What We Saw: Week 11

The What We Saw team recaps everything you missed from Week 11

Ben Brown
What We Saw A Year Ago
Series Navigation
Introduction
Titans @ Packers
Bears @ Falcons
Panthers @ Ravens
Browns @ Bills
Commanders @ Texans
Eagles @ Colts
Jets @ Patriots
Rams @ Saints
Lions @ Giants
Raiders @ Broncos
Cowboys @ Vikings
Bengals @ Steelers
Chiefs @ Chargers

Chiefs @ Chargers

Final Score: Chiefs 30, Chargers 27

Writer: Michael James (@MikeoftheFF on Twitter)

 

Here at SoFi stadium in Inglewood CA, we have the second matchup of the season between the Kansas City Chiefs playing against the Los Angeles Chargers.  Four out of the last five games between these two division rivals have been decided by six points or fewer.  The Chiefs look to build on their lead in the division while the Chargers look to close the gap in the AFC West.  The Chiefs take the kickoff 60 yards in 11 plays highlighted by Isiah Pacheco‘s longest run of his rookie season with 28 yards into the red zone but would stall out and settle for a Harrison Butker field goal to put the Chiefs on the board.  The Chargers would answer back on a 3-play 75-yard drive capped by a 50-yard Justin Herbert bomb to Joshua Palmer to put the Chargers on the board for the lead.

Los Angeles would keep the pressure up, forcing incompletions on the next Kansas City drive making them settle for another Butker field goal to cut the deficit down to one point.  The Chargers would take it down the field highlighted by a Mike Williams 15-yard catch to convert a third down but he would come up hurt limping from his ankle.  The drive would stall and the Chargers would send out Cameron Dicker to put three more points on the board for Los Angeles.  The Chiefs would answer back, coming out of the start of the second quarter with Patrick Mahomes throwing deep for 40 yards to Jody Fortson to take them into the red zone.  This would set up a first and goal pass to Travis Kelce to do the Sanders high step into the end zone on the 4-yard out pass to put the Chiefs up by 3.

 

 

With the Chargers looking to keep up, the drive would end on a Mike Danna sack forcing the game’s first punt.  After trading back punts, the Chargers would string together a 7-minute drive for 70 yards highlighted by a DeAndre Carter 20-yard catch.  Once in the red zone, Austin Ekeler would take 3 out of the next 4 rushing plays in a row, with the last one reaching over the goal line to have Los Angeles re-take the lead.  The next kick-off would be saved by return man Pacheco from going out of bounds, letting the Chiefs start from their own 11-yard line instead of a penalty bringing the ball out for the Chiefs to start at midfield as a result of the costly error.  D’oh.

 

 

The Chiefs would punt it away after a three and out and the Chargers would drive with some help from a personal foul penalty on the Chiefs to sustain their drive all the way to the red zone where it would stall out after two goal line stuffs for Ekeler and a flushed Herbert throw away to bring up another Dicker field goal to add 3 points to their lead.  The Chiefs would get the ball back and Mahomes would connect with Justin Watson on a 29-yard deep pass to pad the stats for owners who started Watson before going into the locker rooms for the half.

The Chiefs’ first possession in the second half would go 56 yards down the field, all on the ground with 8 carries split between Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon to take them into the red zone where they would once again stall out for a Butker field goal to bring the Chiefs within four points.  After taking a punt deep in their territory and surviving a Derwin James sack, Mahomes continued the drive from the Kansas City 7-yard line.  The Chiefs would come alive and drive 86 yards in 10 plays for another Kelce touchdown to push for a three-point lead over the Chargers, almost exclusively on the arm of Mahomes, connecting with four different receivers.

 

 

After crossing midfield, Keenan Allen would take the next pass 13 yards downfield but fumble it, turning it over to Kansas City.  The Chiefs would begin handing it off to run out the clock, but McKinnon would fumble the ball at the Chargers’ 40 back over to Los Angeles.  After facing 3rd and 18 due to a Willie Gay sack, Herbert would connect with Allen for 46 yards down into the red zone.  This set up a pass across the middle of the end zone to Palmer for his second touchdown of the game to put the Chargers back on top by four.  On the next drive, a Chargers defensive penalty would sustain the drive instead of punting from a three and out. Two plays later Mahomes would break up the middle for 16 yards setting them up with a first down inside the red zone with 37 seconds left in the game, down four.  The next play he would hit Kelce crossing the middle of the field who would take it after the catch and run it in for his third touchdown of the game to put the Chiefs up by 3.

