What we learned in NFL Week 10: Lions pull off stunner, Bears falling apart

How good are the Detroit Lions? How gritty?

Jared Goff threw more picks Sunday night — five — than he had all season, and the Lions still erased a 16-point halftime deficit in Houston for a 26-23 victory.

Detroit, now 8-1, remains the class of the NFC. Nineteen unanswered points from the Lions were punctuated by back-to-back kicks from Jake Bates, who was good from 58 yards with five minutes left in the fourth quarter, then from 52 yards as time expired to cap a wild win. For the Texans (6-4), it’s a stunning loss: After torching the Detroit secondary in the first half, C.J. Stroud and the Houston offense were held scoreless.

On the other end of the spectrum in the NFC, the Dallas Cowboys are officially in free fall with no end in sight. Sunday’s 34-6 loss to the Eagles was another defeat at home and another game that was never competitive. And it was another referendum on how far this team has fallen.

With quarterback Dak Prescott shelved for the foreseeable future with a hamstring injury, the Cowboys might want to start thinking about their draft position rather than hold out any hope of a miracle late-season run — and about who’s going to be coaching the team next season because it’s getting harder and harder to imagine Mike McCarthy retaining his job. Consider: In four games at AT&T Stadium this season, the Cowboys have been outscored by a combined 94 points.

With Philadelphia’s fifth straight victory, the Eagles (7-2) are now a half-game ahead of the Commanders (7-3) in the NFC East with the two set to meet for the first time this season Thursday night. The Cowboys, losers of four straight, are now 3-6.

Speaking of teams falling stunningly short of offseason expectations, Sunday’s 31-6 loss in Arizona dropped the Jets to 3-7. Maybe firing Robert Saleh five weeks into the season wasn’t the right move — at the very least, Saleh had the defense playing like a competent unit.

In New Orleans, Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi not only won his debut but also finished with the quote of the day. After a 20-17 victory over the Falcons, Rizzi admitted to clogging the toilet in the coaches’ locker room earlier that morning and thinking, “This is gonna be a crappy day, pun intended.” Turns out, it wasn’t. The Saints’ seven-game losing streak is history.

In San Francisco, the 49ers won in Christian McCaffrey’s return, but not without some fireworks. Cameras caught star wideout Deebo Samuel lunging at the throat of long snapper Taybor Pepper, then swiping at kicker Jake Moody after Moody’s third missed field goal of the day. “I kinda got out of character a little bit,” Samuel told reporters later. “I’ll talk to Moody, and we’ll get past it.” Moody got past it well enough to drill the game-winner from 44 yards in San Francisco’s 23-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have now lost four in a row.

In Jacksonville, the Vikings beat the Jaguars 12-7 despite finishing 0-for-5 in the red zone. Ugly as it was, Minnesota is now 7-2, one game back of the Lions in the competitive NFC North.

In Munich, Bryce Young won back-to-back games for the first time since he was at Alabama. But the Panthers’ 20-17 overtime victory over the Giants said more about New York’s disastrous season. The Giants, 2-8 for the second straight year, are facing some serious questions as they enter the bye, starting with whether Daniel Jones should remain the starting quarterback. Jones threw two more picks Sunday, and the team is 3-13 with him under center dating back to last season.

Staying on the topic of teams with quarterback issues, the Colts’ Joe Flacco experiment is blowing up in their faces. Two games in — both losses — the 39-year-old has thrown four interceptions, including a pick six on Indy’s first snap of a 30-20 home loss to the Bills. If benching Anthony Richardson was about competing this season, it’s time to revisit the decision. The Colts don’t look like a playoff team at all at the moment.

“This is a humbling game. This league is tough,” Flacco said. “We can only look at ourselves. I can only look at myself.”

Coach Shane Steichen reiterated after the loss that Flacco remains the starter “right now” because he gives the team the best chance to win. But at 4-6 and losers of three straight, the Colts aren’t doing enough winning with either quarterback under center.

