Baltimore Ravens produce miracle in Rio de Janeiro, Patrick Mahomes ties Tom Brady and James Cook stars for Buffalo Bills - NFL Sunday review
Welcome to our weekly NFL Sunday Review - Lamar Jackson's Baltimore Ravens produce a miracle finale against the Dallas Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro, Brock Purdy stars once again for the undefeated San Francisco 49ers and the Super Bowl champions are beaten
The lead
Seven seconds of chaos. Seven seconds to win it all. Seven seconds to send Brazil samba dancing into the night. Seven seconds to crown one of the greatest international games in NFL history. If not the greatest international game in NFL history.
Ricky Martin, baile funk, Lamar Jackson magic, Tyler Loop heroics, Dallas Cowboys disbelief and a last-gasp thriller staged within a cauldron of sporting iconicity. Obrigado, Brazil. Obrigado.
The beach-collared beauty of Rio de Janeiro dazzled on its debut as an NFL host city, its famed magnetism as a hub for otherworldly fun and theatre translating to football as the Baltimore Ravens claimed a 34-31 win over the Dallas Cowboys at the Maracana Stadium.
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On a stage graced by Pele and Zico and Romario and Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, it was all too fitting that the very first regular-season game to be played at Rio's sporting home would be decided by a boot. The boot, in this instance, of Tyler Loop.
The Cowboys had just levelled the game at 31-31 on Brandon Aubrey's 23-yard field goal with seven seconds to play, overtime on the horizon as Brazil strapped in for an extended night. Lamar Jackson had other plans, connecting with Zay Flowers for 27 yards to set Baltimore up at the Cowboys 38 on the first play of the ensuing drive. One second left.
Out came Loop, nine months on since he missed the 44-yard field goal that would have gifted the Pittsburgh Steelers the AFC North division title and accompanying playoff berth. Rio redemption would prove sweet as the 25-year-old held his nerve to split the posts from 56 yards and spark a Ravens frenzy.
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Loop sprinted off in joyous celebration with a full-speed Jackson and his entire team in tow, spiralling his finger to request some space amid the madness before launching into an imitation of Cristiano Ronaldo's 'SIU', mirrored by the Maracana crowd. Unbridled carnage and the NFL's dream advert for international representation.
The build-up had been marred ever so slightly by question marks over the turf at the Maracana. By the end of Sunday night all had been forgotten as the Ravens showcased their dig deep credentials in the face of a rampant Cowboys offense.
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The fourth quarter had depicted the complete Super Bowl contender that Dallas might hope to become this season during a sequence that began with their widely-criticised run defense stuffing Derrick Henry on fourth-and-goal at the one-yard line. Dak Prescott rewarded the turnover by igniting the following drive with a 49-yard strike to CeeDee Lamb, before KaVontae Turpin finished off the possession with a nine-yard touchdown run for a 28-24 lead with 9.42 to play.
After the teams exchanged punts Jackson orchestrated an 11-play 64-yard march culminating in his two-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Hibner with 1.30 left, prompting a steely pursed-lip look of determination from Prescott, enough to suggest this wasn't over. And it wasn't.
But instead of six, the Cowboys settled for three on the next possession as four plays inside the Ravens 10-yard line camp up empty, bringing out Aubrey for the field goal most believed had teed up overtime. Between Lamar and Loop, how wrong 'most' were.
Sunday's matchup marked the third to be played in Brazil following regular-season games at Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo over the last two years. Rio meanwhile represented one of three new host cities alongside Melbourne, Australia and Paris, France this season as the NFL shows no signs of slowing in its international aspirations. It would have its sceptics, as international games tend to, but Rio and the league will wake up Monday morning having combined to produce one of football's most dramatic globe-trotting moments.
Next week, it is the turn of London once more as the UK welcomes three more games across October. Beat that.
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What we learned
- The Cincinnati Bengals defense isn't good enough, yet. The first two weeks of the season displayed encouraging signs that Cincinnati might have finally mended the defense that has harmed their Super Bowl aspirations in recent seasons, Dexter Lawrence in particular appearing to add a new dimension to the interior of their defensive line. That narrative took a hit on Sunday as they suffered a 30-27 defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Aaron Rodgers' much-maligned offense. Steelers running back Jaylen Warren in particular forced 10 missed tackles on the way to a career-high 176 yards from scrimmage, including 69 of 127 rushing yards before contact. That doesn't equate to a Championship-calibre team, no matter how incredible a trio of Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins is.
"Cook, he gets angry, and Cook starts cooking, the food was pretty good," Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins told Sky Sports. He was referring to Bills running back James Cook, who had just underlined why he is perhaps still the most underrated and underappreciated player in the NFL by starring for Buffalo in their 24-16 win over the Chargers. Cook has been a defining piece to Joe Brady's offense ever since his early days as the Bills coordinator, his increased prominence proving the key difference from the Bills attack under Ken Dorsey. On a day when Josh Allen was far from his cleanest and most dominant, it was Cook who punished Chargers mistakes with 24 carries for 154 yards and a touchdown. Greg Rousseau meanwhile resumed his emphatic start to the season by recording two sacks for the third successive game, retaining his place as the league leader in that department. Between them came some further evidence of the Bills having ways to win beyond the heroics of their star quarterback.