 

 

With only 31 seconds left, Herbert needs 40 yards to get into range and unfortunately would need even more after a Chris Jones sack, with 26 seconds left.  Herbert threw a deep ball up for grabs intended for Allen, only for it to be a little short.  The ball would end up tipped into the hands of Nick Bolton for the interception ending the game for a Kansas City victory.  The Chiefs are now likely to secure the AFC West with a current 3-game lead and a tie-breaker over the Chargers, who are now going to fight for the wild card.

 

 

Kansas City Chiefs

 

Quarterback

 

Patrick Mahomes: 20/34, 329 Yards, 3 TD | 4 Carries, 23 Yards, 1 Fumble (Recovered)

 

The AFC West road streak continues, as Patrick Mahomes moves to 14 straight wins on the road against division opponents.  He ended the game tonight averaging almost 10 yards per pass.  His completion rate was the second lowest on the season, but that is the only real blemish on his performance tonight.  He added an additional 2 yards to your fantasy line rushing, including a 16-yard scramble to set up the game-winning touchdown to Kelce.  Despite the lower completion rate, he still put up over 300 yards passing and pushed four different receivers over the 50-yard mark.  There’s not a whole lot to dive into and analyze as he maintains his standing in the MVP race and continues to be a must-start quarterback in fantasy.  I believe the phrase “Mahomes Magic” was used multiple times on the broadcast.

 

 

Running Back

 

Isiah Pacheco: 15 Carries, 107 Yards

Jerick McKinnon: 6 Carries, 24 Yards | 1 Target, 1 Reception | 1 Fumble (Lost)

Clyde Edwards-Helaire: 2 Carries, 9 Yards

 

Clyde Edwards-Helaire left the game after the second drive for the Chiefs in the first quarter, setting up a big day for Isiah Pacheco.  He only had 5 rushes at halftime, and a big chunk of his 46 yards at the half came on one play.  The Chiefs overall were not running the ball much in the first half with only 9 rushes total at halftime as a team.  However, in the second half, they would balance out with 18 more rushes, 10 of them by Pacheco.  He ended the game with over 100 yards on 7.1 yards per carry.  There is no word on the extent of Edwards-Helaire’s injury at the time of this writing, but Pacheco would be worth a big consideration should the former be forced to miss additional time.  It is worth noting that Pacheco has a lot to work on for pass protection as he struggled at certain points of the night, including failing to stop Derwin James who went past him to sack Mahomes.

 

 

Wide Receiver/Tight End

 

Travis Kelce: 10 Targets, 6 Receptions, 115 Yards, 3 TD

Justin Watson: 4 Targets, 3 Receptions, 67 Yards

Skyy Moore: 6 Targets, 5 Receptions, 63 Yards

Jody Fortson: 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 51 Yards

Marquez Valdes-Scantling: 4 Targets, 1 Reception, 18 Yards

Noah Gray: 3 Targets, 2 Receptions, 15 Yards

 

The Chiefs entered the night with Mecole Hardman and JuJu Smith-Schuster already being ruled out (the former on short-term IR).  This opened up some work for Skyy Moore who brought in 5 of his 6 targets to go over 60 yards working the right side of the field most of the night to move the chains, as he picked up four first downs.  The other pair to benefit were Justin Watson and Jody Fortson who stretched the field for Mahomes, both going over 20 yards per catch for the game.  Watson’s first deep haul at midfield came with only a second left in the half. I assume he was fishing for a pass-interference call, but fantasy points are all the same regardless of when they come.  His second deep catch bailed the Chiefs out of throwing from their own end zone that later would go on to score a touchdown.

Fortson caught a massive 40-yard pass that set up the Chiefs’ first touchdown of the night to Travis Kelce, who just did Travis Kelce things all night.  The future first-ballot hall of famer just crushed with his yards after the catch all night long, giving you about 35 points in PPR.  He needs only 260 more yards on the season to reach his seventh consecutive 1000+ yard season.  Kadarius Toney worked the punt returns and had one target before leaving the game with a hamstring injury in the second quarter.

