Returning from a knee injury that ended his season last November, Flacco went 23 for 34 for 258 yards, including a 66-yard touchdown pass to newcomer Mike Wallace in the second quarter that put the Ravens ahead for good.
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With Allen gone and Stevie Johnson already injured for the remainder of the season, Travis Benjamin, Dontrelle Inman and Tyrell Williams appear to be the top three wide receivers for the Chargers. Joey Bosa being activated. Instead, the Kansas City offense had another engine driving it to a 33-27 overtime victory.
They lost Allen to a suspected torn right ACL in the first half, when they looked like world-beaters rather than the team that flopped at 4-12 previous year.
Allen played only eight games in 2015 after suffering a lacerated kidney.
Philip Rivers threw for 243 yards and a touchdown, and second-year running back Melvin Gordon scored the first two TDs of his career. But then the Chargers went away from him in the second half.
Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson was stifled all day but the Vikings turned to defense and their kicking game to win their first game without quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
Cairo Santos added a 33-yard field goal a few minutes later. He missed, giving the Chiefs great field position to start their comeback.
Then came a torrent of 17 KC points over the final 9 minutes, 18 seconds of regulation, forcing overtime at 27-27.
The home opener at Arrowhead Stadium drew crowds in by the thousands to watch the game, but by halftime, the Chiefs trailed the Chargers 21-3. The veteran wide receiver was signed by the Chargers at the beginning of August, but he was released at the end of the month when San Diego needed to cut down to the maximum number of players. “I would say it was a lack of execution in the fourth quarter in all three phases”, McCoy said. “If he got in the system that we run here, it just kind of fit his style and game and ability, you probably wouldn’t be asking that question right now”. And it looked as if their eight-game skid against AFC West rivals would finally end.
Bosa has been on the roster-exempt list. “Coach said it was OK if I wanted to express my thoughts about what I wanted to do, so I just expressed it”.
“I don’t think anybody is surprised at all”, Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith said. He’s got to do certain things to get on the field. We had been doing a very good job all game long, but we didn’t do a good job after that. San Diego converted six of seven third down plays in the first half, as the Kansas City defense struggled to get off the field. We fully admit we were beating the “Devonta Freeman is still the lead back in Atlanta” charge, but come on, people – Coleman should have been owned in more than 42 percent of Yahoo leagues leading up to Week 1.
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Several close finishes enabled fantasy owners to run up their point totals on Sunday, but one potentially devastating injury could end up having the most impact of anything else in Week 1.
