Week three of the NFL regular season featured many pivotal games. Most divisions are slowly showing which teams will stand out as playoff favorites before Halloween. While a lot of wins and plays stood out, some were more eye-opening than others. Here are this weeks winners and losers.
Winners: John Harbaugh
The Giants had as bad a week that any a team could have in week two. They were blown out on primetime last Monday night and lost their starting quarterback to a season-ending injury. Most teams would have caved in on a short week and played a similar type of game the following weekend. Big Blue was the opposite on Sunday.
Head coach John Harbaugh united the locker room on a short week and the Giants played a stellar defensive home game against Tennessee. While backup quarterback Jameis Winston completed 14 of 22 passes for a paltry 118 yards, he led the now-anemic offense to four scoring drives. New York’s defense held the Titans to seven points, less than 175 total yards and intercepted quarterback Malik Willis at the end of the game to seal a win.
The most impressive part of the Giants’ win Sunday afternoon was their special teams. Harbaugh is a former special teams coach and does his best work with kickers and returners. Kicker Dominic Zvada made all four of his field goal attempts and scored all of New York’s points. Punter Jordan Stout averaged 50 yards per punt, including a whopping 74 yarder early in the second quarter.
Not all of the Giants’ wins will be pretty this season under John Harbaugh, but New York desperately needed a response after last Monday night’s disaster. A solid performance by any side of the ball would have meant a lot. All three sides did more than enough for a win and to put the Giants back over .500.
Washington Commanders
Like their division rival New York, Washington was soundly embarrassed on primetime last week and lost their young, franchise star quarterback to injury. No one gave the Commanders a chance to beat the defending Super Bowl champions at home. The Seahawks were on a 12 game winning streak and had starting quarterback Sam Darnold back. Washington did not care.
The Commanders never trailed Sunday. After forcing a Jadarian Price fumble on the Seahawks’ second possession of the game, Washington ran through Seattle’s battered defense on four plays to score a touchdown. The Seahawks came back to tie the game early in the second quarter, but Washington’s offense then responded with a long scoring drive of their own.
It did not matter how well the Seahawks played. The Commanders capitalized off every mistake and didn’t let up. Washington forced three turnovers and got touchdowns after all of them. The Commanders converted 20 points from turnovers. This was the first game they scored 20 or more points off turnovers since Week 17 of the 2005 regular season. Washington also forced the Seahawks to commit a turnover on downs late in the second quarter.
Commanders head coach Dan Quinn is unfairly on the hot seat this season and an 0-2 start after week two made it warmer. Quinn, backup quarterback Marcus Mariota (who’s now 3-0 against Seattle) and an older Commanders defense had what could (or should be) their best game of their season. There is a lot to build off after Sunday’s win that will keep Washington relevant in the NFC East.
Talanoa Hufanga
Denver’s epic, comeback win on Sunday night will be one of the top games of the regular season, even if it was in week three. Although the Broncos offense had a sluggish start, they woke up in the second half and delivered. However, the offense would not have gotten the win if it wasn’t for the outstanding play of the defense led by safety Talanoa Hufanga.
Hufanga was on another level Sunday night. Signed by Denver last season, Talanoa Hufanga is one of the most underrated NFL safeties. If he stays healthy, he can go toe-to-toe with the best offenses. In a Sunday night home win versus Los Angeles, Hufanga recorded five tackles, one sack and two interceptions. His first one was returned for a touchdown and gave the Broncos their first lead of the game. His second pick was the last play of the game that sealed the stunning win.
The Denver defense has not been at the same elite level many have watched the last few seasons, but there are still valuable players who can turn a game around instantly. Talanoa Hufanga is one, and if the Broncos have aspirations to go back to the AFC championship game, they will need him at full health. Hufanga is more than capable of playing like this more often.
Losers: Joe Burrow
Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow is mostly an elite NFL passer. He has endured a lot of losses and lows despite reaching the Super Bowl and other meaningful highs in his six year career. There are also times when he’s the reason the Bengals have come up short and lost. Sunday was one of those times.
