The AFC West is the home of two of the best teams in the NFL and those teams continue to dominate week after week. The other two teams, not so much. Here’s a look at their Week 11 matchups.
The 4-5 San Diego Chargers are coming off a loss to the Denver Broncos, as they face the 4-5 Miami Dolphins this week. The Dolphins are coming off a tough loss as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers got their first win against Miami on Monday night. Philip Rivers and the Chargers will look to get back to .500 in Miami. They lost a close game last week, and there’s a lot to build on for this team. They’ve shown improvement all year and will try to take advantage of a team that struggled against one of the worst in the league. This game is more than winnable for the San Diego Chargers.
The last time the Oakland Raiders played the Houston Texans was the week of Al Davis’ death. The Raiders won in dramatic fashion in an emotional game Raider Nation won’t soon forget. This time around, these are two completely different teams, and both have struggled. The 3-6 Oakland Raiders will travel to Houston to take on the 2-7 Texans. This, of course, means Sebastian Janikowski will be reunited with Raiders longtime punter, Shane Lechler. The Raiders will hope to see a lot of Lechler in Sunday’s game. Oakland has struggled to win on road and Dennis Allen is 1-11 in road games.
The Raiders also have a very poor offensive line, and the Texans have a good defense led by J.J. Watt. Terrelle Pryor doesn’t have much time with this O-line, and that won’t change this week as Watt will be swarming.
The Texans have struggled this year and have been rather disappointing, but the Raiders have struggled in all aspects of the game as well.
For the third week in a row, this is a game the Raiders should win, but due to the fact that they struggle on the road, and Pryor has a banged up knee, that has cause him to miss practice as he is listed as day-to-day, their odds don’t look so good.
With Week 11 comes one of, if not the, most anticipated match-ups of the season; the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs at the 8-1 Denver Broncos.
The Chiefs are coming off a bye week and the Broncos are coming off a victory against the Chargers.
Many have said that the Chiefs haven’t played many competitive teams and that they’ve had an easier schedule.
Well, this will be a big test for them as the Broncos are a team with great talent on both sides of the ball.
There’s no doubting the quality of the Chiefs defense; they’ve kept them in games and made big plays when needed. Alex Smith has had a good year thus far, but hasn’t done anything too flashy.
This week will be a big test for Smith as well, because he’ll be up against one of the better defenses in the league. The Broncos, seem to have it all, they’re 8-1 and have arguably the best quarterback in the league in Peyton Manning.
Their defense is also strong and they do what needs to be done to get wins. Manning isn’t 100% health wise, but you can hardly tell by the way he goes about the game and his performance on the field. The Broncos will look to improve to 9-1 and give the Chiefs their first loss of the season. This is sure to be a fun and entertaining game against two division rivals.