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- The flip side to Buffalo's win was another edition of the Chargers finding new ways to hurt themselves, Jim Harbaugh's side wasting five turnovers in another dismal day for Mike McDaniel and Justin Herbert's offense. For a time their defense had Allen and Joe Brady's offense under wraps, but saw three first-half takeaways become just 10 points before a late collapse opened the door for Buffalo to take control. One of the staple moments came on Herbert's dreadful interception to CJ Gardner-Johnson, an ill-advised decision to, as Tom Brady lamented, "throw him a meatball sub" over the middle of the field negating back-to-back sacks including a fumble recovery. In very Chargers fashion they would then give up an automatic first down with the Bills staring at a second-and-26, paving the way for Allen's one-yard touchdown for a 17-13 lead with seven minutes to play. To make matters worse, Quentin Johnston reverted to serial dropper tendencies as he mis-held a Herbert bullet on third-and-10 on the next drive before the Chargers turned it over on downs.
Overreaction or reality?
Brock Purdy is the early - very very early - MVP frontrunner. The 49ers quarterback continued his near-faultless start to the season by throwing for 297 yards and four more touchdowns in San Francisco's 36-30 win over the Arizona Cardinals, two of his scoring strikes finding the hands of George Kittle. There is an argument he is playing the best football of any quarterback in football, his confidence epitomised by his touch-perfect touchdown pass to Mike Evans. He is clean, clinical and navigating an unbeaten team rediscovering some of its pizzazz on offense under Kyle Shanahan; as much tends to happen when the injury bug stays away, which still isn't quite the case after Evans and Trent Williams both picked up issues.
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Winners & Losers
Winners:
Mason Graham: The departure of Myles Garrett has opened the door for a fresh face at centre stage for the Cleveland Browns defense - step forward, Mason Graham. The second-year defensive tackle came up with two more sacks in Cleveland's 21-18 win over the Carolina Panthers, including a crucial stop on third-and-10 with the Panthers driving with 1.34 to play. In doing so he lifted his tally to four sacks through three games this season, his impact also underlining the pocket-squeezing influence of Jared Verse since arriving as part of the Garrett trade.
Patrick Mahomes: The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback underlined his place in greatness as he tied seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady for the most wins (115) by a quarterback in his first 150 career starts, including the playoffs. He looks as close to a prime Mahomes as the NFL has seen in at least two years, among his highlights in Kansas City's 24-10 win over Miami being a beautifully-timed strike to Noah Gray. The return to a heavy play-action scheme, boosted by the presence of Kenneth Walker III, has reignited both Mahomes and his passing attack. His Chiefs are now 3-0 and looking like contenders once more.
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Losers:
Mike Vrabel: The New England Patriots are in the middle of a miserable Super Bowl hangover. What was a championship-calibre defense is being torn apart and what was an MVP-contending quarterback in Drake Maye is struggling to maintain the heights of last season. Maye threw two more interceptions and lost a fumble to increase his turnover tally to seven in three games, having surrendered 11 in 17 regular-season games last season.
Brian Daboll/Cam Ward: Cam Ward threw his first interception in 209 pass attempts on Sunday, which would have been a forgivable blemish had it not been an end zone pick with 24 seconds left in the game. Jevon Holland would be the man to come up with a gift-wrapped throw by Ward as the New York Giants held on for a 12-7 victory, at which point cameras would quickly turn to Titans offensive coordinator and former Giants head coach Brian Daboll. Ward isn't Tennessee's only problem, but he is a problem and is struggling to look like a starting NFL quarterback.
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Player of the Weekend - Jahmyr Gibbs, RB, Detroit Lions
Nothing typified Jahmyr Gibbs better than his shake-and-bake third-quarter touchdown run on Sunday, the Detroit Lions running back scurrying right before putting one defender on skates with a shimmy move to explode in the opposite direction on his way to the end zone. It was one of the latest reminders that he remains the heartbeat of Dan Campbell's Lions offense, contributing to three total touchdowns and 164 yards from scrimmage as Detroit held off a New York Jets fightback in a 31-24 victory. Only Jim Brown and Marshall Faulk have recorded more games with at least two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown.
(Second best) Game of the Weekend
Sorry, the Ravens and Cowboys win the title of Game of the Weekend. Marcus Mariota delivered one of the surprise stories of the weekend as the backup veteran quarterback led the Washington Commanders to a 33-31 win over the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks while standing in for the injured Jayden Daniels. It would be Mariota who iced the game with a nine-yard scramble on third-and-seven to quash any Seahawks fightback. Sam Darnold returned for the Seattle for the first time since his injury early in the Week One win over the Patriots, but featured amid a mistake-ridden Seahawks performance that saw him intercepted on a crucial fourth-quarter pick-six by Kain Medrano. Mariota finished 19 of 31 for 183 yards and three touchdowns, seven of his passes going for over 10 yards as Washington clinched their first win of the season.
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