Bad penalties Youth Chad Williams Jersey , bad decisions, bad coaching.And bad losses.They occurred all over the NFL on Sunday. The Jaguars , Cardinals, C heads the way their fans are about how they blew games.At least the Panthers went down gambling to win, missing a 2-point conversion — the pass play would have worked but Cam Newton missed a wide-open receiver in the end zone. The others either made suspect choices or played not to lose.And, naturally, they lost.“This is as tough as it gets,” Jaguars defensive end Calais Campbell said after his bunch blew a 16-0 lead to Pittsburgh and lost on a last-second touchdown by Ben Roethliberger. “There are going to be some games you definitely lose and you’ll definitely win. But when it comes down to that last play, and you’re on the losing side of it, those hurt, especially in a situation where we’re a desperate team in need of a win.”And a team that got too many field goals, yet got comfortable with that 16-point edge. Jacksonville stopped being as aggressive as it had been earlier in dominating the Steelers, and pretty much dropped from postseason contention at 3-7.“If people are in here and they’re content — not saying anybody is — but if people are content with losing and things not going right,” star cornerback Jalen Ramsey said, “then that’s not the type of guys you want on the team and that’s not the type of environment you want to have.”The environment might be worse in Arizona, where first-year coach Steve Wilks saw his club make several critical errors down the stretch. That led to a 23-21 loss to Oakland, of all teams — the Raiders were the only team with just one victory heading into the weekend — that never should have been a defeat.A dropped pass by running back David Johnson hurt. An unnecessary roughness penalty against Cardinals tight end Jermaine Gresham cost 15 yards and stopped the game clock. On the next play, Johnson ran 57 yards for what was sure to be the clinching score, only to have the play called back on a holding call against tight end Ricky Seals-Jones.Two plays later, the Cardinals punted. The Raiders drove 63 yards against a modified prevent defense and won as the clock expired on Daniel Carlson’s 35-yard field goal.“It was just a dumb play by me Stitched Pat Tillman Jersey ,” Gresham, a nine-year veteran, said after the game. “I turned around and saw my guy on the ground. We’re not coached to that. We’re not taught that. They didn’t bring me in here to do that, and it was stupid. I cost us the game.”Not entirely, but he helped.The Chargers had plenty of culprits, too. Their six-game winning string ended when a conservative defense couldn’t prevent Denver from going 86 yards in 1:51 for Brandon McManus‘ winning 34-yard field goal as time expired.Los Angeles made mistakes throughout, hardly looking like a wild-card front-runner. Philip Rivers threw two interceptions and on a third-down play on LA’s final drive, he seemed to panic and threw the ball at a receiver’s feet. That led to a punt, but also gave Denver more time for its final drive than it should have gotten.The Chargers committed 14 penalties, including 10 in the first half. Mike Badgley, who made three field goals, also missed an extra point. Denver won 23-22.“The crucial mistakes that we’ve been able to stay away from, we didn’t today,” Rivers said.Championship candidates avoid those, especially against a weaker opponent.Atlanta has had plenty of reasons to struggle, particularly a slew of early-season injuries that have worn on a good roster. But the Falcons had won three straight before a poor performance in Cleveland, and they exacerbated their issues with a difficult-to-watch showing late in a 22-19 loss to Dallas on Sunday.Four of the team’s six losses have come either on the opponent’s final possession or with the Falcons denied on their final opportunity. Simply put, the Falcons have folded under pressure.“It’s aggravating at the end of the day,” said cornerback Robert Alford. “… We did do some good things today. We can’t just hold our heads down. But at the end of the day we’ve got to learn to finish games.”This time, the Cowboys had little difficulty moving 51 yards to Brett Maher’s winning 42-yard kick.If your team is going to lose late Youth Pat Tillman Jersey , at least do it the way Carolina did — going for it, not backing off or making egregious errors.