pass, have allowed only 18.6 points per game (seventh-best) and have 16 takeaways (also seventh). (Packers at Bears, 1 p.m. ET Sunday.)
3. AFC North heavyweight bout
We knew the Ravens would again be among the best teams in the AFC North and the entire AFC. But questions about their potential challengers persisted.
Could the Bengals bounce back after a down year marked by injuries? Would the Browns finally figure things out with Deshaun Watson and live up to their potential? And what about Pittsburgh? After two years in the quarterback wilderness, the Steelers faced more uncertainty this season as Mike Tomlin rolled the dice on Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. The coach believed a combination of the two, a redesigned offense directed by new coordinator Arthur Smith and his own consistently formidable defense would position the Steelers for a campaign of rejuvenation.
The coach, it turns out, was right. Fields helped the team get off to a solid 4-2 start, and after making a healthy return to action, Wilson has taken Pittsburgh’s offense to another level. (The Steelers went from averaging 20.6 points and 298.3 yards a game without Wilson to 30.3 points and 382.3 yards per contest with him.) He threw for three touchdown passes last week while directing a vintage Russ fourth-quarter comeback as the Steelers beat Washington 28-27 to improve to 7-2 and maintain first place in the AFC North.
The Steelers’ true test comes as they welcome 7-3 Baltimore to town. How will Pittsburgh measure up? The Ravens boast the most prolific offense in the league in terms of yards (440.2) and points (31.8) per game. Lamar Jackson is again playing at an MVP level, second-year wide receiver Zay Flowers ranks fifth in the NFL in receiving yards and Derrick Henry has added a much-needed punishing rushing attack to Baltimore’s offense while leading the NFL in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Pittsburgh’s defense, which is eighth-best in yards (302.7) and second-stingiest in points (16.2) per game, will certainly receive its most challenging assignment of the season.
If the Ravens have a weakness, it’s their defense, which surrenders a league-high 294.9 passing yards per game and 25.3 points (eighth-most) per contest. Foes do find it hard to run on Baltimore, which gives up an NFL-low 73.0 rushing yards per game. So if the Steelers are to keep pace with their visitors, Wilson must have a big day. (Ravens at Steelers, 1 p.m. ET Sunday.)
4. 49ers’ comeback quest
After a rocky, injury-plagued, 4-4 start to the season, the Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco 49ers finally have started to get healthy, and just in time. A hard-fought 23-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week improved San Francisco’s record to 5-4 and gave the Niners their first two-game win streak of the season. Thanks to the intensely competitive nature of the NFC West (Arizona leads with a 6-4 record), all of Kyle Shanahan and his players’ goals remain within reach.
This week’s date with divisional neighbor Seattle carries great importance. A victory enables San Francisco to match the record of the Cardinals, who are on a bye this week, and it would even their division record at 2-2.
Christian McCaffrey debuted last week after missing the first eight games of the season and turned in a pedestrian 39 rushing yards on 13 carries. But he added 68 receiving yards on six catches, which brought his scrimmage yards total to 107. Rust was to be expected given his extensive injury layoff. But his presence on the field creates opportunities for teammates because of the attention he commands, and with another week of practice under his belt, McCaffrey could take another step forward in production. In his two games against Seattle last season, McCaffrey burned the Seahawks for a combined 259 rushing yards, two touchdowns and six catches for 33 yards. Seattle has a new coach and defense this year, but when he faced Mike Macdonald and his Ravens defense last season, McCaffrey recorded 103 rushing yards and a touchdown on 14 carries and added six catches for 28 yards.
Seattle, of course, will try to contain the running back and his teammates. The Seahawks (4-5) are coming off their bye and have lost two straight and five of their last six contests. A defeat would drop Seattle to 0-3 in the division and place their postseason hopes in serious doubt. (Seahawks at 49ers, 4:05 p.m. ET.)
5. Chargers on the radar
While the unbeaten Chiefs have rightfully commanded much of the spotlight, and as the Broncos and rookie quarterback Bo Nix have turned heads, another AFC West team has quietly worked its way up the ranks in the division and the conference.
Winners of three straight and four of their last five games, Jim Harbaugh’s 6-3 Los Angeles Chargers look like a legit playoff team. They’re not flashy. The Chargers rank just 22nd in yards per game (314.3) and 19th in points per contest (20.7). Quarterback Justin Herbert has only one 300-yard game all season. But they’re efficient. They execute with balance on offense and take care of the football (a league-low four turnovers all season). Defensively, the Chargers are among the stingiest teams in the league. They are holding opponents to a league-best 13.1 points per game, and haven’t allowed more than 20 points in any game this season.
The only question involves the strength of the Chargers’ opponents. Their three losses have come to Pittsburgh (20-10), Kansas City (17-10) and Arizona (17-15), who all have winning records. None of L.A.’s six wins have come against teams with records above .500. Still, they’re beating the teams they need to beat.
Sunday night’s matchup with Cincinnati offers great intrigue. At 4-6, the Bengals have disappointed, but they remain formidable because of their potent offense. Three times this season the Bengals have scored more than 30 points in a game and still lost. They are one of only nine teams to score 40 points in a game. So this matchup will be a good measuring stick for the Chargers’ defense, while proving whether Herbert and company can win in a shootout if necessary.
Meanwhile, the Bengals are desperate. They’ve fallen well behind the Steelers and Ravens in the AFC North and have work to do to overtake the Broncos (5-5), who are in the seventh AFC playoff spot. The Bengals have won the turnover battle just three times this season, and forcing the Chargers into mistakes will prove challenging. But if Cincinnati’s offense is clicking and its defense can make a few key stops, the Bengals could come out on top. (Bengals at Chargers, 8:20 p.m. ET Sunday.)
(Top photo of Josh Allen: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
