NFL Week Ten Winners and Losers

It was a fun-filled and memorable week ten. There was a game in Germany, coaches and players shed tears, a roller coaster matchup in Washington D.C. and a wild Sunday night game. Then there’s playoff implications for a lot of teams struggling to stay above .500. In an eventful weekend, here are the winners and losers.

Winners: Minnesota Vikings defense

Minnesota’s win in Jacksonville was brutal. Both offenses were awful and struggled to score. The Vikings stole a win thanks to their defense.

Defensive coordinator Brian Flores had the defense ready to confuse backup quarterback Mac Jones (more on him later) and shut down the Jaguars running game. The Viking defense had three sacks and two interceptions against Jones while running back Travis Etienne Jr.’s afternoon highlight was an 18 yard gain in the first quarter.

Minnesota has to fix the offense after a few ugly games, but the defense is getting head coach Kevin O’Connell needed wins to stay alive in the playoff race.

Russell Wilson

It’s been a long time since Russell Wilson was in the winners column. The 13 year veteran quarterback has been through a lot of challenges the last three years but is almost back to his elite form.

Sunday’s win in Washington gave viewers a taste of how coveted Wilson was in previous offseasons. He completed 14 of 28 passes for 195 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and a 93.6 passer rating. All three of his scores gave Pittsburgh a lead at some point in the game. His last passing touchdown went to new trade acquisition Mike Williams for 32 yards with two and a half minutes left in the game.

Wilson playing better football with an improving offensive line makes Pittsburgh one of the more dangerous teams in the AFC. They’ll be fun to watch the rest of the month if the offense keeps playing like they did against the Commanders.

Philadelphia Eagles offense

Any team playing Dallas the second half of the season is probably going to put up a lot of points and yards. However, Sunday’s win in Texas gives the Eagles offense more confidence heading into Thursday’s first divisional matchup against Washington.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts was the star of Sunday’s divisional beatdown. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 202 yards, two touchdowns, an interception and a 115 passer rating. Hurts also ran seven times for 56 yards and two scores. Philadelphia would’ve hit 40 points if head coach Nick Sirianni didn’t pull him in the fourth quarter.

Runningback Saquon Barkley didn’t have to do much with Hurts getting most of the points. He ran 14 times for 66 yards and caught a 12 yard pass. Sirianni also let him rest in the fourth quarter to make sure he gets more usage Thursday. Top receiver A.J. Brown had 109 yards on five catches and former first round pick Jahan Dotson is getting more game reps. The offense gets better and more dangerous every week. It’s quietly made Philadelphia the second best team in the NFC.

Sunday Night Football

The Lions and Texans might have played the best Sunday night football game anyone’s watched in the last year. Unlike other slotted primetime games (more on those later), Detroit versus Houston lived up to and surpassed expectations.

The Texans roared out to a 23-7 first half lead, catching the Lions off-guard. Star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown was held to two catches on three targets at halftime. Both quarterbacks threw seven combined interceptions, with Jared Goff throwing five (Goff threw a total of four the first nine weeks of the season). Defensive backs Carlton Davis and Kamari Lassiter had two interceptions each and the opposing defenses found ways to neutralize each offenses go-to receivers.

Detroit’s comeback started before Goff’s fourth interception. After getting their second touchdown of the game, the Lions missed the two point conversion. The defense made sure Houston’s offense never found rhythm in the second half and flustered sophomore quarterback C.J. Stroud IV. Detroit kicker Jake Bates had a game-tying and game-winning field goal that almost bounced off the goal uprights. Audiences won’t forget this game anytime soon.

Losers: Whoever is Jacksonville’s starting quarterback

There’s been a lot of criticism of Jaguars starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence for years. No matter what you think of how average he (at best) plays, Lawrence could have gotten Jacksonville their third win of the season if he started Sunday.

That honor went to fellow 2018 first round pick Mac Jones since Trevor Lawrence was out with what could be a season ending shoulder injury. Jones had a good start, giving the Jaguars a lead with a one yard touchdown run in the first quarter. It went downhill from there.

Jones barely threw over 100 yards and his two interceptions came at the worst time after Minnesota took the lead midway through the fourth quarter. He had a hard time finding open receivers and completed only one pass longer than 20 yards. Mac Jones isn’t a mobile threat either as he ran four other times for seven yards (outside of his touchdown run).

A lot of viewers wondered how Trevor Lawrence regressed after an epic playoff collapse against Los Angeles in early 2023. Watching Jacksonville play offense for four quarters yesterday showed it might be everything quarterback related and not just the injured starter.

Indianapolis Colts offense

Indianapolis is in the middle of the playoff race after getting back to .500. A big part of why was due to the offense playing better and the receivers improving each game with Joe Flacco at quarterback. Those days could be a distant memory after Sunday.

Flacco completed 26 of 35 passes for 272 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw three interceptions. His second touchdown was a meaningless ten yarder to Alec Pierce with eight seconds left in the game. Joe Flacco was a big reason the Colts lost against a better coached Bills team. Buffalo was more aggressive after cornerback Taron Johnson returned a 23 yard interception for a touchdown early in the game. After Indianapolis got their first lead in the second quarter, the offense couldn’t run out the clock to end the half. That meant Buffalo’s offense had one more chance to score. The Bills got a field goal as time expired.

Joe Flacco led the offense to three straight turnovers in the second half: a sack fumble, turnover on downs, and an interception. Buffalo got ten points off those turnovers and put the game out of reach before Indianapolis’ last score. Many will blame Joe Flacco for the loss, but offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter and head coach Shane Steichen should’ve made more changes after one of those second half turnovers.

Todd Bowles

It’s rare a veteran, Super Bowl winning coach gets unlucky twice in one week. Head coach Todd Bowles and the Buccaneers were dealt another deflating loss Sunday after playing for a tie.

Bowles probably had the right plan, but Chase McLaughlin’s 26 yard field goal on fourth and goal at San Francisco’s eight yard line left too much time on the clock for the 49ers offense. Quarterback Brock Purdy had a great game and San Francisco’s offense got a lot of yards throughout the afternoon. There was a good chance the 49ers could get a game winning score with 44 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Purdy did his best, throwing four passes for 39 yards in 34 seconds. Kicker Jake Moody made his only kick of the game for 44 yards. Tampa took their second loss in a row.

It’s worse knowing NFC south-leading Atlanta lost to a Saints team that fired their head coach last week. The Buccaneers have battled injuries throughout the season and now bad luck decisions from their head coach. Their bye week came at the best time.

Whoever scheduled the late afternoon games

There were complaints before the season began that Germany would be stuck with the worst game of the year in Giants versus Panthers. That matchup turned out to be decent compared to what U.S. audiences got late Sunday afternoon on CBS and FOX.

The most competitive game of the later afternoon trio was Tennessee at Los Angeles. The Titans offense had little chance of scoring more than ten points against one of the league’s best defenses, but it was close. Arizona and Philadelphia obliterated their opponents by halftime. While the Jets have quit on the season and their interim head coach, the Cowboys are one of the most inept teams to the point AT&T stadium blinds their own receivers when trying to score. The media made this a trending topic and several quotes from receiver CeeDee Lamb and owner Jerry Jones went viral.

After ten weeks of regular season action, one ponders why the league hasn’t flexed better games into the late afternoon spot. Denver v. Kansas City would’ve been a more thrilling matchup than watching gaffe-prone Will Levis and backup quarterback Cooper Rush get slapped around for three hours.