What happened during the San Diego Chargers bye week?

The Chiefs almost lost to Jason Campbell

Don't take my word for it, go look at the final score. For most of the final 25 minutes of this game, the Chiefs held a three point lead over the Cleveland Browns. The Kansas City offense seemed to only have success when throwing screen passes, which explains why they only scored a single touchdown.

Jason Campbell was, predictably, not terrible. However, Norv Turner fell in love with him and completely abandoned the Browns running game early on. A late fumbled punt by Davone Bess, when the Chiefs couldn't get anything going with their offense, didn't help either.

This game looked an awful lot like the San Diego Chargers loss to the Browns in 2012, just with a lot less rain. Unfortunately for San Diego, and Norv Turner, the Chiefs were the ones that got the lucky bounces this time and finished the game with an 8-0 record.

The Broncos took three quarters to get going

During the Chargers bye week, I try not to spend the entire day watching football. It's one of the few Sundays in a string of seventeen weeks when I don't actually have to watch every play.

So, after Peyton Manning had turned the ball over twice in three plays and looked clearly beaten, I went outside. I left my couch. The Redskins were up 21-7 and I had better things to do than watch them beat up on the Broncos.

Somehow, the turnovers woke Manning up. His Broncos scored the final 38 points of the game (including 31 points in the fourth quarter), and knocked Robert Griffin III out with what is being called a minor knee injury. He should be fine to play against the Chargers next weekend.

The good news seems to be that the Chiefs and the Broncos have their weaknesses. The bad news is that the Chiefs' defense is so good, and the Broncos' offense so great, that their weaknesses don't seem to matter.

Terrelle Pryor proved me right

Hey, remember all offseason, when I was saying that I was terrified of Terrelle Pryor? Everyone seemed to think that he wasn't a good QB, and wouldn't even start over Matt Flynn. I got slammed for saying that, because of Pryor, the Raiders would win more than four games this season.

Well, the Raiders are 3-4 (3-1 at home), just one game behind the Chargers, and Terrelle Pryor is a star. He had a 93 yard touchdown run that may not have even been his most impressive, or most exciting, play of the day. The Raiders defense was good enough to slow down a not-great Steelers offense in a 21-18 win for Oakland.

If the Chargers aren't out of the playoff picture yet, neither are the Raiders.

The Jets lost

I figured something out last week. The Cincinnati Bengals are a really good team. Unfortunately, I figured it out after I had selected the Jets to beat them in Cincinnati this weekend.

The Bengals have an outstanding defense, and an offense that is versatile enough to put up points on just about anyone. That's going to be a tough team to beat. Fortunately, their win over the Jets this week keeps San Diego as the sixth seed if the playoffs started today.