ClutchPoints
Week 10 of the NFL season was full of heavyweight matchups up and down the league, and some of them delivered the goods on Sunday. A battle of surprising contenders between the Patriots and the Buccaneers was excellent in the morning window, with Drake Maye solidifying his MVP case with a gritty road win.
On the other end of the spectrum, some of the perceived heavyweight fights on Sunday didn’t live up to the hype. The Steelers completely no-showed on offense on Sunday night against the Chargers and are now in a dogfight at the top of the AFC North that seemed impossible just a few weeks ago.
Pittsburgh made the list of losers in Week 10, but it isn’t near the top. Let’s find out who is.
During the first half of the season, NFL fans were treated to some quality Thursday Night Football games that were very entertaining week in and week out. Rams-49ers was an excellent game early in the season, Seahawks-Cardinals was dramatic at the end, and Steelers-Bengals was a riveting shootout.
One week after watching the Ravens thrash the Dolphins on TNF, the Broncos and the Raiders put on a performance that you truly had to see to believe. Denver and Las Vegas both finished the game with more penalties than first downs, just the second time in the last 75 years that has happened in a game.
This game had no redeeming quality. On one side, Bo Nix missed open receivers left and right and had nothing going in the passing game, even launching the ball into double coverage at the end of the first half to cost the Broncos a chance at a field goal. On the other side, Geno Smith was his usual erratic self and was under fire against an elite Denver pass rush all night long, eventually suffering an injury that left him hobbling around by the end of the game.
In total, both teams finished with 10 first downs and 11 penalties. Neither eclipsed four yards per play. In the end, the Broncos got a 10-7 win, but it was far from an impressive one.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have been the anti-Jaguars so far this season. In their first year with Liam Coen as head coach, the Jags have pulled out a number of close wins in games that their fans have gotten used to them losing over the years.
That wasn’t the case on Sunday. When Jacksonville took a 29-10 second-half lead against the Davis Mills-led Texans, surely they were destined to get to 6-3 with a win.
Mills had other ideas. 26 straight points later, the Texans had stolen a victory in front of their home crowd and closed the gap on the Jags in the AFC Wild Card race.
At the same time, the New York Giants went into Soldier Field and controlled the Chicago Bears all day long. Well, almost all day. Trailing 20-10 in...
