Never in the 103-year history of the NFL have five games been decided by winning field goals on the same Sunday.
But it happened this week, with the Cardinals, Browns, Lions, Texans and Seahawks winning on field goals at the buzzer. Notably, 10 of 13 games in Week 10 were decided by one score or less, and to date, nearly 70 percent of games this season have been within eight points.
In other news, the story of Josh Dobbs adds a new chapter. The Steelers keep winning, the Packers keep losing. Dan Campbell’s Lions are 7-2. The Cowboys did what they’ve done most of the season: they defeated a bad team, beating the Giants 49-17, while Deshaun Watson had the time of his life as Brown.
The Patriots disaster is getting worse and serious questions are being raised about Bill Belichick’s future.
DeMeco Ryans’ Texans look real. And after a long, long time away, Kyler Murray is officially back and making highlight-reel plays again.
Here’s what stood out from NFL Week 10:
Josh Dobbs for Most Valuable Player?
Kidding.
Something like.
The Vikings are having the strangest season in football: They started 0-3, lost their franchise quarterback of the year, have been without their All-Pro wide receiver for a month, and yet somehow, they’ve won five in a row.
Josh Dobbs began Sunday by appearing at US Bank Stadium and needed instructions from a stadium employee on how to get to the home locker room. (In his defense, he had never been there before). It ended with his second straight win as Vikings quarterback and, remember, he’s been with the team all 12 days. Twelve days! Dobbs’ 312 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns were enough in Minnesota’s 27-19 victory against New Orleans.
Josh Dobbs didn’t know where the Vikings home locker room was 😂😅 pic.twitter.com/UiC1mgC1FW
– FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) November 12, 2023
“This is fun,” he said after the game. It’s hard to blame him. A surprise move at the trade deadline is paying off big for a Minnesota team that’s suddenly back in the NFC North race.
Dobbs’ 7-yard touchdown run in the second quarter might have been the biggest play of the game, a highlight reel that he somehow turned into six points. So far, Dobbs has 426 passing yards, 110 rushing yards and no interceptions in his first two starts with the Vikings, becoming the first player in NFL history with at least 400 passing yards, 100 rushing yards and no interceptions in his first two games with a team.
Tight end TJ Hockenson was incredible for the Vikings, catching 11 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown. A season that seemed doomed suddenly takes on new life, with wide receiver Justin Jefferson set to return, potentially as soon as next week. With the Broncos and Bears up next, the Vikings (6-4) could very well keep winning and push the Lions (7-2) in the division race.
Meanwhile, the Saints fell to 5-5. Quarterback Derek Carr left the game with a concussion and right shoulder injury; Backup Jameis Winston came in and threw two touchdowns to get New Orleans within one score, but two interceptions followed.
GO DEEPER
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Patriots stumble on 23-year-old
Since his first year in New England back in 2000, Bill Belichick hasn’t faced serious questions about his job security. Six championships and a two-decade streak of unprecedented success will do it.
But after Sunday’s ugly 10-6 loss to the Colts in Germany (one owner of the game, Robert Kraft, was not shy about bragging about how badly he wanted to win), it’s fair to wonder how this all ends for one of the best coaches in the game.
Because every week it seems to get worse.
“We’re all disappointed with the season,” Belichick said glamorously after the game.
And now, his players are being asked if they believe in him, something that would have been unthinkable just a year ago. But Sunday’s loss left the Patriots with a 2-8 record, their worst start to a season since Belichick’s first in New England. The team is on pace to earn its first top-five pick since 1994.
“I have as much faith in Bill Belichick as I ever have,” said veteran special teams ace Matthew Slater.
The results just aren’t there this season. The Patriots are among the worst teams in football. They are averaging 14.1 points per game, the second fewest in the league. They have failed to score a touchdown in three games this year, including Sunday, and Mac Jones threw an incomprehensible interception in the red zone in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead. Belichick then benched Jones for backup Bailey Zappe, who threw another missed interception to seal the loss. Appropriate.
It appears the Patriots’ confidence in Jones has evaporated.
It remains to be seen if they feel the same way about their legendary coach.
Despite his decades of success, questions about Bill Belichick’s future continue to mount. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA Today)
‘Ice in his veins’
After playing error-free football for most of three quarters, with his team up 10 points on the road against a Super Bowl contender, CJ Stroud finally broke down. The Texans’ rookie quarterback threw a terrible, ill-timed interception late in the fourth quarter in Cincinnati, and for a moment, it looked like he was going to be the spark the Bengals needed for an impressive fourth-quarter comeback.