Burrow played a great road game Sunday. He completed 28 of 37 passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns. Joe Burrow kept Cincinnati in a divisional shootout game and did everything he was supposed to…except he committed a costly error on Cincinnati’s last possession of the game. Burrow fumbled the ball at mid-field and Pittsburgh recovered. Instead of the Bengals going for a game-winning score and cementing themselves as the best team in the AFC North, they lost and now every team in the division is tied at 2-1.
Joe Burrow is the Bengals best player, and he deserves heaps of praise. He also deserves a rightful amount of criticism. PFWA sports writer Scott Kacsmar found a fascinating statistic after the loss: Joe Burrow is 1-34 when (he and) the Bengals trail in the last eight minutes of an NFL game. We could say that’s on Cincinnati’s usually terrible defense, but 35 games seems an objective sample-size. Burrow’s supposed to be a clutch passer and franchise star under pressure. He is anything but when his team trails, and that’s an issue the team must address this season.
Houston Texans (specifically the defense)
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell gave us one of the best sports quotes this decade after his team lost to San Francisco back in the 2024 NFC championship game. After leading by double digits, San Francisco came back to win. Campbell knew the loss made the team look bad and told the media and players, “This might have been our only shot”. Everyone knows Campbell meant that one shot was to go to and win the Super Bowl. That’s the most accurate thing to think and talk about with this year’s Houston Texans.
Houston has never played well on the road in Indianapolis, but the Colts had not won a game in over ten months despite playing hard. The Texans had a wakeup call in a resounding loss against the Bengals in week two. One would expect more urgency in week three. That was not the case Sunday.
This is Houston’s second season starting 0-3 under head coach DeMeco Ryans. Last year, the defense played at a level many had not seen in the conference in almost a decade. This year feels different. The defense is not the same elite unit and struggles to create turnovers, shut down star receivers and keep opponents out of the endzone. Houston’s defense ended September with no interceptions, gave up 252.5 passing yards a game, 338 total yards a game and 37.5 points per game. That’s not an elite defense. That’s a defense teams like Chicago, Dallas and Detroit would covet and feel playoff hopes with.
There’s still a lot of time for the Texans to fix a lot of things on every side of the ball, but there are serious questions after a second straight sloppy start to the season for Houston. The defense should not have to fix a lot of the team’s issues, and the offensive line has to play better at the line of scrimmage. That might not happen given how a lot of teams were repeatedly told the Texans were Super Bowl caliber this season.
Tyler Shough
New Orleans has again enamored audiences by how competitive they play and how close they keep games no matter the opponent. At some point, the Saints offense must learn how to put opponents away late in the second half. That starts with sophomore starting quarterback Tyler Shough.
Shough completed 29 of 42 passes for 255 yards and four touchdowns. He looked like the best player on the field and was close to unstoppable. The undefeated Raiders’ defense struggled to get a read on Shough and couldn’t shake him mentally…until the fourth quarter.
A turnover-plagued fourth quarter allowed Las Vegas to get back into the game and steal a win in New Orleans. All of New Orleans’ possessions in the last quarter ended in turnovers. Three of those were on Tyler Shough.
The first one was a strip sack and recovery by defensive end Malcolm Koonce. The Raiders scored a touchdown and never trailed again after the turnover. The next possession, Shough was intercepted by cornerback Hezekiah Masses. Las Vegas scored another touchdown three plays later.
Tyler Shough wasn’t done though. This time it was safety Jeremy Chinn who forced a fumble the following possession and ended a four and a half minute drive. The recovery by cornerback Taron Johnson gave the Raiders the ball back for a minute, but the damage was done.
The NFC South will be a tight race all season and one or two wins could determine how early the division is won. If New Orleans doesn’t win the south, they can point to this game for why. Their offense, especially their starting quarterback, turned the ball over too many times instead of sealing an important home win.
