AFC West Roundup: Week 5
Photo Credit: Candice Ward, Getty Images
Welcome back to the AFC West roundup! Week 5 was an interesting one around the wild AFC West. We had a team on bye, a couple teams win thrilling matchups, and a team suffer one of the more dramatic losses of the season thus far. Let’s take a look!
Chiefs
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Oxford languages defines the word “inevitable” as “Certain to happen; unavoidable.” Some common synonyms of this word are “inescapable,’ “inexorable,” and “The Kansas City Chiefs.” These Chiefs are on some kind of heater right now. They’ve taken the Week 1 loss to Detroit personally, and haven’t slowed down since. Even when Travis Kelce temporarily went down, the offense didn’t lose a step and Patrick Mahomes simply found other options and pulled out a win. Other AFC powers seem to be getting more media attention, which is likely based on fatigue from them being so good for so long. Because, again, these guys are inevitable.
Chargers
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The Chargers certainly had the most boring week of any team in the AFC West, because they didn’t play! They did, however, have a positive week, as it sure looks like Austin Ekeler is going to be back in time to play the Cowboys on Monday night. The bye also gave Keenan Allen time to get rested up. All in all, things seem to be looking up for Los Angeles right now… though Chargers fans know all too well that that is a deceptive place to be.
Raiders
Photo Credit: John Locher, AP Photo
That Raiders game was… fun? I wouldn’t define Las Vegas’ win over Green Bay on Monday night as a good game, but I sure can’t call it a bad one either. The Raiders defended home turf against a team many felt was better, and their much maligned defense made it happen. Look man, the Raiders still have a whole array of problems, and having your QB and head coach be at the top of that list is real bad. But ever since moving to Vegas, this team hasn’t had a real identity or culture to match their new location. Stacking wins is a great place to start.
Broncos
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YIKES. I’m not sure how it keeps getting worse for Denver, but they keep finding new lows. What happened on the field Sunday might not be quite as bad as getting 70 dropped on your head, but losing to your former head coach’s squad after your new head coach says that guy sucks at his job is an AWFUL look. And when the entire NFL world then takes turns piling on, including a potential dunk-of-the-year candidate from the Jets Twitter admin, the vibes in that locker room have to be abysmal at the moment. But hey! The Broncos have a really solid chance to rebound next week, when they take on…oh. They play the Chiefs. At Arrowhead. On Thursday night. Hm.
