Joe Flacco is passing for 300-plus yards in big AFC North division wins, the Chicago Bears are rolling, the New England Patriots are back atop the AFC East, the Indianapolis Colts’ offense can’t be stopped and the Seattle Seahawks might have the NFL’s best defense.
What decade is this?
Week 7 of the NFL season delivered the most improbable comeback we’ll see all year, validated a couple emerging contenders in a big way and gave us plenty to dissect, as always.
Here were the Week 7 NFL winners and losers …
Week 7 NFL Winners
Any fans who stuck with the Broncos-Giants game to the end
It might be hard for any game all season to top what the Broncos and Giants delivered Sunday.
ESPN and others circulated the absolutely bonkers stat that before Sunday, NFL teams trailing by at least 18 points with 6 minutes or less to play had lost 1,602 consecutive games. Until this one.
Denver was down 19-0 through three quarters, got a touchdown and two-point conversion early in the fourth quarter only for New York to answer right back with a touchdown to make it 26-8. That’s how it remained inside of 6 minutes before one of the most improbable finishes ever.
The Broncos capped a 13-play, 5:01 scoring drive with a Bo Nix rushing touchdown and two-point conversion that felt in the moment like garbage-time points as they still trailed 26-16 with 5:13 to play.
But then Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart threw one of the worst interceptions he’ll ever throw in his career, however many years it goes, to give Denver the ball at the Giants’ 19. Four plays and less than a minute later, the Broncos were back in the end zone on a 2-yard Nix pass to RJ Harvey to draw to within 26-23.
A Giants three-and-out took just 1:09 off the clock, and the Broncos followed with a 68-yard scoring drive in 51 seconds to come all the way back for a 30-26 lead on Nix’s 18-yard touchdown run with 1:51 left.
And yet, that rally wasn’t even the craziest part!
New York answered back with a touchdown drive of its own in just 1:14, including a fourth-and-19 completion from Dart to Wandale Robinson with a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty and a subsequent controversial pass interference penalty at the goal line on a third-and-10 heave from the Denver 40. After all that, Giants kicker Jude McAtamney missed the extra point. Giants 32, Broncos 30.
Left with 37 seconds, could the Broncos rally once more? Yes, yes they could.
Nix hit Marvin Mims for a 29-yard completion, the Giants jumped offsides, Nix hit Courtland Sutton for 22 yards down to the Giants’ 21, Nix spiked the ball to stop the clock with 3 seconds left and Will Lutz banged home the 39-yard field goal for the 33-32 win.
The New York Post used “Worst. Loss. Ever.” for its headline.
Maybe, but for everyone but Giants fans, it was incredible theater.
Ja’Marr Chase
Ja’Marr Chase must have felt Thursday night like Andy Dufresne after he burrowed (no pun intended) through the sewage pipe to freedom in “The Shawshank Redemption.”
To be fair, Chase had seen an uptick in production the final week of Jake Browning’s run (after a couple stifling weeks), but with Joe Flacco taking over at QB the last two games he has looked like vintage Chase again.
Even with minimal time to work together before Flacco’s first Bengals start against the Packers, Chase turned 10 catches into 94 yards and a touchdown. But Thursday night against the Steelers he really looked in sync with Flacco, reeling in 16 catches on a whopping 23 targets for 161 yards and a touchdown.
The Bengals may or may not have fresh life with Flacco at QB, but Chase should be a beneficiary regardless.
Joe Flacco
Flacco might be an even bigger winner here, though. He went from potentially playing out the final string on his career with the moribund Browns to getting traded to Cincinnati and tossing the ball to Chase and Tee Higgins.
Flacco was held under 200 yards passing in three of his four games with the Browns while compiling just 2 TDs with 6 INTs.
In two games with the Bengals, he has thrown for 561 yards, 5 TDs and 0 INTs and looks renewed at 40 years old.
Common sense
So many were ready to proclaim the end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ run as we know it after an 0-2 start and early offensive struggles.
