Week 10 of the NFL season acted as somewhat of a separation between contenders and pretenders. We saw the New Orleans Saints impose their will over a previously 5-3 Buffalo Bills team in Western New York Sunday afternoon. It’s in this that the Saints — winners of seven consecutive games — have proven themselves to be legit contenders.
At the very same time, the Minnesota Vikings relied on a scoring onslaught in the first half to outlast the Washington Redskins. Now at 7-2 on the season, Minnesota seems rather legit. Meanwhile, the Redskins themselves are now under .500.
Then, in the late afternoon slate, the Atlanta Falcons rode an elite-level pass rush to a 20-point home victory over the Dallas Cowboys. It’s a huge conference win for a Falcons team that was struggling big time heading in. For Dallas, its first game without Ezekiel Elliott could not have gone worse.
These are among the top takeaways for Sunday’s Week 10 NFL action.
The Saints are a well-oiled machine
It might be time to take this New Orleans Saints team seriously. They went into Buffalo on Sunday — facing a winning Bills squad — and absolutely laid the hammer down. The game wasn’t necessarily close from the outset, with New Orleans opening up a 17-3 halftime lead before turning it into a blowout in the third quarter. New Orleans eventually outscored Buffalo 30-7 in the second half, forcing the Bills to bench Tyrod Taylor in the process.
For a team that has in the past relied on Drew Brees to mask issues in the rushing game and on defense, things have turned dramatically in 2017. New Orleans ran the ball a whopping 48 times, going for 298 yards on the ground in the process.
Both Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara netted 100-plus rushing yards against a Bills defense that entered Sunday’s action in the top eight of the NFL stopping the run. Meanwhile, Brees attempted just 25 passes. On defense, New Orleans held the Bills to 129 net passing yards and 2-of-11 on third-down conversions. Now winners of seven consecutive games, it really is time to take this Saints team seriously.
Vikings fend off Skins comeback, move to 7-2
With Teddy Bridgewater active for an NFL game for the first time since January 2016, he watched from the sideline as Case Keenum and Co. took off big time early against Washington. Keenum threw three first half touchdowns to lead the Vikings to a 28-17 halftime lead. He would then add another score in the third to seemingly put the game away.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, that 15-point lead heading into the fourth quarter would not hold up. By virtue of two Keenum interceptions, the Redskins pulled this game to within eight points. That’s when the Vikings relied on a surprisingly good ground attack, melting the clock on a 13-play, 40-yard field goal drive to put the team up by 11 again.
It’s this type of hard-nose football that has come to define the now 7-2 Vikings under head coach Mike Zimmer. Whether Keenum remains under center or Teddy ultimately takes over for him remains to be seen. But with both Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray performing well on the ground and a dominant defense, this team is legit. Sunday’s hard-fought effort magnified this to a T.
It has to be over for Ben McAdoo
The San Francisco 49ers entered Sunday’s action having won two of their past 25 games. They were 0-9 on the season with their last three losses coming by a combined 63 points. San Francisco had not won a game against a team other than the Rams since December of 2015. So it makes sense that they would absolutely impose their will against a team that won 11 games last season, right?
Well, that 11-win team from 2016 is none other than the New York Giants. McAdoo’s squad entered Sunday’s action with a 1-7 mark and was embroiled in some in-house bickering. The Giants ended Sunday’s game with a 31-21 loss in a game that was nowhere near as close as the final score indicated. If it weren’t for a garbage-time touchdown, New York would have fallen by 18 points to a winless squad.
Clearly already on the hot seat, there’s really no reason to believe McAdoo will end Monday as the Giants’ head coach. Here’s a team that yielded 474 yards to the 49ers. This also comes a week after New York was humiliated by the Los Angeles Rams by the score of 51-17. In no way should this be acceptable. There was no real fight on the Giants’ side after they fell down for good in the third quarter. And it’s obvious most players have no real interest in McAdoo continuing as head coach. He should most definitely be shown his walking papers here soon.
Steelers overcome slow start, win fourth consecutive
The Pittsburgh Steelers let Jacoby Brissett and the Indianapolis Colts tear their defense apart early in Sunday’s game. Including a long touchdown pass to Donte Muncrief, Brissett completed 12 of his first 15 passes. It led to a 17-3 Colts led early in the third quarter. That’s when Pittsburgh finally woke up.
Pittsburgh responded immediately with a seven-yard scoring strike from Ben Roethlisberger to rookie phenom JuJu Smith-Schuster to pull the game within eight. Defensively, Pittsburgh forced four punts and an interception in the Colts’ final five drives, the interception itself leading to a Le’Veon Bell touchdown run. Pittsburgh would then put up the game-winning field goal scoring drive to come out on top, 20-17.
It was in no way a pretty game for Big Ben and Co. But in the end, Pittsburgh found a way to win its fourth consecutive game and now finds itself three games up in the AFC North. After how the season started, that’s a pretty amazing accomplishment in and of itself.
