Sunday scaries in New England
The San Francisco 49ers, led by former Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, defeated New England by a whopping score of 33–6. The Patriots defense gave up 467 yards to the 49ers, and quarterback Cam Newton was intercepted three times before eventually being benched. Sunday's game was the biggest margin in a home Patriots losssince Bill Belichick arrived in 2000, and they have a three-game losing streak for the first time since 2002. The 49ers are not a bad team by any means, but things are definitely not looking good for the Patriots. Although Newton is definitely not entirely to blame, he must figure out what isn't working in order to help the Patriots move past their unusual start to this season.
To make matters even worse for Patriots fans, their former quarterback Tom Brady threw for four touchdown passes in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 45–20 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. The Buccaneers now lead the NFC South and have proven to be a potential Super Bowl contender this season. Their team will only continue to get better with wide receiver Antonio Brown, who is expected to make his Tampa Bay debut Week 9. With that painful recap for Patriots fans now over, let's take a look at some of the highlights from Week 7 in the rest of the NFL.
One undefeated team remains
The formerly undefeated Seattle Seahawks lost to the Arizona Cardinals in a thrilling overtime game Sunday night. Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett led the offense with three touchdowns, and DK Metcalf showed incredible speed that saved a pick-six after Cardinals safety Budda Baker intercepted quarterback Russell Wilson. These efforts weren't enough to stop quarterback Kyler Murray and the rest of the Cardinals from coming back from a 20–7 deficit in the second quarter. Wilson had three interceptions in the game with one coming in the final minute of overtime that led to the Cardinals' game-winning field goal. Cardinals 37, Seahawks 34.
Besides the Seahawks, the other two undefeated teams going into Week 7 in the NFL went head to head in another exciting matchup. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans finally played their game that was originally slated for Week 4 but was postponeddue to multiple positive COVID-19 tests among the Titans. Pittsburgh's offense dominated the first half, but the Titans were able to come back and put themselves in a position to tie the game at the end of the fourth quarter. However, kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed a 45-yard field goal attempt with 19 seconds left in the game that secured Pittsburgh a 27–24 win. The Steelers are the only remaining undefeated team in the entire NFL, but we will see how long their perfect season lasts as they have a tough matchup versus their AFC North rival, the Baltimore Ravens, next week.
Falcons choke again
In classic Atlanta fashion, the Falcons made an unfortunate mistake that allowed the Detroit Lions to capitalize on the last possession of the game. Falcons running back Todd Gurleycouldn't stop himself from scoring, and remembered too late to go down before the goal line.
Now, one may be confused as to why it was a bad thing for the Falcons to score. Isn't the whole point of football to try and score as much as possible? Well, in this case, if Gurley did not score, the Falcons could have run out the clock and won off of a short field goal. Instead, they gave possession back to the Lions with just over a minute remaining, who were able to score a touchdown at the end to win 23–22.
The NFC East is a joke
If you needed another reminder of how much of a joke the NFC East is, boy are you in for a treat. Another foreseeable loss this week was handed to the Dallas Cowboys by the Washington Football team. After Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescottsuffered a serious ankle injury Week 5, backup quarterback Andy Dalton was forced to step up. Unfortunately, Andy Dalton left the game this Sundayafter a hit to the head by Washington's Jon Bostic. The Cowboys, who have already struggled enough this season, now have to rely on their third-string rookie quarterback Ben DiNucci. Washington earned its second win of the season 25–3.
With a 2–4–1 record that puts them in a position to win the division, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New York Giants 22–21 Thursday night. The main highlight from this game, however, was Giants quarterback Daniel Jones showing incredible speed during an 80-yard run in the third quarter. He got so excited that hetripped with no defenders in sight.The game actually ended up being very close, with the Eagles scoring a touchdown in the last 40 seconds to secure the win. It will be a very close race to see who wins the division and then loses in the first round of playoffs to a decent team.
Browns win and lose
The Cleveland Browns went neck and neck against AFC North rival Cincinnati Bengals, but edged out a 37–34 win after quarterback Baker Mayfield threw a game-winning touchdown to Donovan Peoples-Jones at the very end of the fourth quarter. Mayfield threw five touchdowns thattied a franchise record, but Bengals rookie Joe Burrow also had a very impressive game (406 yards) that gives Cincinnati something to be hopeful about. However, the main story of this game is the injury that Browns star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (OBJ) suffered after attempting to chase down a Bengals defender after an interception. The Browns announced Mondaythat OBJ has a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season. With this being an unusual winning season so far for the Browns in a tough AFC North division, it will be interesting to see how the loss of OBJ affects the team.
