Ten most shocking developments from NFL Week 10

Looking back at NFL Week 10, we saw more than a handful of surprises. Obviously, some were more shocking than others.

Which coaching legend botched an end of game sequence? Which two games supplied completely stunning endings to already thrilling games? Did Mike McCoy coach competently, despite his team losing?

We’ll answer those questions and more as we look into the 10 most shocking developments of NFL Week 10.

Bad play calling from Bill Belichick

When the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots played in Super Bowl XLIX, the end of the game left many scratching their heads. The stakes weren’t as high in Week 10, but the end of this one also left plenty of people confused.

Tom Brady twice tried a quarterback sneak. The first was reasonably successful. Unfortunately for New England, it started too far out to get to the end zone. The second QB sneak was a fumble that Brady was lucky to recover. In between those plays, LeGarrette Blount was stuffed on a dive. On fourth down, New England finally decided to get Rob Gronkowski involved, but the pass fell incomplete.

One quarterback sneak from Brady is fine. But the first one put Seattle on alert for a second. Blount had accounted for all three New England touchdowns, but he only got one chance. Gronkowski is maybe the most dominant tight end we’ve ever seen, but he only got one target. Martellus Bennett, who had a monster game, wasn’t targeted at all. Brady, arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history, threw only one pass.

Much like at the end of Super Bowl XLIX, we have to give credit to the team that won. Seattle played a great game and deserved the win. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out some mediocre play calling by the losing coach.

That’s rarely the case with Belichick.

Jaw dropping Cowboys vs. Steelers finish 

If the Dallas Cowboys vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game had ended at the two-minute warning, it would have been one of the season’s best games. Little did we know that these two teams were only getting warmed up.

An Ezekiel Elliott touchdown run put Dallas ahead on the first play after the two-minute warning. Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers back down the field. Pittsburgh went ahead when Big Ben channeled Dan Marino, faking a spike and throwing to Antonio Brown for the score (watch here).

Pittsburgh’s defense completely imploded from there. After the Steelers got away with grabbing Cole Beasley’s facemask, Sean Davis was flagged two plays later grabbing Jason Witten’s.

That put the Cowboys in range for a game winning field goal. That was rendered moot by Elliott’s third and final touchdown of the day (watch here).

It was a truly phenomenal sequence, ending one of the best regular season games we’ve seen in a while.

Broncos stun Saints on blocked PAT

Until the Dallas vs. Pittsburgh game unfolded, the Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints had the best game of the week. What a glorious few hours it was.

The two teams went back and forth. Drew Brees threw two interceptions but appeared to get the last laugh on the No Fly Zone on a 32-yard touchdown pass to Brandin Cooks — a glorified Hail Mary — with time running out in the fourth quarter.

Only a pesky extra point stood in the Saints’ way. It never happened.

Denver got a hand on the kick and returned it for two points (watch the whole sequence here).

Given the current rules, missed extra points are no longer rare. But everything needs to go wrong (or right, depending on your perspective) for that exact sequence to happen. The ball needs to bounce right to a player with speed. Denver caught a few extra breaks. It might have committed a penalty at the line and Will Parks might have stepped out of bounds.

The calls didn’t go that way, though.

The blocked PAT return has only been legal for two years now, but an ending like that has never happened. Don’t expect to see anything like that happen again any time soon.

Chargers lose close game, and it’s not Mike McCoy’s fault

San Diego lost its sixth game of the season on Sunday. All six losses have been decided by eight points or fewer. But this one was different. Coach Mike McCoy had his fingerprints all over the first five losses. In the Week 10 loss to the Miami Dolphins, the blame fell squarely onto the shoulders of another man — quarterback Philip Rivers.

Of course, one of those fourth quarter picks was Kiko Alonso’s game winner (watch here). That came with the Chargers in Dolphins’ territory, needing only a field goal to win.

Another interception came in the end zone on a second down pass that simply didn’t need to be thrown.

McCoy didn’t mess this game up. He put the game on the right shoulder of a potential Hall of Fame quarterback who, until that point, was having a fine day. Rivers just didn’t come through.

McCoy deserves a lot of blame for a frustrating season. Still, no coach can be faulted for what happened in Week 10.

Green Bay Packers’ defense no shows vs. Tennessee Titans

The Titans simply didn’t defeat the Packers — they utterly dismantled Green Bay.

In Week 10, the Titans racked up 446 yards of total offense. Six different Tennessee players scored a touchdown. Six!

The Packers looked like they simply didn’t care. The offense showed some spark but scored no points in the first or fourth quarters. When your opponent is putting 47 on the board, that’s not good enough.

Overall, the effort resembled what you’d see from the starters in a preseason game or even the Pro Bowl. We’d understand an effort like that from the San Francisco 49ers or Cleveland Browns. But a contending team? It’s unacceptable.

Technically, the Packers are a contending team. But with efforts like that, Green Bay and “contending team” don’t belong in the same sentence.

The Packers have made the playoffs every year since 2009. That’s tied with New England for the longest active streak in the NFL. Green Bay isn’t the league’s most talented team, but the Packers are generally well prepared and play hard.