Vontaze Burfict’s reputation burns Bengals
Whether we think Burfict should have been ejected Sunday really isn’t the point here. He has a reputation for being a dirty player, and that came out in droves Sunday against the Titans. The Pro Bowler was ejected after making contact with an official — his second personal foul of the game. And once he was seen leaving the field, the linebacker didn’t necessarily seem too bent out of shape after letting his team down.
This is important to note, primarily because Cincinnati was in the midst of a tight battle with its playoff hopes on the line. With Burfict out of action, Marcus Mariota led the Titans on a game-winning 12-play, 73-yard touchdown scoring drive. It culminated in this pass from Mariota to DeMarco Murray. To say that the linebacker could have served his team well in that final drive would be an understatement. Instead, he was in the locker room as the Titans came out on top by the score of 24-20 — sending the Bengals to their sixth loss in nine games.
Broncos’ special teams unravel
At this point, we have to conclude that Denver has fallen victim to Murphy’s Law. Whatever could go wrong this season has gone wrong. That was on full display Sunday night against the defending champion Patriots. The stats will tell us a story of a Broncos team that hung in pretty well. They put up just 57 less yards than the Pats. Denver also controlled the ball for nearly the same amount of time.
But none of that really maters. Four horrible special teams mistakes led to the Broncos losing for the fifth consecutive time. It started with a muffed punt early in the first quarter, netting the Pats their first touchdown of the game.
Denver then allowed Dion Lewis to return a kickoff 103 yards for a score later in the opening stanza (watch here). Later in the first half, Denver would have a punt blocked. This resulted directly in a field goal for Tom Brady and Co.
Then, in the fourth quarter, the Broncos’ special teams was penalized for having 12 men on the field during a New England punt. It gave the Pats a first down, ultimately leading to yet another touchdown.
In a game that the Patriots won by the score of 41-16, these four plays handed the defending champs 24 points. And they pretty much ended Denver’s season in the process.
John Fox screws the pooch
Fox just finds new ways to mess up. On Sunday, with the Bears in a tight battle against the Packers, Fox pulled yet another bush league decision out of his back end.
With Chicago trailing 14-7 in the second quarter, Mitchell Trubisky hit Benny Cunningham on what looked to be a game-tying touchdown pass. Though, officials called Cunningham out of bounds prior to reaching the end zone. That’s when Fox went all John Fox on us.
The head coach decided to challenge whether Cunningham was out of bounds. Unfortanately, the replay clearly showed that Chicago’s running back was in fact in bounds when he fumbled the ball prior to hitting the pylon. Instead of the Bears having first and goal, it was called a touchback.
Rightfully so, social media ripped Fox for this absurd challenge. And in a game that Chicago lost by just seven points, this was a major turning point. When is the Bears’ brass finally going to come to the realization Fox is not the answer here? This one decision should be the final nail in the coffin of Fox’s career in Chicago.
Rams enter NFC’s elite
For a while there, it sure looked like the Rams were going to let a bad Houston Texans team hang in on Sunday in Los Angeles. Prior to a field goal at the end of the first half, Houston actually held a 7-6 lead. At 6-2 on the season heading into Week 10, some were still wondering if Los Angeles was for real. Well, after an uneventful first half, that question was answered in a big way.
Los Angeles outscored Houston 24-0 in the second half, putting up nearly 300 total yards in the process. In the third quarter alone, second-year quarterback Jared Goff connected on touchdown passes of 12, 17 and 94 yards, the last of which was this long strike to Robert Woods.
Defensively in the second half, Wade Phillips’ unit forced four punts and two turnovers in six Texans’ drives. That very same span saw Houston rack up a grand total of 102 yards. Now at 7-2 on the season, Los Angeles is tied for the second-best record in the NFL. It has racked up 30-plus points six times on the season and ranks No. 1 in the NFL in scoring at nearly 33 points per game. This team is legit. It’s on the verge of becoming elite.
Brett Hundley grows up in front of our eyes
It might not be enough to lead his Green Bay Packers to the playoffs. But for the first time in his short NFL career, Hundley looked like a viable starter-caliber quarterback in the NFL. It came on Sunday against the Chicago Bears with Green Bay mired in a three-game losing streak.
Hundley completed 18-of-25 passes for 212 yards without a single interception. He also threw this magnificent 19-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams in the fourth quarter to make it a two-score game. In the end, Green Bay took care of business by the score of 23-16.
This should give the Packers some confidence that the remainder of their season isn’t going to be doom and gloom with Aaron Rodgers out for the duration. At the very least, this UCLA product showed himself in a big way on the road against a surprisingly good Bears defense. That’s not bad at all.
Cowboys offensive line suddenly a mess
For the past couple seasons, there was no real question whether Dallas boasted the best offensive line in the NFL. With three All-Pro performers and a dominant run game, this is what made the Cowboys’ engine go. For many reasons — the absences of Ezekiel Elliott and Tyron Smith included — that was most definitely not the case Sunday against Atlanta.