In Los Angeles, the Chargers moved to 6-3 with an easy 27-10 victory over the Titans. For all those doubting Jim Harbaugh in his second NFL stint, he’s doing what he’s always done: win. Harbaugh’s team has already eclipsed last year’s win total and we’re not even to Week 11. The Chargers are also just the fourth squad since 1990 to allow 20 or fewer points in each of their first nine games of a season.

Here’s what we learned across the NFL in Week 10:

Chiefs can’t find a way to lose

The Broncos were a 35-yard field goal from handing the Chiefs their first loss since Christmas Day. It wasn’t a chip shot, but it wasn’t a long one, either.

Rookie quarterback Bo Nix had been excellent on the would-be game-winning drive, marching the Denver offense 43 yards in 13 plays, including a crucial third-and-6 from Kansas City’s 30-yard line in which Nix climbed the pocket, bought some time and hit receiver Courtland Sutton for a 13-yard gain.

All of it seemed to set the stage for the Chiefs’ first loss of the season. Then Leo Chenal kept them undefeated

The Chiefs’ third-year linebacker, who also blocked a field goal in February’s Super Bowl win, dove through the Broncos’ line to get a hand on Wil Lutz’s attempt. Ballgame. Chiefs 16, Broncos 14.

“I’m getting way too old for this, man,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said in the locker room after the win. “All right, Superman,” he continued, turning Chenal’s direction. “Leo, I’ll treat you to a cheeseburger.”

The last-second triumph moves the Chiefs to 9-0, 7-0 in one-score games this season. Kansas City has now won nine straight after trailing at some point in the second half.

This isn’t the dominant Chiefs team of the past — Patrick Mahomes has looked more human this season than perhaps any other since becoming the starter in 2018 — but they remain the best in the league and keep scraping out narrow victories. Their championship mettle continues to show, week after week.

Lions’ miracle is Texans’ disaster

Sunday night was what the Texans were supposed to look like — for three quarters, at least. A surprise division champ that loaded up in the offseason, and with a second-year star in quarterback C.J. Stroud, most figured Houston was ready to join the ranks of Kansas City, Baltimore and Buffalo as the class of the AFC.

But nine weeks into the season, the Texans were a confounding 6-3, their shiny record hiding some very real inconsistencies. Nico Collins was missing time. Stefon Diggs was lost for the year. And even with Joe Mixon providing some punch from the backfield, Stroud and the Texans had leveled off.

Then came a date with the NFC-leading Lions, and for a while the Texans met the moment. Stroud was carving up the Detroit secondary, and the Texans’ defense was piling up takeaways. Houston built a 23-7 halftime lead.

Then Detroit started chipping away, refusing to fold. David Montgomery scored from 3 yards out. Then Amon-Ra St. Brown caught one from 9 yards out. Then Bates drilled a kick from 58, the third-longest field goal in franchise history. A 16-point lead had disappeared. And when Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn missed from 58 with 1:51 left, Houston gave Goff a golden chance at finishing off the improbable comeback.

Six plays later, Bates had a chance to win it from 52. He just inched the ball inside the left upright, and Detroit had the 26-23 win. It’s the Lions’ first win when trailing by double digits in the Dan Campbell era.

As for Houston, it’s a staggering collapse for a team that’s hit some sort of midseason malaise. Stroud was picked off twice, and the Texans didn’t score a point after halftime. That’s not how you finish off a contender on your home field. If the Texans want to be taken seriously in the AFC — beyond being just the inevitable winner of a very bad division — they can’t choke away a 16-point lead at home.

Tomlin has Steelers rolling

It was the first time Mike Williams ran the route with his new team. And it turned out to be his first catch as a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Days after being traded from the Jets, Williams hauled in a 32-yard go-ahead touchdown from Russell Wilson with 2:22 left in Sunday’s win over the red-hot Commanders, a tight game between two first-place teams.

The play, which had Williams running an out toward the corner of the end zone, had originally been designed for wide receiver Calvin Austin III, but he’d been sidelined due to a head injury. So Williams’ number was called just five days after he was dealt at the trade deadline, and he delivered.

