{"id":303812,"date":"2025-11-24T13:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/303812\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T13:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:26:07","slug":"there-are-more-questions-than-answers-after-nfl-games-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/303812\/","title":{"rendered":"There are more questions than answers after NFL games Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> saved their season. The Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> gave critics more fuel. The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> made a dominant statement.<\/p>\n

There are more questions than answers Sunday in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Patrick Mahomes<\/a> did just enough to rally the Chiefs to a 23-20 overtime victory over the Indianapolis Colts<\/a>. Kansas City\u2019s dominant defense gave him the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo\u2019s unit forced the Colts to go three-and-out on their final four possessions. The Chiefs shut down the NFL\u2019s leading rusher, holding Jonathan Taylor<\/a> to 58 yards on 16 carries. Colts coach Shane Steichen inexplicably gave Taylor the ball only once on the last three drives of regulation.<\/p>\n

Mahomes threw for 352 yards but didn\u2019t have any touchdowns. He looked skittish at times under pressure, rushing his reads and hurrying his passes.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs (6-5) couldn\u2019t afford another loss as they fight to make the playoffs after winning nine straight AFC West titles, reaching eight consecutive conference championship games and winning three Super Bowls.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve got a long way to go and a tough game at Dallas (5-5-1) coming up on Thanksgiving Day. Mahomes and the offense need to get in sync for Kansas City to have a shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still not where we want to be at but this was big,\u201d Mahomes said. \u201cGetting that win against a really good football team and kind of proving it to (ourselves) that we can play this kind of football game where it\u2019s not always pretty. I think now we just have to build off that momentum. It\u2019s going to be a short week. We\u2019re playing a good team in the Cowboys, and they can score some points and they have a lot of great players. It\u2019s about rebounding fast, trying to be better, even better this next week going into a big environment, big game and trying to get that win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colts (8-3) have gone from 7-1 to a team that is going to have to battle to win the AFC South. They\u2019ll face division rivals Jacksonville (7-4) and Houston (6-5) four times over the remaining six games. Their other two opponents are Seattle (8-3) and San Francisco (7-4). <\/p>\n

Steichen trusted Daniel Jones<\/a> to win the game in Kansas City, electing to put the ball in his hands down the stretch instead of giving it to Taylor to protect a lead. Jones couldn\u2019t deliver. He was 3 for 9 for 17 yards on the final four possessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt there was a lot of stuff that I wanted to get called that I felt good about in the pass game and we just weren\u2019t efficient doing it and it starts with me,\u201d Steichen said.<\/p>\n

Eagles collapse<\/p>\n

The reigning Super Bowl champions built a 21-0 lead in Dallas and looked like they were on their way to snapping Dak Prescott<\/a>\u2019s 18-game winning streak at home against NFC East opponents.<\/p>\n

Jalen Hurts<\/a> was connecting with A.J. Brown<\/a> and it seemed Philadelphia would quiet some of the drama surrounding the two superstars.<\/p>\n

But the offense regressed, giving Prescott and the Cowboys an opportunity to come back and win 24-21.<\/p>\n

The Eagles (8-3) have a comfortable lead over Dallas (5-5-1) and are in position to become the first repeat champion in the division in two decades. But Philadelphia fell behind the Rams (9-2) in the race for the No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

A sluggish offense isn\u2019t playing up to its standard. Saquon Barkley<\/a> ran for only 22 yards on 10 carries, and the passing attack just hasn\u2019t found its rhythm.<\/p>\n

Rams dominate<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> were no match for Matthew Stafford<\/a> and the Rams.<\/p>\n

Stafford continued his MVP-caliber campaign with another stellar performance against an overmatched defense and Los Angeles cruised to a 34-7 victory over Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Stafford has thrown 30 touchdown passes and only two interceptions this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got great teammates. I get to throw to a bunch of great players, stand behind a good o-line and watch these guys hunt on defense,\u201d Stafford said.<\/p>\n

That defense overwhelmed the Buccaneers, knocking Baker Mayfield<\/a> out of the game.<\/p>\n

Jared Verse<\/a> and Kobie Turner<\/a> each had two sacks and Los Angeles is playing the team to beat in the NFC.<\/p>\n

First to 10<\/p>\n

Drake Maye<\/a> and the New England Patriots<\/a> are the first team to reach 10 wins this season after holding on for a 26-20 victory in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

The Patriots have a 2 1\/2-game lead over Buffalo (7-4) in the AFC East with eight of their wins coming against teams that have a losing record.<\/p>\n

With three of their last five games against teams that are currently 8-26 combined, New England is position to win its first division title since Tom Brady left and has an inside track to earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC.<\/p>\n

But the Patriots still have a lot to prove, especially against more experienced playoff teams.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n

Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Chiefs saved their season. The Philadelphia Eagles gave critics more fuel. The Los Angeles Rams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-303812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}