“When you make some errors we made today in critical moments, you open yourselves up to get beat, and that’s what happened today,” Rivers said. “We had every opportunity to close it out, and we just didn’t get it done.” KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Patrick Mahomes Reunion Tour rolls on Sunday when the young, record-setting quarterback leads the high-flying Kansas City Chiefs against the Arizona Cardinals at Arrowhead Stadium.Last week, Mahomes shredded the Cleveland Browns while outplaying their rookie quarterback, Baker Mayfield. The two met when Mahomes was being recruited to Texas Tech and Mayfield helped to serve as his host, and their relationship continued even when Mayfield transferred to Oklahoma.This week, Mahomes gets to reminiscence about his time working at Peyton Manning's football camp with his old roommate, Josh Rosen — now the quarterback on whom the Cardinals are pinning their future. "I've met him a couple times, been out to California and met him," Mahomes said. "He throws a beautiful ball. It's always a really tight spiral. I know he'll have a lot of success."It's going to be tough to top the success Mahomes is having.The Chiefs' first-year starter is setting benchmarks just about every time he steps on the field, and the next one might be consecutive 300-yard passing games. Mahomes has eight straight to match Andrew Luck from the 2014 season, and he's shown no signs of slowing down."I thought he was pretty good," Rosen said, reflecting on those days working camp together. "We weren't really throwing, we were mostly just coaching the kids. So we didn't get to really throw too much Stitched Adrian Wilson Jersey , but I liked him as a dude. We got along really well."Rosen hasn't seen a whole lot of Mahomes with the Chiefs (8-1) this week, either, because he's spent all his time focusing on the defense. But Cardinals coach Steve Wilks has seen enough to know that stopping him may be impossible, and slowing him down is nearly as difficult.That goes for the entirety of the Kansas City offense."One thing we talked about all week is really trying to limit those big plays, understanding exactly who they're trying to target," Wilks said. "This is a very explosive offense. Going against Andy Reid for several years in different places, going all the way back to the Eagles, this is part of his M.O. So, we've got to try to limit the big plays as much as possible."The Cardinals (2-6) have struggled much of the season, particularly on offense. But they're coming off an uplifting, fourth-quarter comeback victory over San Francisco that was capped by Rosen's touchdown strike to Christian Kirk in the final minute."You can let point spreads and all these things — ‘trap game' — and all these terms that pop up and things that happen come into it," Reid said of perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Chiefs this week. "But if you can honestly focus on the process and discipline yourself to do that, that normally takes care of things. … You're not going to let distractions get in the way."As the Chiefs and Cardinals prepare to meet Sunday, here are some interesting notes:GETTING HEALTHIERChiefs safety Daniel Sorensen is expected to play after returning from injured reserve, where he'd been since breaking his leg in training camp. The Chiefs also could have top pass rusher Justin Houston back from a hamstring injury that has sidelined him the past four games.ROSEN AND REIDRosen's father, noted physician Dr. Charles Rosen, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and the youngster was an avid fan of Reid and the Philadelphia Eagles growing up."I used to have an Eagles shirt when I was a kid that said, ‘Our coach will eat yours.' I was a huge Andy Reid fan," Rosen said. "Him and Mike Vick and the DeSean Jackson days were very fun to watch.FITZGERALD'S NUMBERSCardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has been climbing into the upper reaches of the NFL's career receiving marks Youth Adrian Wilson Jersey , and he is closing in on a couple very high rungs.Fitzgerald has 15,902 yards receiving, and he needs 33 more to pass Terrell Owens for second place behind Jerry Rice on the career list. Fitzgerald also needs 58 catches to pass former Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez for second behind Rice in career receptions.Fitzgerald had eight catches for 102 yards and a TD in last week's 18-15 win over San Francisco.PERFECTION, ALMOSTReid was asked this week how often his creative plays are executed properly — when all 11 guys do exactly what they are supposed to do. And his answer was quite candid."I'd probably give you 85 percent of the time," Reid said. "Now, they can get beat and that would bring it down a little bit, but mostly guys will attempt to do the right thing. It amazes me how they can digest all this and in a split-second know — there's 200 plays on that sheet, and you have to figure it out like that, and these guys do it."MAKE WAY, LENMahomes already has thrown 29 touchdown passes, which means he needs just two more to pass Len Dawson's franchise record. The Hall of Famer set one of the Chiefs' longest-standing records in 1964, an era in which passing generally took a back seat to running the ball."It would be awesome," Mahomes said, "because Len had a lot of success in the NFL and was kind of ahead of his time, throwing all those touchdowns. It would be awesome to pass that."