“He was out, so I went in there and made a play,” Williams said.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has won eight straight games coming off a bye, and Pittsburgh is now 3-0 since he elevated Wilson to the starting quarterback role. Put him in the Coach of the Year conversation. So far, Tomlin’s pushing all the right buttons for a Steelers team most figured would struggle to return to the playoffs.

All told, the win is Pittsburgh’s fourth in a row, and it keeps the Steelers (7-2) just ahead of the Ravens (7-3) in the AFC North. The two will meet next week in Pittsburgh for the division lead.

Asked after the game if Washington rookie Jayden Daniels compares at all to Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, Tomlin smiled.

“Man, be real slow comparing people to Lamar Jackson,” he said. “That’s a multi-time MVP. That’s Mr. Jackson. We’ll see Mr. Jackson in a few days.”

Bears falling apart

A few weeks ago it looked like the Bears had it figured out. Caleb Williams was settling in and playing far less erratic than he had to open the season. Chicago ripped off three in a row to move to 4-2, though a pair of those victories came against two of the worst teams in the league in Carolina and Jacksonville.

Was it a mirage? Or was this team coming on?

Then came the Hail Mary in Washington — a gutting, last-second loss punctuated by cornerback Tyrique Stevenson’s antics — and the subsequent fallout. Chicago hasn’t been the same since, and Sunday felt like a new low: the Bears’ third straight loss, an embarrassing 19-3 defeat at home to the lowly Patriots. Chicago was 1-for-14 on third down and managed just 142 total yards. Williams was sacked nine times — New England had just eight sacks in its last six games — and finished 16-for-30 for 120 yards.

Put simply, this was an offensive embarrassment coming off another offensive embarrassment in the Bears’ 29-9 loss in Arizona.

“It first starts with me,” Williams said. “I had two to three plays in key moments of situational ball where it didn’t click in my head.”

While Williams’ play has undeniably been up and down, it doesn’t seem like offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is helping. The Bears have scored 12 points in their last two games, and over their last 34 possessions have scored just two touchdowns. Williams’ completion percentage during the three-game losing streak is a dismal 50.5.

That’s not encouraging halfway into the season, when young passers are supposed to show signs of improvement.

The bad news for the Bears, who are now 4-5? The favorable schedule this team enjoyed early is officially over. Here comes the NFC North: Chicago’s next three are against the Packers, Vikings and Lions, all playoff teams at the moment.

Even in the beginning, when speculation swirled about his quarterback’s future and his team’s chances at earning the No. 1 draft pick, Jonathan Gannon refused to flinch.

“When you say rebuild, the connotation is we expect to lose,” Gannon said in August 2023, before his first season in Arizona. “I don’t expect to lose.”

Typical coach speak, right? Gannon was inheriting quite possibly the worst roster in the league led by a $230 million quarterback, Kyler Murray, who was coming off an ACL tear. Murray’s future in Arizona seemed uncertain, especially with the prospect of the Cardinals landing the top pick and grabbing USC’s Williams.

But beneath the team’s 4-13 record in Gannon’s first season was a competitive group that was better than most gave them credit for (the Cardinals beat three playoff teams). And Gannon was resolute: Murray was going nowhere.

Halfway through the 2024 season, Arizona (6-4) is leading the NFC West, and on Sunday became the latest team to rout the sorry Jets. The Cardinals’ 31-6 win is the team’s fourth in a row and fifth in six weeks.

They’ve won the last two by a combined 45 points.

Gannon’s getting it done. So is Murray, who set a new franchise record for most consecutive completions (17) in Sunday’s win and finished with three touchdowns. So is defensive coordinator Nick Rallis, whose unit has now gone three straight home games without allowing a touchdown. The last time that happened? Try 1926.

“The quarterback was the best player on the planet today,” Gannon said of Murray. “We’re gonna work tomorrow, the (players) are gonna get a little bit of rest, and the season starts tomorrow.”

Sounds like Gannon — and the surging Cardinals — are thinking playoffs.

(Photo of Jake Bates: Thomas B. Shea / Imagn Images)