What we learned in Week 11: The Chiefs are scary again, league MVP Jonathan Taylor, and Kirk Cousins doesn't suck (right now)

Week 11 brought more chaos to the AFC and a reason to believe in ... the Vikings? Wait hold on.

The AFC remains a stupid, jumbled mess.

The Buffalo Bills started the season 4-1 with a two-game lead over the rest of the AFC East. After getting smashed by the Indianapolis Colts 41-15, they’re now 6-4 and in the familiar territory of trailing the New England Patriots for the division lead.

The Tennessee Titans sliced through the AFC’s chaff to rise to the top of the conference and set its sights on a postseason bye. Their six-game winning streak was cut down by the then 1-8 Houston Texans on a day where they scored 13 points against the league’s 29th-ranked scoring defense.

The Baltimore Ravens, playing without Lamar Jackson, almost lost to a depleted, Andy Dalton-led Chicago Bears. The Cleveland Browns barely escaped the winless Detroit Lions. The Jacksonville Jaguars … lost by 20. Alright, carry on.

Sunday’s chaos is commonplace in a conference where 75 percent of the teams were at worst a half-game out of a playoff spot heading into Week 11. So how did things get so pear-shaped this time?

Buffalo’s defense suffered the kind of regression that can only happen against a singular, game-changing talent. Jonathan Taylor, the engine behind the entire Indianapolis offense, gashed it for 204 total yards and five touchdowns. That unit couldn’t create the kind of chaos that sustained the Bills early in the season, which is an ominous sign. They’re 6-0 when they force multiple turnovers in 2021 and 0-4 when they don’t.

Josh Allen’s tenuous claim to the league’s best MVP odds took a massive hit as he regressed to his early-career stage and tried to do too much with his back against the wall. The Colts’ early lead meant he had to force passes downfield with limited success:

Bump, set, pick.

CBS pic.twitter.com/TqPWSNqN8y

— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) November 21, 2021

His -0.3 expected points added made it two games in three weeks in which he’s had a negative overall impact on his team (the other? A 6-9 loss to the Jags). He completed just three of nine passes that traveled at least 10 yards downfield while throwing a pair of interceptions:

The Titans’ loss was the culmination of several tenuous propositions crashing down at once. Tennessee went 2-0 in its first two games without Derrick Henry because its defense covered up its deficiencies with a dominant pass rush and its offense, despite myriad problems on third down, finished every one of its drives inside an opponents’ 30 with points.

This wasn’t available in home loss to a fired-up Tyrod Taylor and a clearly rebuilding offense. The Titans’ pass rush went without a sack and only hit Taylor once, creating the space he needed to scramble for game-changing touchdowns.

Tyrod Taylor dunks on Hooker pic.twitter.com/cZA39sqM2D

— Rivers McCown (@riversmccown) November 21, 2021

Worse yet, turnovers created the short fields needed for Houston to score 13 points in what turned out to be a nine-point loss. Ryan Tannehill suffered from a similar case of “do-too-much-itis” as Allen en route to four picks. Top wideout A.J. Brown averaged just 5.3 yards per target and a team that’s not built to come from behind … failed to come from behind.

What does this mean for the AFC? The usual suspects are rising, as the Patriots, Ravens, and Chiefs have each risen to the top of their respective divisions. The hot starts of September and October have given way to massive variance and one of the least predictable seasons in AFC history.

One thing that has remained constant? Jonathan Taylor is completely rad. But that’s not anything you didn’t already know.