Winners and losers from NFL Saturday in Week 15

Now that college football is into bowl season, the NFL is taking over on Saturdays. There were two games on the slate Saturday in Week 15 with playoff implications. First the Detroit Lions hosted the Chicago Bears, followed by an AFC West showdown between the two teams atop the division, the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs.

Detroit had little trouble dispatching the Bears, winning 20-10. The Lions got star performances from players on both sides of the ball, improving to 8-6 on the season, well within striking distance for the NFC Playoff chase.

The Chiefs and Chargers were neck and neck for much of the game, but ultimately the Chiefs pulled ahead at home and prevailed. They won by the score of 30-13, claiming the top spot in the AFC West by one game over the Chargers with two games left to play.

These are the biggest winners and losers from both Saturday games in Week 15.

Winner: Golden Tate and Marvin Jones both pulled off highlight-reel plays

Matthew Stafford had a very nice game, but we’ll highlight his receivers this weekend, instead.

Early in Saturday’s game against Chicago, Marvin Jones made one of the jaw-dropping catches he’s become famous for. Stafford was pressured and had to roll outside the pocket to the right side of the field. Right before being sacked, he ripped a pass deep downfield in the direction of Jones, who rose up and made an incredible catch over his defender (watch here).

That play led to the first touchdown of the game for Detroit, which went up 13-0 after an extra point.

Then in the second half, it was Tate’s turn to wow. On a simple quick pass to the right side, Tate juked his defender so bad the poor guy’s ankles are still probably somewhere on Ford Field, then burst forward for a big gain. He capped off his big play by doing a ballet twirl on the sideline.

Tate and Jones only caught six passes but went big on them for a total of 118 yards. Furthermore, these big plays were the most entertaining part of a rather boring early game.

Loser: Chicago’s running game was non-existent 

Most of the season, the Bears have been pretty competitive thanks in large part to their running game. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found on the road in Detroit this Saturday.

Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen only carried the ball 12 times total, gaining 38 yards and failing to sniff the end zone once. They were largely ineffective in the first half. And once the Lions went up 20-3 in the third quarter, the Bears completely abandoned the running game, putting the offense on Mitch Trubisky’s shoulders.

The coaching staff did an awful job coming up with a game plan for this one. As a result, Chicago never had a chance to win.

Winner: Alex Smith was razor sharp

He didn’t have to sling the pigskin around 50-plus times. But Alex Smith did make the most out of his chances against what’s been a red-hot Chargers defense of late.

Completing 23-of-30 passes for 231 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions, Smith almost couldn’t miss. In particular, his 64-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill in the first half illustrated his pinpoint accuracy on Saturday night (watch here).

This Chiefs team looked like the same one that started the season 5-0, rather than the team that’s been backsliding most of the second half this year.

Smith actually should have three touchdowns on his stat sheet, but a terrible ruling on a Kareem Hunt play in the end zone ended up costing the Chiefs points in the third quarter. It was a brilliant game from Smith, who has his Chiefs first place in the AFC West with two games left to play.

Loser: Andy Reid’s signature clock management strikes again 

The Chiefs had a real chance, with all the momentum, to extend their lead heading into halftime. Alex Smith had the offense rolling, and on a first-and-20 he found Albert Wilson for 15 yards, getting Kansas City in field-goal range.

Reid appropriately called a timeout to kill the clock and set up another play with 24 seconds remaining in the half. On second-and-5, however, Reid inexplicably called for a draw play to Charcandrick West, who had yet to carry the ball a single time all game. He gained just two yards, forcing another timeout — Reid just cannot help himself from poor clock management in crunch time, don’t you know? — and two plays later Harrison Butker missed a 52-yard attempt.

That short sequence of events sucked all the life out of Arrowhead Stadium and gave live to the Chargers, who were lucky to head into halftime down by just four points. Thankfully Kansas City’s defense woke up in a big way in the second half and this mistake didn’t cost the Chiefs a win.

Winner: Darius Slay made takes NFL lead with two more INTs

The Lions haven’t been elite on the defensive side of the ball all year, but Darius Slay has. He’s done an outstanding job against some of the league’s top receivers throughout the season and came into the game with five interceptions.

Early in the second half against Chicago, he came up with No. 6 on the season when Mitch Trubisky overthrew his receiver down the left sideline. Slay made a tremendous play on the ball and kept both feet in bounds, tying the league lead in the process.

For a while it looked like Slay would be unavailable. He had to leave the game for a concussion check but came back to make that play.

Then, as Chicago attempted to score in garbage time in the game’s final minute, Slay made his second interception of the game to move to seven on the year and put the game away for the Lions.

 

Loser: Philip Rivers’ turnovers doomed the Chargers

It’s a shame. Chargers running back Melvin Gordon had a monster game (more on him in a bit), but Los Angeles’ offense was stuck in the mud. Philip Rivers wasn’t sharp. He faced a ton of pressure playing behind a battered offensive line, and Kansas City’s defensive front was unbelievably locked in.