Efforts like Sunday’s are shocking. But following the Packers in 2016, we can only call that par for the course. All things considered, that’s pretty surprising.

Kansas City Chiefs come back from 17-0 against Carolina Panthers

At one point, Carolina led Kansas City 17-0. At halftime and after three quarters, the Panthers were up 17-3. There was absolutely nothing happening to suggest that the Chiefs would win this game.

Really, they shouldn’t have. Alex Smith passed for only 178 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. Spencer Ware led Kansas City with 61 yards rushing and no touchdowns. In total, the Chiefs gained only 256 total yards from scrimmage and failed to score an offensive touchdown.

So, what happened?

A phenomenal pick-six from Eric Berry (watch here) and three Cairo Santos field goals squared the game.

Even with the game tied, Cam Newton had a chance to lead Carolina to a game winning field goal. It was not to be, though. Marcus Peters completely stole the ball from Kelvin Benjamin to set up Santos’ fourth and final field goal as time expired.

Blowing a 17-point lead is bad enough. But nobody on the Kansas City offense did anything noteworthy. This was just a pure choke from Newton, Benjamin, and the rest of the Panthers. Carolina isn’t the team it was last year but entered the week on a hot streak and absolutely needed this game.

The result wasn’t shocking, per se. The way it unfolded was.

Atlanta Falcons’ offense shut down by Philadelphia Eagles

Much like Kansas City over Carolina, the Eagles defeating the Falcons wasn’t outrageously surprising.

But holding Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, and the Atlanta offense to 15 points? If you honestly saw that one coming, then you should be buying lottery tickets.

Philadelphia’s defense completely dominated the Falcons’ offense. Atlanta picked up only 11 first downs in the game and controlled the ball for under 22 minutes.

One of the Falcons’ trademarks this year has been a balanced passing game. Of course, Jones is a big target. Even still, other receivers have been more than capable of making plays when Jones has been taken out of games.

Jones had a big game against the Eagles. He hauled in 10 passes for 135 yards. Taylor Gabriel went for 76 yards, though that all came on one touchdown pass (Atlanta’s only touchdown of the day). Aside from those 11 passes, though, Ryan completed only seven balls for 56 yards.

Philly winning could be predicted. But one of the NFL’s best offenses being so thoroughly dominated? That was shocking.

Kirk Cousins and Robert Kelley dominate Minnesota

Over their first five games (all wins), the Minnesota Vikings allowed less than 13 points per game. After losing to the Washington Redskins, it’s clear that things have changed.

Kirk Cousins picked Minnesota apart, going 22-for-33 for 262 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s a 110.9 passer rating, folks. Cousins is not a bad quarterback. But a defense as good as this should never surrender that kind of game to him.

As a point of reference, when the Vikings took on Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton — the NFL’s last two MVP’s — combined for a 59.3 rating.

As if that wasn’t surprising enough, Kelley, an undrafted rookie, ran wild on Minnesota. He carried the ball 22 times for 97 yards.

The Vikings surrendered a season high 26 points and fell to 5-4. Not that long ago, Minnesota was a mortal lock to win the NFC North. Now, the Vikings’ playoff chances only remain reasonably high because they are in a terrible division.

Minnesota has been slumping, so the loss wasn’t surprising. But the total breakdown from the defense certainly came out of nowhere.

Rams’ weird season continues

If you’re a Rams fan heading out to the Coliseum to see Los Angeles take on the Dolphins in Week 11, you have a responsibility. Get on your feet, scream, and just be as disruptive as you can to the offense…when the Rams have the ball.

https://twitter.com/MarkDulgerianOS/status/798001095226204160

Three field goals from Greg Zuerlein is all that the Rams got in Week 10 against the New York Jets. It was all that they needed.

Jeff Fisher finally figured out that having Case Keenum throw the ball roughly 50 times is not a sound strategy. Keenum threw only 30 passes, and while his stats were quite mediocre, he didn’t turn the ball over. Against the Bryce Petty-led Jets’ offense, that was more than enough.

Nothing about the Rams in 2016 adds up. No team should be more successful in games without a touchdown than with one. But here we are with more than half of the season out of the way, and the numbers don’t lie.

David Johnson rushes for 55 yards vs. San Francisco

The 49ers not only entered Week 10 on a seven-game losing streak but had surrendered 100 or more yards in all seven of those games — an NFL record.

David Johnson supplied one of those games, rushing for 157 yards when the Arizona Cardinals defeated San Francisco in Week 5. Given that the Week 10 rematch was in Arizona, Johnson would certainly add to the 49ers’ futility, right?

Yes and no. Johnson did score two touchdowns, picked up 101 yards from scrimmage. And he certainly helped the Cardinals win the game. But on the ground, Johnson picked up only 55 yards.

While Carson Palmer did attempt 49 passes, it wasn’t as though Arizona went away from the run. Johnson carried the ball 19 times. That may seem low, but San Francisco held him to less than three yards per carry. The run just wasn’t there.

Entering the game, a 200-yard performance from Johnson was not out of the question. Nothing — including Johnson breaking the single game rushing record — was out of the question. Instead, the Cardinals had to overcome a below-average game from Johnson to pull out a win.

If that doesn’t make any sense to you, join the club.