Stephen Gostkowski

Under-fire Dan Quinn saw his men surrender a 16-point lead to lose 30-26 a week after a humiliating last-gasp loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

There were big wins for the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns, while the Tennessee Titans once more had Stephen Gostkowski to thank for a narrow victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

The New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers also won, with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals playing out the first tie of the season.

FALCONS FELLED BY FOLES

Falcons coach Quinn looks to be in trouble after another fourth-quarter collapse by Atlanta, this time leading to a four-point loss to the Bears.

Nick Foles threw three touchdown passes in the final quarter, the latter connecting with Anthony Miller with two minutes remaining, as Chicago recovered from 16 points down to move to 3-0 for the season.

The Falcons are the first team in NFL history to blow a lead of 15 points or more in the fourth quarter and lose in back-to-back matches.

Matt Ryan was intercepted by Tashaun Gipson late on as a miserable day for the Falcons was compounded by the losses of Russell Gage (concussion) and Grady Jarrett (hip).

RAMS FALL SHORT IN SPECTACULAR COMEBACK, PATRIOTS SIX IN A ROW AGAINST RAIDERS

The Los Angeles Rams almost completed the third-biggest comeback ever in the regular season, only to be denied by a Tyler Kroft touchdown with 15 seconds remaining.

The Bills had squandered a 25-point advantage but were bailed out by Kroft's second of the game following good work from Josh Allen.

Elsewhere in the East, the Patriots moved to 2-0 at home as three touchdowns from Rex Burkhead led them to a 36-20 defeat of the Las Vegas Raiders.

TITANS BUOYED BY GOSTKOWSKI SIX APPEAL

The Titans downed the winless Minnesota Vikings 31-30 thanks to the boot of Stephen Gostkowski.

A career-high six field goals, including a 55-yarder with less than two minutes on the clock, helped to banish memories of some wayward kicking in his first two Titans outings.

Dalvin Cook rushed for a career-high 181 yards and scored for the Vikings, but they are 0-3 for the first time in seven years.

The Steelers are still perfect, though – they moved to 3-0 for the first time since 2010 by defeating the Houston Texans 28-21, Ben Roethlisberger throwing for 237 yards and two touchdowns in a franchise-record 221st appearance.

Week 3 scores:

Atlanta Falcons 26-30 Chicago Bears
Buffalo Bills 35-32 Los Angeles Rams
Cleveland Browns 34-20 Washington Football Team
Minnesota Vikings 30-31 Tennessee Titans
New England Patriots 36-20 Las Vegas Raiders
New York Giants 9-36 San Francisco 49ers
Philadelphia Eagles 23-23 Cincinnati Bengals
Pittsburgh Steelers 28-21 Houston Texans

Gostkowski's 25-yard field goal with 17 seconds left secured a 16-14 win over the Broncos at Sports Authority Field on Monday.

It was otherwise a debut to forget for the four-time Pro Bowler, who became the first kicker to miss four kicks in his first game with a team since Dennis Partee did so for the San Diego Chargers in 1968.

Gostkowski missed from 47 yards in the first quarter, 44 yards before the first half ended and 42 yards in the third, with another attempt blocked by Shelby Harris.

It was the first time he has missed three field goal attempts in a game during a career in which he has gone an entire season missing fewer than four on five separate occasions.

"It's tough. It's a very fickle position. It's definitely an opportunity I didn't deserve but grateful that I got it for the team and the guys that went out there and busted their butt," he said.

"I really put them in a tough spot. You don't always get the chance to redeem yourself. I'm just happy the guys got to celebrate.

"I'm disappointed in myself, embarrassed and frustrated, but at the end of the day, we won, and luckily the guys are happy going home."

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel insisted he had no doubts over Gostkowski lining up for the game-winner even if the Broncos perhaps thought differently.

"Nope, and they did, obviously, because they weren't using the timeouts, they were banking on him missing," he said.

"We've all got to do our job. It's not just on one player. We'll get this stuff fixed. We've got a lot of faith in our players. We're excited to get out of there with a win - it's a tough place to play.

"It's like sitting there and being like, 'Well, it's been red 10 times on roulette, so I'm going to bet black because it's been red 10 times,' and it doesn't work that way.

"I just felt like we were going to be able to make the field goal and that was the right play. That's the proper way to approach it and everybody did their job on the last one."

New England parted with the NFL franchise's all-time leading scorer Gostkowski on Monday.

A three-time Super Bowl champion, the 36-year-old Gostkowski had called New England home since joining the Patriots in the 2006 Draft.

Gostkowski tallied 1,775 career points and 374 field goals for the Patriots, with an 87.4 per cent field goal accuracy.

Limited to just four games last season due to injury, Gostkowski has played in 204 regular-season games and amassed 28 playoff appearances – only Tom Brady (41), Adam Vinatieri (32) and Jerry Rice (29) have featured in more postseason matchups.

Gostkowski's exit comes after Patriots legend Brady became a free agent and left the Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.