Playing without Elliott for the first time in his career, Dak Prescott was sacked a whopping eight times. For comparison’s sake, Prescott was sacked 10 times in his first eight starts this season. For the most part, it was Adrian Clayborn absolutely taking advantage of Chaz Green being tasked to replace Smith at left tackle. Clayborn finished the game with six sacks, forcing Troy Aikman to conclude that he’s never seen anything like it.
All of this led to Dallas falling by the score of 27-7 in a game it had to win in order to even remain viable in the NFC East race with the 8-1 Philadelphia Eagles. Now, with a game coming up against these very same Eagles, the Cowboys are in a do-or-die situation. Unfortunately the team sits at 5-4 and won’t have Elliott back in the mix for the next five games. Ouch.
Jaguars do everything to lose, still win
The Los Angeles Chargers of yesteryear came back in a big way Sunday in Jacksonville. With the Jaguars doing everything possible to lose the game, most figured that Los Angeles would ultimately come out on top for their fourth win in five games. After all, Blake Bortles threw two consecutive interceptions with his team down by three late in the fourth quarter. The Jaguars also would end up committing three dumb 15-yard penalties from the fourth quarter on. Even then, somehow, the Chargers found a way to lose this game.
It started with Los Angeles looking to kill the clock after Bortles’ first interception with just under two minutes remaining in regulation. That’s when Chargers running back Austin Ekeler fumbled in the most Chargers way possible. Even then, Bortles next interception seemingly ended the game. But after a Chargers three-and-out, Bortles led Jacksonville into field goal range with help of a personal foul roughing the passer penalty on Joey Bosa. Former Chargers kicker Josh Lambo then tied the game up to force overtime.
Then, in that extra stanza, the Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers threw this interception into the waiting hands of Jags corner A.J. Bouye, setting Jacksonville up for the game-winning field goal. It was a game full of errors, laughable performances and complete ineptitude. But the Jags find themselves at 6-3 on the season while the Chargers fell to 3-6.
Browns gonna Brown
Cleveland was up 10-0 early in this one. It held the lead three different times. But in the end, the team simply couldn’t take care of business on the road against the Detroit Lions. It started with head coach Hue Jackson making a mockery of a decision late in the second quarter, leading directly to a missed touchdown opportunity and a 17-10 Browns deficit heading into the half.
But that wasn’t the extent of it. Cleveland would go on to put up two consecutive 80-plus yard touchdown drives to open the second half, finding itself up 24-17 late in the third quarter. That’s when the team’s defense simply failed to do anything of substance. Detroit scored touchdowns on three of its final four drives, racking up 180 total yards in the process. And with DeShone Kizer sidelined to injury, backup Cody Kessler couldn’t get anything done.
By virtue of Sunday’s 38-24 loss to Detroit, the Browns find themselves at 0-9 on the season and are 1-24 under Mr. Jackson. For a guy that’s so sick and tired of losing, Jackson sure has seen a lot of that during his brief career in Cleveland. And more so than any previous game the past two seasons, Sunday’s loss represented this Jackson-led Browns squad to a T.
Titans, Jaguars atop the AFC South
The race in this division promises to be pretty darn exciting heading down the stretch. More figured the winner of the AFC South would struggle to turn in a .500 record this season. Through 10 weeks, we’re likely looking at said winner putting up 10-plus victories. Following narrow wins on Sunday, the Titans and Jaguars sit at 6-3 and are in a tie for first place.
We covered Jacksonville’s uneven win over the Chargers a bit above. Here, the focus has to be on a Titans squad that’s doing just enough to win. It took a game-winning touchdown drive in the final minute for the Titans to come out on top against Cincinnati, 24-20. It’s the team’s third consecutive win by four points or less. And the fourth time Tennessee has won by one score this season.
This specific game saw Tennessee put up 27 first downs and north of 400 total yards of offense. DeMarco Murray tallied three total scores, including the game-winner in the final minute. But there’s definitely still some issues with consistency. Tennessee turned the ball over twice. The first one — a Marcus Mariota interception — led directly to a Bengals touchdown. Then, early in the fourth quarter, the Titans fumbled deep in Cincinnati’s end of the field.
Issues like this might not hurt against a bad team, but the Titans must clean things up moving forward if they want to win a surprisingly competitive AFC South. That’s for sure.
What parity?
Following Sunday’s Week 10 action, six different teams find themselves at 7-2 or better on the season. A total of 11 teams have posted at least six wins. On the other end of the ledger, 10 teams have three wins or fewer heading into Week 11.
This tells us a story of a season that will more likely than not be defined primarily by excellent playoff football. Look at the NFC as a case study here. Philadelphia sits atop the pack with an 8-1 record. The other three division leaders (New Orleans, Minnesota and Los Angeles) are all 7-2. As of now, Carolina and Seattle would earn the two wild card spots in the NFC. Each enter Monday with 6-3 records.
New England and Pittsburgh are tied atop the AFC with 7-2 marks. Three other teams (Tennessee, Jacksonville and Kansas City) each find themselves just one game back. It might make for some ho-hum playoff races, but the expectation here is that top seeds won’t be decided until late in the season.