Are You There, Lamar? It's Us, the NFL Fans

Four huge games. Four revealing outcomes.

• The Pittsburgh Steelers restored balance to the cosmos by kicking the smoke and mirrors out of the Cleveland Browns.
• The Lions discovered the key to beating the mighty Vikings defense: bludgeon it with Jahmyr Gibbs until it buckles. (If you don't have a Jahmyr Gibbs lying around ... good luck!)
• The Broncos proved that their Fourth Quarter Chaos Magic has grown more powerful than Patrick Mahomes' Last-Minute Miracles.

And the Bills? They might have dealt a mortal blow to one of their toughest foes.

Let's start there.

Game Spotlight: Buffalo Bills 36, Baltimore Ravens 10

What Happened

Gosh, it’s great to have Lamar Jackson back. It doesn’t get much better than Jackson versus Josh Allen on a gorgeous autumn afternoon! This game is gonna rock. Let me order a beer, get settled in, and enjoy Jackson’s first pass in a month …

Oh fudge.

Jackson broke his throwing thumb against Greg Rousseau’s wrist on the first play from scrimmage. Jackson will head to the injured reserve for at least a month.

Well, Snoop Huntley is a pesky veteran backup. Maybe he can keep the Ravens within range of the Bills’ self-destructive habits! 

Wait … Huntley suffered a toe injury while spinning away from an Ed Oliver sack and was out of the game by early in that second quarter. Who is the Ravens’ QB3 again?

Joe Fugazi?

Joe Fuggetaboutit?

Joe Flaccotini?

No … Joe Fagnano, the undrafted rookie out of Whassamatta U. (UConn, actually.) Fungool.

The Bills initially reacted to a giftwrapped victory with their usual array of Stupid Bills Tricks. Backup tight end Jackson Hawes let a ball bounce off his paws, volleyball-setting an Allen pass into the air for a Ravens interception that set up a Derrick Henry touchdown. Allen launched an incomplete bomb to Keon Coleman on fourth-and-4. Joe Brady invented the quarterback sneak sweep – let’s call it a Sneep – which netted a three-yard loss and forced the Bills to settle for a field goal.  DJ Moore fumbled after a catch in Ravens territory. Brady tried to mismanage the clock before halftime, but Allen got out of bounds after a 14-yard gain to set up a 51-yard Tyler Bass field goal.

Fortunately for the Bills, Fagnano was helpless. An Allen-to-Moore bomb early in the third quarter set up a James Cook touchdown to give the Bills a 23-10 lead. The Bills were free to play with their food for the rest of the game.

What It Means for the Bills

Same old same-old. Allen was great. The defense was never threatened once Snoop left the game. The play-calling remains counterproductive. The Bills can win by 26 points but leave you wondering why they didn’t win by 46. 

Two worrisome wide receiver injuries are worth monitoring. Josh Palmer left the game with a leg injury in the first quarter. Moore suffered what looked like a more significant leg injury late in the fourth quarter.

What was Moore doing on the field late in the fourth quarter of a blowout? Rest assured that Joe Brady will provide an explanation that sounds perfectly sensible to Joe Brady. Brandon Beane will then solve any receiver crisis by offering the Titans far too much for Calvin Ridley, who caught his sixth pass of the season on Sunday.

What It Means for the Ravens

At some point, folks defending Jackson and the Ravens start to sound like Linus in the pumpkin patch. The Great Pumpkin just never arrives. 

There’s no denying Jackson’s excellence when healthy. There’s also no denying the fact that Jackson is always dealing with a battery of prosaic-to-mysterious ailments, and that the Ravens rarely win enough games when he is healthy to compensate for the times when Jackson is either unavailable or limited.

The Ravens’ organizational future is suddenly cloudy. Everything from an Eric DeCosta firing to an offseason Jackson trade – made tricky by his timebomb of a contract and murky Mom-and-Friends representation – should be on the table when January arrives. The Ravens cannot keep waiting for that perfect season when Jackson remains in mint condition and everything else breaks just right.

For now, the Ravens need Snoop back to even keep up appearances. It’s hard to imagine that the Ravens will even be in the Wild Card hunt by the time Jackson returns. 

What’s Next

The Bills visit the Vikings next Monday night. They then face the Dolphins and Jets before the Josh Allen Holiday Spectacular kicks off with the Chiefs on Thanksgiving night. The Bills will lose at least one of these games; my guess is that they will trip over the Jets in East Rutherford.

The Ravens host the surging Jaguars, then the sagging Chargers. Hmm … what if they trade Jackson to the Chargers for Justin Herbert, straight up? Before you laugh ... THINK OF THE AMAZING CONTENT THAT WOULD GENERATE.

Game Spotlight: Denver Broncos 28, Kansas City Chiefs 24

What Happened

The Chiefs led 24-13 to start the fourth quarter. Their offense, helped by the return of Rashee Rice and the emergence of backup running back Emmett Johnson, looked as good as it has looked all season. The Broncos offense was an endless stream of Bo Nix batted passes, yet Nix combined just enough downfield completions with Chiefs penalties to keep his team in the game.

Then a sudden burst of rain heralded the arrival of Broncos Fourth Quarter Chaos Magic.

A promising Chiefs series ended when they punted on fourth-and-2 from their own 41-yard line. Nick Bolton slipped and fell on a 22-yard Nix completion to Adam Trautman; Chiefs safety Alohi Gilman added a 15-yard roughness foul. That sequence helped set up a Nix rollout touchdown to Nate Adkins, followed by a two-point conversion.

The Chiefs, still leading by three, marched to the Broncos 30, munching clock along the way. But Patrick Mahomes took a sack on a doomed third-and-2 rollout. Andy Reid trusted Harrison Butker, who is mired in a slump so wicked that the Chiefs signed an "alleged" sex offender to their practice squad as a potential replacement, to attempt a 54-yarder in the rain. Butker's attempt sailed wide right. Jonah Coleman caught a short Nix rollout toss and weaved 51 yards after the miss, scoring a go-ahead touchdown on the next play.

Mahomes had 1:56 and two timeouts to work with. One Travis Kelce catch-and-run and some Kenneth Walker handoffs/catches later, the Chiefs reached the one-yard line with 15 seconds and a timeout remaining. But Walker couldn't punch it in. An apparent fourth-and-goal touchdown pass to Rice was erased by a false start. Malcolm Roach sacked Mahomes to seal the Broncos win.

What It Means for the Broncos

Broncos observers counted six batted passes against Nix. Nix also threw so many passes in the dirt that it looked like the aphids were his intended receivers. He spiked the ball behind him at one point; you would need negative numbers and the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate its air yards. And yet the Broncos found 28 points as if they went fishing in the sofa for change and found dad's wallet. It was almost inexplicable.

The Broncos are now 6-2 and have so many Jets, Dolphins, Chargers and beatable welterweights (Panthers, Raiders twice) on their upcoming schedule that Nix could start cramming footballs up his own nostrils and the Broncos might still clinch a playoff berth before their end-of-season prove-it games against the Bills and Patriots.

What It Means for the Chiefs

The Chiefs could have knocked the Broncos out early in the fourth quarter but didn't. They don't need Mahomes to rediscover how to provide late-game miracles. They need to manage games better so they don't need to rely on fourth-quarter miracles. That means better play-calling in short-yardage situations, fewer dumb penalties and the realization that none of their kickers can be relied upon anymore. A team with Mahomes, Walker, Kelce, Rice and Johnson should be able to limit 50-yard field goal attempts.