CNN
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Week 11 saw late drama, blowout wins and surprising upsets as the 2024 NFL season’s playoff picture became a little bit clearer.
There was a huge result in the AFC as the Buffalo Bills handed the Kansas City Chiefs their first defeat of the season.
Here are the main storylines from Sunday’s action.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens have historically been the dominant forces in the AFC North. But Sunday’s clash held extra weight with the division title potentially on the line.
Both teams had seven wins heading into their Week 11 clash at Acrisure Stadium in the Steel City with different reasons to be optimistic.
The Ravens had the NFL’s No. 1 scoring offense while the Steelers had the No. 2 scoring defense with Pittsburgh’s offense improving week-by-week with Russell Wilson at the helm.
And although it wasn’t pretty, the Steelers managed to find a way to edge past Baltimore, with all their points coming via the foot of kicker Chris Boswell – who hit six field goals – in an 18-16 victory.
While Pittsburgh’s offense struggled to convert drives into touchdowns, it was left to their defense to slow Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and company.
And they did so admirably, holding Baltimore’s offense to two touchdowns – one coming late in the fourth quarter – and a season-low 329 total yards, as well as forcing three turnovers.
It was a big game personally for Pittsburgh linebacker Patrick Queen who swapped the purple and black of Baltimore for the black and gold of the Steelers in the offseason after the Ravens deemed him surplus to requirements.
Queen led the Steelers in tackles, as well as forcing a fumble and recovering the ball himself which led to a field goal to give his team a 9-7 lead at halftime.
“Well, look, this morning I had no hatred in my heart,” Queen told NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe after the game. “I just wanted to come out here and do what I do and do what I do best.
“The first drive, I was kind of feeling it a little bit. (Steelers linebacker Nick Herbig) made a huge play, and it just came out of me playing football, all the emotions. … I just wanted to go out there and put on a show.”
While the win cements the Steelers’ spot atop the AFC North, on the other hand, it was an uncharacteristically sloppy performance from the Ravens as they fell to 7-4.
Jackson looked out of sorts trying to decipher Pittsburgh’s defense, NFL rushing leader Henry fumbled the ball on the team’s first possession of the game, the usually reliable Justin Tucker missed two field goals and the team was generally hampered by penalties, incurring 12 throughout the game.
After the defeat, head coach John Harbaugh said his team “definitely” has to address the issue of penalties, while Jackson highlighted the squad’s poor starts to drives.
“I believe we had a lot of slow starts, if anything, a lot of penalties (and) three turnovers. Stuff like that, we can’t have in these types of games,” he told reporters. “This environment, knowing it’s a division game that’s still a Raven rivalry. It’s the one who has more possessions of the ball and keeping it safe, and we didn’t do a good job of that.”
It’s been a hugely successful season for the Detroit Lions so far. And that continued in unequivocal fashion on Sunday as they emphatically beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 52-6 at Ford Field.
In what was an extremely one-sided affair, Detroit scored on nearly every possession they had, totaling a franchise-best 645 yards on offense.
Quarterback Jared Goff bounced back from having five interceptions in Week 10 with a perfect passer rating against the Jags, throwing for 412 yards and four touchdowns.
It is the fifth time this season Goff has had a completion percentage of at least 80% in a game – the most by a player in a single season in league history, per the NFL.
Amon-Ra St. Brown had 11 receptions for 161 yards and two touchdowns while his fellow wide receiver Jameson Williams had 124 yards and one score.
The Lions were also dominant running the football, totaling 196 yards on the ground, with 144 coming via Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery – the duo nicknamed ‘Sonic and Knuckles’ from the Sega video game franchise.
Montgomery had two touchdowns and Gibbs ran for another, meaning the Lions have rushed for a touchdown in 24 consecutive games, including the postseason, the longest such streak in NFL history.
Detroit didn’t punt all day and Goff was even able to be benched midway through the fourth quarter to protect him from injury such was the margin of victory. They became the first team since the 2007 New England Patriots to score a touchdown on each of its first seven drives of a game.
The big victory also saw the team join a select group in NFL history.
They are just the third team in the Super Bowl era with three wins of 35-or-more points in their first 10 games of a season alongside the 1969 Minnesota Vikings and the 1973 Atlanta Falcons.
