Eight notable NFL Week 7 winners and losers

Week 7 brought NFL fans some fantastic games that featured upsets, third quarter shutouts and some spectacular personal achievements.

Fueling the action were quarterback heroics, turnovers and plain bad play. Some teams held on to their undefeated status while other teams posted disappointing and unexpected losses.

Here are some of the notable winners and losers stemming from the Week 7 NFL action.

Loser: Colin Kaepernick clocks water boy in the head while 49ers put up stinker of a loss

The San Francisco 49ers lost terribly to the Seattle Seahawks 20-3 on Thursday Night Football with another pitiful performance by Colin Kaepernick and crew. Almost more embarrassing than throwing an interception, which was the one thing Kap avoided, he threw a wildly errant pass that clocked a water boy in the head causing medical staff to attend to him.

The pass was intended for Anquan Boldin who upon review, was not standing well off the sidelines hanging out with the staff.

Kaepernick completed only 13-of-24 passes for 124 yards and could not score a touchdowns to save his life. Along the drawn-out losing process, he endured six sacks and achieved a 68.8 passer rating. And even when the 49ers intercepted Russell Wilson twice, rewarding the offense with two additional opportunities to possess the ball, the team flushed those chances down the toilet.

Along with Kaepernick’s horrible performance, the 49ers absolutely failed on the ground. Carlos Hyde and Reggie Bush managed a lame total of only 61 yards on 15 attempts against Seattle’s 22nd-ranked rush defense.

After watching the 49ers perform adequately the past two weeks, posting another blowout loss unfortunately erases any good we remember. Thankfully, Seattle took the classy route this time around and didn’t pig out on a buffet spread in the middle of Levi’s Stadium to celebrate their win.

Winner: Jacksonville Jaguars thrive on London time

In what most would consider an upset, the Jacksonville Jaguars pulled off their second win of the season in Sunday’s London game against the Buffalo Bills, 34-31, largely due to the poor play of E.J. Manuel.

Manuel made Jacksonville’s middling defense look spectacular on two back-to-back scoring turnovers. The action went down in the second quarter when first Manuel took a sack by Aaron Colvin, which caused a fumble that was recovered by Chris Clemons for a six-yard return touchdown. Then, just seven seconds later, Manuel threw a pick-six into the hands of Telvin Smith on a pass intended for Robert Woods.

After Manuel’s two bumbles, the Jaguars led 21-3. The Bills ended up making the game quite competitive by piling up the points to eventually assume a 31-27 lead over Jacksonville. Unfortunately, their efforts were not quite enough because Blake Bortles finished them off with an awesome touchdown pass to Allen Hurns with just a couple of moments left in the game.

At least fans at Wembley Stadium got their money’s worth in a high-scoring, competitive win for Jacksonville for which we can credit the defense for feasting on the inept play of Manuel.

Loser: Andrew Luck finally wakes up late third quarter

The New Orleans Saints should have been an easy target, featuring the 31st-ranked defense in the league. But Andrew Luck and company remained quiet until late in the third quarter when the quarterback finally connected with T.Y. Hilton on a 87-yard touchdown.

Prior to Hilton’s score, the Saints led 27-0, which made the Colts the only team at that point in the day to be looking at a shutout. Folks who owned Luck in fantasy football were probably throwing shoes and whatever else was handy at their television set until his first score. Luck finally woke up, and the Colts made a commendable effort to catch up scoring a total of 21 points while the Saints went conservative with the lead.

At the end of the day, Luck completed only 52 percent of his passes for 333 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. It’s quite clear, with three losses compared to only one win this season, that he is not performing anywhere near his elite standards.

With the Colts only at 3-4, the AFC south for the first time since Luck’s tenure is still easily up for grabs.

Winner: Those two people who started Nate Washington in daily fantasy leagues

For those couple of people who had the insight to start the 32-year old dinged-up receiver in daily fantasy football leagues as an ultra cheap option, he rewarded in a major way — even if it came by way of garbage time points.

