With the twelfth Sunday of the NFL season over, these two teams put on the most impressive performances of week twelve. The Buffalo Bills snapped their losing streak with an impressive road win over the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Los Angeles Rams prevailed over one of the hottest teams in the NFL as they defeated the New Orleans Saints.
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills entered their game against the Kansas City Chiefs riding a three-game losing streak and a messy quarterback situation after benching Tyrod Taylor before he got his job back after one half last week.
Buffalo struck first as Taylor threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Zay Jones towards the end of the first quarter.
Bills WR Zay Jones has 2 TD in his last 3 games, and Tyrod Taylor has a 126.4 passer rating when targeting Jones in that span
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) November 26, 2017
For context, Jones didn’t score a single TD in his first 7 games, and Taylor had a 28.8 passer rating when targeting Jones over that span#BUFvsKC
The second quarter saw field goals be traded, with the Bills making a 56-yarder to go into halftime in Kansas City with a 13-3 lead. Kansas City opened the third quarter by finally scoring a touchdown, but the Bills responded with a field goal to make it 16-10. Following this, the game saw six consecutive drives end in punts before Buffalo's defense stepped up to clinch the victory.
The Chiefs offense gained 85 yards in 9 plays on their opening drive of the 2nd half, capped by Alex Smith’s 19-yard TD pass to Albert Wilson
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) November 26, 2017
Kansas City managed 57 total yards on 20 offensive plays in the first half
The Bills forced Kansas City to turn it over on downs with 2:54 left at midfield but their offense then went three-and-out.
Kansas City then drove to the Bills 36-yard line before rookie Tre'Davious White intercepted Alex Smith to seal the win. Buffalo needed this victory to stay in contention for the AFC's last playoff spot, especially as they face the New England Patriots next week.
The Bills are 5-2 in games EJ Gaines starts. His availability makes a big difference for the defense. Gives them more options in both scheme and matchups. He's also their best tacking CB.
— Sal Capaccio 🏈 (@SalSports) November 27, 2017
#Shoutout: The @buffalobills limited the Chiefs to 237 yards of offense today.
— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) November 26, 2017
That is the fewest yards the Bills defense has allowed on the road since 2011 (9/11) when the Bills went to KC and held the Chiefs to 213 yards. pic.twitter.com/2I6grDlUeG
Los Angeles Rams
Coming off of last week's loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Los Angeles Rams were facing one of the hottest teams in the NFL in the New Orleans Saints.
Having loss last week and with all the other NFC playoff contenders having won, this was an important game for the Rams to win.
The Rams struck first on a five-yard touchdown pass to Sammy Watkins during the game's opening drive. They would later add a field goal to take a 10-0 lead, but the Saints managed a 74-yard touchdown run by rookie Alvin Kamara to make it 10-7 at the end of the first. At halftime, the Rams were clinging to a 17-10 lead but added two more field goals to take a 23-10 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Jared Goff: 3rd time in his career with multiple Pass TD's before halftime. Two of the three instances have been against the Saints.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 26, 2017
They scored their final points to take a 26-13 lead, but the Satins went down and quickly scored to make the end of the game interesting.
However, the Rams recovered their onside quick attempt to win 26-20. Now, that they have secured their first non-losing season in 11 years, they go on the road next week to play the division rival Arizona Cardinals.
We don't talk enough about how good Greg Zuerlein has been this year. He's 32 of 34 this season (94.1%) with one of his misses being yesterday's 63-yard attempt.
— TurfShowTimes (@TurfShowTimes) November 27, 2017
This win assured us our first non-losing season since 2006! #Rams
— LA Rams Fans (@RamsFans_NFL) November 27, 2017