Having also scored 52 points at home in a win against the Tennessee Titans in Week 8, the Lions are the second team since 1970 and fifth team all-time to score 50-or-more points in consecutive home games in a single season.
The win improves the Lions to 9-1 and is the first time in 90 years that the team has won nine of its first 10 games of a season since beginning the 1934 campaign 10-0.
When asked afterwards if he believes his team could be among the best in NFL history, head coach Dan Campbell said: “I think we have that ability, I really do.
“To me, we have everything that we need to be potent, and like I say, I feel like we’re well-rounded,” Campbell told reporters.
“When you’re able to run the ball with the big boys up front, you’ve got a hammer like David (Montgomery), and you’ve got this electricity with (Jahmyr) Gibbs, and you’ve got (Jameson Williams) Jamo on the perimeter, and then you’ve got our rock (Amon-Ra) St. Brown who just continues to make plays – you put him anywhere you want to put him, and you need it, he’s got it.
“And then running the whole show is (Jared) Goff. I think we can be dangerous. We have that ability because, really, we can play the game anyway we need to, as long as we’re on our stuff, we’re on our game, and we’re locked in, and we’re finishing. We can do that.”
The Los Angeles Chargers blew a 21-point third quarter lead but managed to escape with a victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, winning 34-27 to improve to 7-3 on the year.
After a Chargers field goal to go up 27-6 in the third quarter, things unraveled for Los Angeles as quarterback Joe Burrow and the Bengals scored touchdowns on three straight offensive possessions to tie the game.
Burrow connected with Ja’Marr Chase for two touchdowns and Tee Higgins for another to tie the game 27-27 with 12:21 left in the fourth quarter.
Chase’s first touchdown of the evening was his 40th career score, meaning he became just the third player in NFL history with 40 or more receiving touchdowns before the age of 25, per the NFL.
However, the Bengals offense would stall out and be held scoreless for the remainder of the game. Cincinnati kicker Chase McLaughlin had two opportunities to give the Bengals the lead but missed field goal attempts of 48 and 51 yards.
Justin Herbert and Los Angeles took advantage of the Bengals’ miscues, orchestrating a four-play, 84-yard drive to set up the go-ahead touchdown.
Herbert connected with rookie wide receiver Ladd McConkey for gains of 28 and 27 yards, to get the Chargers to the Bengals 29-yard line. On the next play, Chargers running back JK Dobbins broke out for a 29-yard touchdown run with 18 seconds remaining to all but seal the victory.
The 26-year-old Herbert finished with 297 passing yards, two touchdown passes and 65 rushing yards.
“Great win! Great team win,” Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh exclaimed after the game.
“Just because we lost the momentum didn’t mean that they had it. The guys didn’t flinch, didn’t buckle, didn’t even stumble, just kept right at it and responded.”
Cincinnati had a chance to tie the game but a Burrow Hail Mary pass to Higgins was knocked out of his hands by Chargers safety Derwin James Jr.
“It’s a tough one to end on going into the bye week,” Burrow said after the game. “I just think it was a tough loss, first half didn’t go our way, we fought back, had our opportunities to seal the deal and we didn’t.”
With the loss, the Bengals fall to 4-7 on the season and fall further out of playoff contention, sitting in third place in the AFC North behind the Steelers and Ravens.
Meanwhile, the Chargers will host Baltimore on November 25, as Harbaugh will play against his brother John Harbaugh for the first time since returning to the NFL this season.
Away vs. home (winners in bold)
Green Bay Packers 20-19 Chicago Bears
Jacksonville Jaguars 6-52 Detroit Lions
Las Vegas Raiders 19-34 Miami Dolphins
Los Angeles Rams 28-22 New England Patriots
Cleveland Browns 14-35 New Orleans Saints
Baltimore Ravens 16-18 Pittsburgh Steelers
Minnesota Vikings 23-13 Tennessee Titans
Indianapolis Colts 28-27 New York Jets
Atlanta Falcons 6-38 Denver Broncos
Seattle Seahawks 20-17 San Francisco 49ers
Kansas City Chiefs 21-30 Buffalo Bills
Cincinnati Bengals 27-34 Los Angeles Chargers