Bills hang on in sloppy 27-17 win over Chargers
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Tre’davious White’s fourth-quarter interception set up Tyler Bass’ 43-yard field goal, helping the Buffalo Bills hold off the Los Angeles Chargers for a 27-17 win Sunday.
Josh Allen threw for a touchdown and ran for another score for the AFC East-leading Bills (8-3), who hung on after nearly blowing an 18-point third-quarter lead. Receiver Cole Beasley also completed a touchdown pass.
Buffalo turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions, but its defense limited Los Angeles to Michael Badgley’s 27-yard field goal during the key stretch.
Buffalo’s three drives ended with running back Devin Singletary losing a fumble at midfield, Allen muffing a snap at the Chargers 22, and then Allen throwing an interception to Michael Davis.
Two plays after the Chargers regained the ball at their 44, Justin Herbert faced thirdand-6 when he forced a pass over the middle intended for tight end Hunter Henry, only to have White jump in front of the ball.
The Bills responded with a six-play, 40-yard drive that ended with Bass’ field goal with 3:26 remaining.
The Chargers dropped to 3-8.
Herbert finished 31 of 52 for 316 yards, upping his season total to 3,016 and joining Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes as the only players to top 3,000 yards passing in their first 10 career starts. Herbert was limited to one touchdown, a 5-yarder to Keenan Allen.
Los Angeles running back Austin Ekeler returned after missing six games with a hamstring injury. He finished with 44 yards rushing and 11 catches for 85 yards.
Allen finished 18 of 24 for 157 yards. He scored on a 3-yard run in the third quarter.
A game between two of the NFL’S top young quarterbacks was instead overshadowed by defense.
Charger defensive end Joey Bosa had a career-best three sacks while also recovering a fumble. Bosa upped his career total to 47 1/2 and moved into fifth on the franchise list, a half-sack ahead of Junior Seau.
Buffalo linebacker A.J. Klein was credited with a team-best 14 tackles and 1 1/2 sacks.
The Chargers, who also scored on Josh Kelley’s 1-yard plunge, were limited to two touchdowns and a field goal on five drives that crossed midfield. That included Kelley getting stopped on fourthand-1 at Buffalo’s 25 on the opening play of the fourth.
The final minute featured a comedy of errors in how the Chargers mismanaged the clock. They had the ball at the Buffalo 2 after Herbert completed a 55-yard pass to Tyron Johnson.
With no timeouts and the clock down to 25 seconds, the Chargers elected to run with Ekeler being stopped at the 1. The clock ran down to 6 seconds before Herbert threw an incompletion. The game ended with Herbert being stopped on a keeper up the middle.