On the bench, Stroud approached his coach, DeMeco Ryans, and left him three words.
“I understand you.”
Translation: I’ll make it up to you.
Ryans nodded.
“I trust you,” the coach said.
It’s good that he did it. Stroud was right. Even after the Texans’ 10-point lead disappeared and a rowdy crowd at Paycor Stadium began to think about a comeback, the rookie was unfazed. With just 93 seconds left and a timeout, Stroud calmly led his team down the field in five plays to set up a game-winning 38-yard field goal by a kicker, Matt Ammendola, who had been on the roster all five days. . .
It doesn’t matter. Texans 30, Bengals 27.
Suddenly, Houston has won four of five (its resurgence was fueled by the influence of Ryans and the rapid rise of Stroud) and the Bengals’ five-game winning streak is over.
“Ice in his veins, that’s all I’ll say,” Texans cornerback Shaquil Griffin said, referring to Stroud, who has now led two game-winning drives in as many weeks. “For a guy to make a mistake like that and immediately tell his coach, ‘Give me the game back,’ and then go out and win? He is a guy I can fight any day of the week.”
In nine games, Stroud has thrown for 2,626 yards, the third-most by a rookie in that span in history, behind only Justin Herbert (2020) and Andrew Luck (2012).
49ers’ losing streak is history
Something had to give in Jacksonville on Sunday: Two teams, each coming off their bye, came in on very different streaks. The Jaguars had won five straight, moving to the top of the AFC South, while the 49ers (once a perfect 5-0) were coming off three straight losses and faced questions about quarterback Brock Purdy and a defense that suddenly it didn’t look at all. How intimidating.
San Francisco silenced those concerns Sunday with the kind of dominant performance this team had become accustomed to in the first month of the season. This was the 49ers looking like the 49ers again, defeating the Jags 34-3, reminding everyone that they are still contenders for the Super Bowl in February, three-game losing streak or not.
Purdy was alert, throwing for 296 yards and three touchdowns in three quarters of work; Deebo Samuel scored a touchdown in his first game in a month, and the defense intercepted Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence twice. The only bad news: Christian McCaffrey’s touchdown streak ended at 17 games. It remains tied for the longest time in league history.
Along with the Eagles, the 49ers remain one of the top contenders in the NFC. Sunday reminded us why.
Deebo Samuel averaged more than eight yards per touch on Sunday in his first action since Week 6. (David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The browns put out their own fire
For stretches Sunday in Baltimore, Deshaun Watson was simply awful. In the first quarter, the Browns’ $230 million quarterback went 1-for-9 for 19 yards, a pick-six and a 0.0 passer rating. Oh. He finished the half a dismal 6-of-20 for 79 yards and no touchdowns. Go again.
But by game’s end, he had engineered his best comeback of his short tenure in Cleveland, leading the Browns from a 15-point deficit to a 33-31 victory against their division rivals.
Watson finished the second half going 14 of 14 for 134 yards and a touchdown. And after kicker Dustin Hopkins missed an extra point that would have tied the score midway through the fourth quarter, he got a bit of redemption as time expired by kicking a 40-yard field goal for the win.
“I feel a little bit like an arsonist who puts out his own fire and then gets a pat on the back,” Hopkins said after the game.
And so a murky division becomes murkier. It’s a costly loss for the Ravens, who led for most of the game and led 31-17 early in the fourth quarter. With Pittsburgh also winning on Sunday, the AFC’s toughest division is even more tightly packed. The AFC North now looks like this: Baltimore still leads at 7-3, but the Steelers and Browns are just a half-game behind at 6-3, and the Bengals are lurking at 5-4.
Just what the Cardinals needed
Welcome back, Kyler Murray.
The Cardinals starter told his new coach, Jonathan Gannon, to “let me ride” in his first game in 335 days. Murray tore his ACL last season and was making his first start of 2023.
It turned out memorable.
After the Falcons took a 23-22 lead with 2:33 remaining, Murray orchestrated an 11-play, 70-yard drive that culminated with a 23-yard Matt Prater field goal to win, 25-23. Murray’s 13-yard run (this was classic, with the quarterback probably running about 40 yards total to evade defenders in the backfield) and 33-yard connection with tight end Trey McBride were instrumental in set up Prater’s winning kick.
Murray finished 19 of 32 for 249 passing yards, one rushing touchdown and one interception. Arizona has its second win of the season and its six-game losing streak is over.
After starting 2-0, the Falcons hit a wall midseason, falling to 4-5 on the year after losing four of their last five.
(Top photo by Josh Dobbs: Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
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