It was smooth sailing in the first half for the Los Angeles Rams before some late shenanigans resulted in a narrow 31-27 win at home against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
The Rams were cooking early, jumping ahead in the first quarter when quarterback Matthew Stafford decided to feed newly acquired wide receiver Allen Robinson II for a one-yard touchdown.
Their 7-0 lead was doubled to 14-0 when Darrell Henderson rushed one in from eight yards out, and after a Falcons field goal, the Rams added their third touchdown of the half with a three-yard fade to the back corner of the endzone for Cooper Kupp.
Reigning Offensive Player of the Year Kupp nabbed his second of the game after half-time, getting on the end of a 10-yard pass to make it 28-3. He went on to finish with 11 catches from 14 targets for 108 yards and two touchdowns, after snagging 13 catches for 128 yards and a touchdown in Week 1.
While the game appeared dead, nobody told the Falcons as they began to march back into the contest.
The first receiver taken in this year's NFL Draft – Drake London, at pick eight – gave the Falcons their first touchdown of the night, and the first of his career, when he reeled in a four-yard pass from Marcus Mariota.
Another field goal for the Rams would extend their lead to 31-10, which was cut to 31-17 when Olamide Zaccheaus found some space for an 11-yard touchdown reception with eight minutes remaining.
The Rams clearly felt they had done enough for the win, and were content to punt the ball away on their next drive, only for the punt to get blocked, scooped up and run in by Lorenzo Carter for a Falcons touchdown, with a two-point conversion cutting the deficit to 31-25.
Atlanta would get a chance to drive down and win the game after Kupp coughed up an uncharacteristic fumble, but Mariota's pass into the endzone was picked off by Jalen Ramsey, allowing the Rams to run out the clock, even taking an intentional safety in the process to drain the time.
Stafford completed 27 of 36 passes for 272 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions, and with Falcons running back Damien Williams placed on injured reserve, Cordarrelle Patterson and Tyler Allegier split the carries with 10 each.
Wilson's Broncos ride to choppy first win
New Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson heard boos in his first home game in Empower Field at Mile High, but did enough to earn an unimpressive 16-9 win against the Houston Texans.
The Broncos trailed 6-3 in the final seconds of the first half, and with fourth-and-goal at the one yard line they opted to trot out the kicker, which was met with a chorus of boos for the coaching decision.
After an interception on the opening drive of the second half, Wilson himself was met with boos as he had only completed six-of-18 passes up until that point, but a touchdown pass to Eric Saubert at the start of the fourth quarter was enough to get the Broncos over the line.
Wilson ended up completing 14 of his 31 passes for 219 yards, one touchdown and one interception, and he relied heavily on receiver Courtland Sutton, who reeled in seven of his 11 targets for 122 yards.
Ravens stop Bengals on late 2-point try, hold on for 35-34 victory
Lamar Jackson threw for three fourth-quarter touchdowns, and the Baltimore Ravens denied Cincinnati on a 2-point conversion with 38 seconds remaining to hold off the Bengals 35-34 on Thursday night.
The Ravens (7-3) rallied from a 21-7 third-quarter deficit, overcoming a huge game from Cincinnati receiver Ja'Marr Chase. He finished with 11 catches for 264 yards and three touchdowns, including a 5-yarder in the final minute to bring the Bengals (4-6) within one. Cincinnati - which lost to Baltimore in overtime last month - decided to go for 2 and the lead, and Joe Burrow's pass for Tanner Hudson sailed high.
Cincinnati had a chance to take control when it was up 14 with the ball in the third, but a fumble by Chase Brown gave the Ravens a short field, and a nifty scramble along the sideline by Jackson set up Derrick Henry’s 1-yard touchdown run.
In the fourth, Tylan Wallace turned a short pass into an 84-yard TD, barely staying inbounds as a couple of Cincinnati defenders failed to stop him. Justin Tucker missed the extra point, but the Ravens were within one.
Cincinnati drove into Baltimore territory, but on both third-and-2 and fourth-and-2, Burrow threw incomplete deep. Jackson gave the Ravens the lead with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Mark Andrews, and then the two-time MVP-winning quarterback ran himself for a 2-point conversion.
Baltimore had 231 of its 389 total yards in the fourth quarter. Jackson threw for 290 yards and four touchdowns and Burrow passed for 428 yards and four TDs.
Christian McCaffrey to make season debut for 49ers
San Francisco 49ers star running back Christian McCaffrey will finally make his season debut.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed Thursday that McCaffrey is expected to play Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after missing the first eight games of the season.
Last season’s Offensive Player of the Year has been on injured reserve since the start of the season with what was initially called a calf injury. The injury was later revealed to be Achilles tendonitis in both legs, and McCaffrey met with specialists in Germany in late September.
McCaffrey returned to football activities while the 49ers were on a Week 9 bye and has resumed normal practice this week.
“He's been awesome these last two days,” Shanahan said on a San Francisco radio station on Thursday. “You never know [about] a setback or anything, but these two days have been great, and I expect to see him out there.”
McCaffrey’s return, barring a setback, comes at a key time for 4-4 San Francisco and has apparently boosted team morale.
“It's been awesome,” quarterback Brock Purdy told reporters. “Just what he brings to the table and really just firing everybody else up around. All of us coming off the bye week and feeling good and fresh and then you get 2-3 next to you in the backfield, it's been awesome.
“Looks great moving around and he's trending in the right direction. So, we're excited to see what happens.”
Jordan Mason was off to a tremendous start this season while filling in for McCaffrey and is third in the NFL in rushing yards.
Mason, however, has been limited in recent weeks due to an ongoing shoulder injury, leaving rookie Isaac Guerendo to take on a larger role.
Shanahan also indicated that wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Jauan Jennings also benefited from the bye week and are on track to return against the Buccaneers.
Browns GM Berry refuses to make Watson commitment
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry has refused to confirm whether Deshaun Watson will remain the franchise's starting quarterback when he returns from his Achilles injury.
Watson endured a dismal start to the 2024 season as the Browns went 1-5 before he suffered the season-ending injury against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7.
They failed to score 20 points in any of their seven games with Watson starting but did so at the first time of asking without him, beating the Baltimore Ravens 29-24 with Jameis Winston standing in at quarterback two weeks ago.
Watson's relationship with the Browns' fanbase had already become strained after more than two dozen women accused him of sexual assault and inappropriate behaviour in massage sessions.
He served an 11-game suspension to start the 2022 season – his first campaign with the team after being handed a five-year, $230million contract following his trade from the Houston Texans.
"Really our focus with Deshaun, I would say for any player with a season-ending injury and a major injury, is first and foremost and to make sure that he gets healthy," Berry said on Wednesday.
"Everything else, we'll deal with at a later moment."
Berry added, however, that the team's issues were not all of Watson's making.
"We haven't played well as a team and we haven't played well as a unit on offense," Berry said.
"I think oftentimes when you don't play well on offense, obviously your starting quarterback and your play caller will get the most criticism.
"But the reality of it is, offenses, it comes down to organization and synchronization. There's a lot of shared ownership across the different groups in terms of why we didn't perform."
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