The same Chiefs who played in the last three Super Bowls and four of the last five, winning three of them, who still have Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes and were simply missing their top two receivers early in the season.
Of all the silly overreactions …
Kansas City has won four of five since then and led in the final minutes of the other (a 31-28 loss at Jacksonville), flexed on the Detroit Lions last week and then obliterated the Las Vegas Raiders 31-0 on Sunday. The Raiders were held to 95 offensive yards and just 3 first downs.
Yes, the Chiefs are still the Chiefs and the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl (+500 odds, per BetMGM).
Jahmyr Gibbs
Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs might just be the most exciting offensive player in the league now.
Gibbs rushed for 136 yards and 2 TDs, including a 78-yarder, and turned 3 catches into 82 yards in the Lions’ 24-9 win Monday night over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Per ESPN, Gibbs is the first running back with at least 135 yards and 2 TDs rushing and 80 receiving yards in the same game since Chris Johnson in 2009. The 218 total yards was a career-high.
Gibbs was incredible last year with 1,412 rushing yards, 517 receiving yards and 20 combined TDs, but he might surpass those totals this season if Monday night was any indicator.
“You felt like this was coming,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.”
Preseason Colts Super Bowl bettors
No team in the NFL has seen its Super Bowl odds surge more dramatically than the Indianapolis Colts.
Per BetMGM, the Colts opened the season with +10,000 odds — only seven teams were considered bigger longshots — and now they have the sixth-best odds at +1200.
The eye test certainly confirms that the Colts should be considered viable Super Bowl contenders after their 6-1 start.
Giants castoff Daniel Jones has brought stability at QB and was sharp again Sunday with 288 yards and 2 TDs in a 38-24 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. Meanwhile, running back Jonathan Taylor leads the NFL with 697 rushing yards and 10 TDs after finding the end zone three times Sunday.
The Colts lead the NFL in scoring (33.1 points per game) and rank second in yards (380.3 per game).
Da Bears
It looks like Chicago finally got it right on a coach hiring for the first time since Lovie Smith.
First-year head coach Ben Johnson has the Bears on a four-game winning streak following an 0-2 start — the first such streak for the franchise since 2018.
QB Caleb Williams wasn’t at his best in the 26-14 win over the New Orleans Saints, but the Bears forced four turnovers and got 222 rushing yards.
Week 7 NFL Losers
Tua Tagovailoa
This looked like rock bottom for Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins in general Sunday.
Tagovailoa was benched after throwing his third interception of the day while passing for only 100 yards on 23 attempts in a 31-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Worse was coach Mike McDaniel’s reaction to the third pick …
McDaniel said Tagovailoa will start this week vs. the Atlanta Falcons, but he didn’t exactly project a ton of confidence in his QB.
“My expectation is that we don’t throw 10 picks,” McDaniel said.
Ouch.
Justin Fields as a starting NFL QB
We really try to avoid hammering the same point in consecutive weeks, but New York Jets QB Justin Fields didn’t give us much choice while getting benched in the midst of the team’s seventh straight loss to open the season.
Fields completed 6 of 12 passes for 46 yards and rushed for 22 yards before being replaced in the third quarter by Tyrod Taylor. The winless Jets lost 13-6 to the Carolina Panthers.
It’s long past time for any NFL team to think it can win with Fields as its starter.
Aaron Glenn
But Jets coach Aaron Glenn deserves the real criticism here.
Let’s review …
Regardless of what one thinks of Aaron Rodgers, it was poor form for Glenn, upon taking the job as a first-time head coach, to have a future Hall of Famer fly across the country for an in-person meeting about his future only to tell Rodgers immediately that the team wasn’t bringing him back. The hubris!
And to follow that up by then going all-in on Fields, who had already proven through a large sample size in Chicago and Pittsburgh that he wasn’t a franchise QB? Confounding.
