Just as we expected, the Bills beat the Titans, the Browns beat the Ravens, the Jets beat the Broncos and the Lions beat the Packers on Sunday.
Sunday’s NFL games ranked in order of their surprising outcomes
Another week in the NFL taught us to expect the unexpected. And there are no winless teams remaining!
Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
Wait a minute. We didn’t expect any of that. That was all part of a wild Week 5 in the NFL that kept fans on their toes all day long. Let’s review each game, in order of how surprising the outcomes were on Sunday.
Bills: 13, Titans: 12
The Bills now have two wins. Sunday’s win over the Titans was a great defensive effort for Buffalo, forcing three fumbles and an interception. Josh Allen had just 82 passing yards. Yet, the Bills won.
Browns: 12, Ravens: 9
The Browns won on a Sunday for the first time in more than 1,000 days, in their third overtime game this year. It looks like the Browns are gunning for some kind of weird overtime appearance record. Cleveland notched its first division win since beating the Ravens 33-30 in Week 5 of the 2015 season.
Lions: 31, Packers: 23
The NFC North is a weird place as the Bears are in first with three wins and didn’t even play this week, while all three of the division’s other teams have two wins each. Poor Mason Crosby missed four field goals and an extra point for the Packers on Sunday. Those points could have been the difference in this Packers loss.
Jets: 34, Broncos: 16
The Jets either win big or lose big. There seems to be no in between. On Sunday it was a dominant win over the Broncos in which Isaiah Crowell had 219 rushing yards and a touchdown, along with 12 receiving yards. He set a franchise single-game record for rushing yards. Todd Bowles effectively shifted the hottest hot seat talk off himself and onto Vance Joseph.
The Cardinals got their first win of the year, and now the NFL has no winless teams. As if the 49ers didn’t have enough injury issues, running back Matt Breida may miss some time with an ankle injury.
Is it time for the Eagles to hit the panic button? Only one of the seven teams who won a Super Bowl and went on to start a season 2-3 made the playoffs that season. The Eagles’ run game is struggling as Jay Ajayi was Philly’s leading rusher on Sunday, despite recording just 29 yards on the ground.
The Giants were so close to their second win of the season but an unbelievable 63-yard field goal from Graham Gano gave the Panthers a last-second win over New York. Meanwhile, Odell Beckham Jr. has been busy discussing the Giants’ issues. And, head coach Pat Shurmur has no time for that.
The Bengals were trailing 17-0 in the third quarter before scoring 27 unanswered points, including two defensive touchdowns. The Bengals rookies stepped up in a big way as second round pick Jessie Bates had an interception on Ryan Tannehill and third-round pick Sam Hubbard had a fumble recovery that went for a touchdown. Michael Johnson also scored his first pick six, which came in his 10th NFL season.
The Chiefs remain undefeated but the Jaguars certainly did slow down the Patrick Mahomes show. The Chiefs quarterback had two interceptions and zero passing touchdowns in the 30-14 win for Kansas City. Mahomes scored a rushing touchdown, as did Kareem Hunt. The Chiefs defense stepped up, looking to match what the Jaguars were capable of as Kansas City reeled in four interceptions and a fumble recovery, all from different players.
The Steelers looked like a different team this week against the Falcons as James Conner rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns while Antonio Brown had 101 receiving yards and two touchdowns. When you score 41 points, you’re almost always going to win. Meanwhile, the Falcons’ season is slipping away.
Deandre Hopkins justified us watching a mostly-boring Sunday Night Football game by making the most unbelievable catch and run of the day. After a three yard toss from Deshaun Watson to Hopkins, the receiver put on the jets with fancy spin moves to gain 49 yards on the play. The Texans had two players record 2.5 sacks in Benardrick McKinney and Jadeveon Clowney, which helped them win this battle of Texas teams.
The Raiders may have played their worst game yet. How do you not hand off to Marshawn Lynch at the goal line? They deserved the loss.
In a reverse of the Raiders’ situation, the Seahawks played their best game yet. But they . lost anyway. The Rams’ offense is nearly unstoppable and Seattle learned that the hard way on Sunday as Todd Gurley had a three-touchdown performance.
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