 

 

Los Angeles Chargers

 

Quarterback

 

Justin Herbert: 23/30, 280 Yards, 2 TD, INT | 5 Carries, 17 Yards

 

This was Justin Herbert‘s best completion rate of the season at 76.7%.  However, this was the fewest attempts he’s thrown all season in contrast.  He averaged over 9 yards per pass on the night, and a big reason for that was the return of his number-one receiver.  In the theme of season highs, this was also the most Herbert has been sacked in his career going down 5 times tonight.  Chris Jones and Mike Danna just took turns getting into the backfield making Herbert’s life rough for the night.  He was on pace for a better night going into half-time throwing for over 170 yards and a touchdown, but adjustments at the half by the Chiefs’ defense proved a bit much to overcome in the end tonight.  The Chargers watched their lead evaporate after two punts and the third drive have its momentum halt on a fumble as the Chiefs would take the lead.  The interception at the end was more of a result of not having any time left and needing to get something down the field with only seconds left in the game.  Otherwise, it would have just been a throwaway out of bounds in a normal circumstance.

 

 

Running Back

 

Austin Ekeler: 19 Carries, 83 Yards, TD | 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 17 Yards

Isaiah Spiller: 4 Carries, 11 Yards | 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 11 Yards

Sony Michel: 1 Carry, 1 Yard

Zander Horvath: 1 Carry, 3 Yards

 

What would have been the lowest PPR output of Austin Ekeler‘s season was staved off by a touchdown on a night where he uncharacteristically only got 2 targets for the entire game, both of which came in the second half.  He did put up an acceptable 4.4 average yards rushing the ball, but his longest run of the night was only for 9 yards as the Chiefs had an answer for him all night.  It’s unfortunate for a running back that makes his stake catching passes, as even if you took away all his rushing stats, he would still be a top 20 running back on pass-catching alone.  I believe now it’s clear that Isaiah Spiller has overtaken Sony Michel as the backup to Ekeler as the rookie out of Texas A&M continues to put up Austin-lite performance, both rushing and catching for 6 touches and 22 yards.  Still only a handcuff at best to Ekeler.  Fun fact, Ekeler owns himself in 2 of his 6 fantasy teams this season.  It would have been 3, but one of his friends took him first overall so he had to “settle” for Derrick Henry.

 

 

Wide Receiver/Tight End

 

Joshua Palmer: 10 Targets, 8 Receptions, 106 Yards, 2 TD

Keenan Allen: 8 Targets, 5 Receptions, 94 Yards, 1 Fumble (Lost)

DeAndre Carter: 3 Targets, 3 Receptions, 33 Yards

Mike Williams: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 15 Yards

Stone Smartt: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 6 Yards

 

Keenan Allen put on his sleeves and suited up for the third time this season, as so far he has only played one game in each month of this year.  He got to work right away as the first pass of the game for the Chargers was a 17-yard strike they highlighted on the broadcast how he still has the moves when he shook his coverage with his route.  He did have a fumble lost that killed a drive that was in Chiefs’ territory but redeemed himself later with a 46-yard catch of glorious gloriousness.  He was the answer to the Chiefs’ zone defense and also the highlight of Collinsworth’s irritation as to why the Chargers weren’t using him more to punish Kansas City’s zone blitzes in the second half.  Allen did have one target in the end zone on the night, but the pass was out of reach.

Also making his return was Mike Williams.  He had declared himself 200% healthy before the game and caught a beautiful toe-tapping 15-yard catch to convert the third down.  Unfortunately, one of those toes awkwardly tapped the defender’s foot and he re-aggravated his previous ankle injury and subsequently left the game.  The star of the night was Joshua Palmer who brought in 80% of his targets to go over 100 yards including two touchdowns on the night.  The highlight had to be the 50-yard bomb Herbert dropped right into his lap for the first touchdown of the game for the Chargers.  He had another deep ball thrown his way but fell incomplete.

Herbert targeted 8 different receivers, 9 if you count the deflection he caught himself leading to a stat line that reads J. Herbert pass to J. Herbert for -2 yards.  Funnily enough, it’s not the first time he’s done that in his career.  But hey if that’s a PPR point, I’m sure owners will take it.  Despite the target spread, only two receivers stood out to get more than 40 yards on the day.  Gerald Everett was also ruled out before the game.

 

Series Navigation
Introduction
Titans @ Packers
Bears @ Falcons
Panthers @ Ravens
Browns @ Bills
Commanders @ Texans
Eagles @ Colts
Jets @ Patriots
Rams @ Saints
Lions @ Giants
Raiders @ Broncos
Cowboys @ Vikings
Bengals @ Steelers
Chiefs @ Chargers

One response to “What We Saw: Week 11”

  1. Evan says:
    November 21, 2022 at 10:56 am

    Just a quick note on the Commanders-Texans recap: Nico Collins is a second-year player, not a rookie.

    Reply

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