Worse, just last week after the Jets’ loss to Denver in London, Glenn was asked if Fields would be his quarterback the following week, and he belittled the reporter while saying “Come on, what kind of question is that? … You know better than that?”
Maybe the reporter just knew better than Glenn, who is the first Jets coach to ever start his tenure 0-7.
There seemed to be a consensus approval among NFL media that the Jets nailed the hiring of Glenn, but treating it like a slam-dunk never added up. Glenn had spent four seasons as the defensive coordinator for a Detroit Lions team that largely prevailed on the strength of its offense and the ability to win high-scoring shootouts (despite its defense). Glenn’s Lions defenses ranked 29th in the NFL in yards allowed in 2021, dead last in 2022, 19th in 2023 and 20th in 2024.
What are we missing here? Apparently nothing.
What looks even worse for Glenn is that the Lions’ defense looks much better without him, as first-year defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has Detroit giving up the eighth-fewest yards per game.
Mike Evans’ much-awaited return
This is no knock on Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans — it was just a disappointing sight to see Evans go almost lifeless to the turf after trying to haul in a deep shot from Baker Mayfield on Monday night.
Evans was playing for the first time since suffering a hamstring strain in Week 3, but he’s now out for most of if not the remainder of the season with a broken collarbone. He also sustained a concussion on the play.
This means Evans’ streak of 11 consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons will end — he was one away from breaking Jerry Rice’s NFL record.
Pete Carroll
Maybe Pete Carroll gets it turned around in Las Vegas, but it would be a sad way to see such a legendary coach end his career if not.
Carroll returned to the NFL this year after a season away and is the oldest head coach in league history at 74 years old. Instead of sitting on a beach somewhere or enjoying retirement however he’d prefer, Carroll watched his Raiders total just 3 first downs and 95 yards in a 31-0 loss to Kansas City on Sunday.
The Raiders are 2-5 with two losses by at least 30 points in the last three games (also 40-6 vs. the Colts).
Saquon Barkley
The Eagles offense may have look revived in their 28-22 win over the Vikings, but that did nothing for star running back Saquon Barkley.
His lack of production is one of the most puzzling subplots of this season. After rushing for over 2,000 yards last year, Barkley has just 369 rushing yards through seven games while averaging a meager 3.3 yards per carry. Not only has he yet to rush for 100 yards in a game, he’s been held to 60 or fewer in all but one — including 44 yards on 18 carries Sunday.
Cam Ward hype
Listen, we’re not saying Tennessee Titans QB Cam Ward — the No. 1 overall draft pick — is a bust. Not yet.
Rookie QBs are hit and miss, and the first-year results don’t always indicate anything about future success (see Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, etc.).
But this first season has really been underwhelming for Ward. He’s passed for 1,356 yards, 4 TDs and 5 INTs for the 1-6 Titans, and two weeks in a row now he’s had the ball just slip out of his hand for a costly fumble.
Of course, the Titans weren’t any good before he arrived, and it doesn’t help they’ve already fired their head coach early in his rookie season. Let’s not overreact just yet.
Washington Commanders
The Commanders were one of the surprise successes in the NFL last year as QB Jayden Daniels won Rookie of the Year and led the team to a 12-5 record and the NFC championship game.
This season is shaping up much differently …
Washington dropped to 3-4 with a 44-22 loss at Dallas on Sunday as Daniels exited in the second half with a hamstring injury. Daniels already missed two games this season with a knee injury. Coach Dan Quinn said the latest injury isn’t serious, but Daniels’ status for this week is uncertain.
Somewhere In Between?
A.J. Brown
Actually, the most frustrated wide receiver through the first part of the season was A.J. Brown as the Philadelphia Eagles forgot the forward pass was introduced to football in 1906.
Brown had a season-high 121 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns on just 4 catches Sunday as the Eagles opened the downfield passing game in a 28-22 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
Which should have put him solidly in the Week 7 Winners category, but then this …
Which is going over about as well as one might expect in Philadelphia …