Still, the three interceptions Rivers threw were inexcusable. His first was thrown into double coverage, with Marcus Peters trailing underneath. It appeared Rivers thought Tyrell Williams would turn toward the sideline more than continuing toward the post, but it really didn’t matter. Williams wasn’t open to begin with. That interception turned a promising drive into three points for the Chiefs.

Then later in the fourth quarter, facing pressure, he threw an awful pass in the direction of Antonio Gates, but the wounded duck never had a chance.

It marked the third straight drive that ended in a turnover by the Chargers, and it led to another touchdown for the Chiefs.

Finally at the end, with the game already in the bag for the Chiefs, Rivers threw his third interception of the game — one he’d likely rather forget.

Winner: Eric Ebron stays hot

Eric Ebron had a huge game last weekend to help the Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For the first time in his career, he caught at least 10 catches in that game.

On Saturday, Ebron didn’t catch as many passes but made a huge impact on the outcome. He was a key contributor, catching five passes for 33 yards, including one of the two touchdown passes thrown by Stafford.

And this was a big-boy catch, to be sure.

Ebron has been known to drop these types of contested catches in the past. Based on the past couple of games, however, perhaps he’s really finally taken that big step in his development that the Lions have been waiting for ever since he was a first-round pick in 2014.

Loser: Chargers’ punt coverage unit dropped the ball

Early in the game, Tyreek Hill muffed a punt, sending the ball careening back to his own end zone. It looked like the Chargers were going to recover the ball and possibly score, but at the last second Chiefs tight end Demetrius Harris pushed Nick Dzubnar as he was about to recover the ball. It was a brilliant play by Harris, but there were still Chargers players around the ball. Nobody could nab it, though, and Chiefs tight end Orson Charles recovered it.

Then midway through the second quarter, punter Drew Kaser dropped the ball inside the five-yard line. Unfortunately, instead of pinning Kansas City in its own end zone, the Chargers coverage unit failed to secure the ball, and it went for a touchback instead. Just a few plays later, Tyreek Hill went 64 yards in the blink of an eye for the game’s first touchdown, putting Kansas City up 10-0.

Those were huge, potentially momentum-swinging plays that went the wrong way for the Chargers in the first half, and they helped the Chiefs take a 10-6 lead into halftime.

Winner: Melvin Gordon and Kareem Hunt played like their hair was on fire

If you love watching running backs have big games, then Saturday night’s AFC West showdown at Arrowhead was your cup of tea.

Melvin Gordon was magnificent in a losing effort. He finished with 78 yards rushing and another 91 yards on six receptions, and scored a rushing touchdown.

Kareem Hunt was even more explosive. For the second week in a row he rushed for well over 100 yards, finishing with 155. He also caught seven passes for 51 yards and scored a total of two touchdowns, leading everyone in this game.

He also broke Kansas City’s record for most rushing yards in a season by a rookie, and he has two more games left to play.

Loser: Mitch Trubisky had a rough, rough game

Bears fans and many analysts around the nation have been clamoring for Chicago to let Trubisky take more chances and throw more often. In Detroit, the rookie out of North Carolina reminded us why he was considered a project coming out of college this past spring.

Without a running game to lean on, Trubisky ended up throwing 46 passes, by far the most he’s attempted in a single game all year. He completed 31 of them for 314 yards, which on the surface isn’t bad at all. But many of his misses were bad ones, including the three interceptions he threw. Most notably, his interception to Quandre Diggs in the end zone was particularly egregious, as it took points off the board in the fourth quarter and was just very poor judgement.

It’s not the first time this year that Trubisky has made an awful throw in crunch time when his team needed a big play. We assume he’ll learn (the Bears and their fans sure hope so, at least), but this wasn’t the kind of showing that gives him or his teammates a ton of confidence in his ability to win games.

Winner: Marcus Peters = turnover machine

In a must-win game for a Chiefs team that has spent most of this year’s second half taking steps in the wrong direction, Marcus Peters stepped up big.

The third-year cornerback out of Washington was in perfect position in the third quarter when Philip Rivers tried to squeeze a pass into double coverage. Peters nearly returned the interception to the house, getting stopped inside the red zone instead.

It was the 18th interception hauled in by Peters since 2015, which is the most in the NFL during this stretch. But the cornerback wasn’t done yet, either. Early in the fourth quarter he ripped the ball out of Austin Ekeler’s arms, forcing his second turnover of the game.

Peters also made an incredible open-field tackle on third-and-8 against Travis Benjamin midway through the fourth quarter to force fourth down. Then he capped off Kansas City’s win with his second interception of the game as the Chargers attempted to score in garbage time.

He finished the game with three tackles, three pass deflections and three forced turnovers.