For once, DeAndre Hopkins, with his lousy 50 yards and zero touchdowns, was not the Texans wide receiver to score big in fantasy football. Washington was targeted 16 times, resulting in nine receptions for 127 yards and two touchdowns. Say what?

Surely those who spent top dollar investing in Hopkins were beyond frustrated with his sudden drop in production while the Washington stole the show. However, that’s just the way things go in fantasy football, and we know that NFL players do not care if they destroy or boost your fantasy team.

Loser: Dallas Cowboys broken until Tony Romo and Dez Bryant return 

The Dallas Cowboys are desperately trying to keep their sinking team afloat while starters Tony Romo and Dez Bryant remain sidelined nursing injuries.

Unfortunately, the team’s current position is nowhere near as pretty as it was last year. The ‘Boys have sunk to the bottom of their division with only two wins.

The experiment to start Matt Cassel over Brandon Weeden in Week 7 against their NFC east rival New York Giants ended in failure. Cassel was underwhelming and turned the ball over three times, scoring only one touchdown. One of Cassel’s interceptions was a pick six-right into the hands of Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who returned the catch for a 58-yard score.

One bright star in the Cowboys offense was Darren McFadden, who took over for starter Joseph Randle after he departed the game with a sore back. McFadden piled up 152 yards and one touchdown, but it wasn’t enough to make up for his careless quarterback’s mistakes.

Overall, the Cowboys were dominated by a successful Giants secondary and special team’s unit that produced a 100-yard return score by former Cowboy, Dwayne Harris, of all folks.

It’s a sad situation for Dallas, which has lost four games in a row without much hope of turning things around until Romo returns, hopefully in Week 11.

Winner: Lamar Miller makes everyone forget about Devonta Freeman 

It was Miller time all day long in Miami against the struggling Houston Texans. Houston’s defense had no answer for Miller, who tallied 236 total yards and two touchdowns by halftime.

Of Miller’s 236 yards, 175 came from the ground. Interestingly though, Miller became nearly invisible in the second half. This was likely due to the fact that Miami had the Texans completely shut out until well into the third quarter. Just imagine the numbers Miller would have finished the day with had he been given any second-half opportunities.

With the fantasy football world abuzz about Miller’s magnificent performance, he’ll be the NFL running back everyone talks about around the water cooler on Monday morning.

Loser: What is wrong with the San Diego Chargers?

The San Diego Chargers suffered a humiliating home loss to their divisional rival Oakland Raiders, 37-29.

At one point towards the end of the second quarter the Chargers trailed 30-3. Fortunately, they closed the gap, but it just wasn’t enough to keep up with the Raiders offense and stout secondary that maintained the upper hand against Philip Rivers.

Rivers put up plenty of yardage — 336 yards, to be exact — to add to his NFL-leading passing yards mark. Unfortunately, his two interceptions didn’t help matters.

San Diego’s struggles are troubling considering they have the NFL’s top passer and leader in receptions with Keenan Allen, who has been averaging 8.6 catches per game. Unfortunately, much of the team’s struggles to win are attributed to the Chargers 30th-ranked defense that has only managed seven total takeaways all season.

As a result of yet another loss, the 2-5 Chargers now sit tied at the bottom of their division with the Kansas City Chiefs, who just beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Winner: Tom Brady scores dive-in touchdown while Patriots remain undefeated 

The New England Patriots had to fight the New York Jets tooth and nail to remain undefeated in Sunday’s 30-23 victory at Gillette Stadium.

One of the most notable scores for the Patriots was when Brady put his 6-foot-4 stature to use, diving into the end zone to score this touchdown.

It’s not often that the veteran takes to such measures to score, though he usually is successful, but his gamble paid off. Fortunately Brady was not damaged in the process of being buried under the dog pile.

The big win for the Patriots didn’t come easy and the team was actually was behind twice, having to score to keep up.

Against the best defense in the NFL, Brady was too good, passing for 355 yards, two passing touchdowns and zero interceptions. And the game-sealing touchdown pass to a wide open Rob Gronkowski with only a moment left on the clock finally tipped the game in their favor for good.

The victory for the Patriots now distances them two games ahead of the Jets in the AFC East.