This Week
Buffalo coughed up five turnovers and still left California with a win. Atlanta ran Green Bay off Lambeau Field like the Packers had never hosted a home opener. Baltimore beat Dallas in Rio on a 56-yard kick with one second left. Indianapolis finally won a game. Tampa Bay fell to 0-3. And then Washington — 0-2, Jayden Daniels in street clothes, Marcus Mariota under center — hosted the reigning champions and ended the reigning champions' 12-game win streak.
That last sentence is the weekend's spine.
Seattle had not lost since November. Sam Darnold returned and threw for 379 yards and four touchdowns. It still wasn't enough. Mariota stacked three touchdown passes, Kain Medrano ripped a 50-yard interception return for a score, and the Commanders hung on 33-31. One night after the league's cleanest early storyline (Seattle as the clear NFC favorite) got rewritten by a backup and a linebacker with a gift for timing. The power vacuum is real: San Francisco, Kansas City, Minnesota, Las Vegas, and Buffalo are all 3-0, Philadelphia can join them Monday night in Chicago, and the team that looked like No. 1 for two weeks is suddenly chasing.
What follows is the rest of the notebook — the Rio finish, the Lambeau demolition, the ugly Buffalo escape — and a full 1–32 that has to pretend Monday Night hasn't happened yet.
Commanders crack the champions. Daniels' elbow sidelined him; Mariota didn't play like a bridge. Three touchdown throws, enough poise in a back-and-forth, and Medrano's pick-six flipped a game Darnold nearly stole with volume. Seattle's first loss since November snaps a 12-game streak and drops the Super Bowl champs out of the early No. 1 conversation. Washington is still 1-2. The win is louder than the record.
Rio drama. First NFL regular-season game in Brazil, Maracanã as the backdrop, Derrick Henry with two early rushing scores, Dallas storming back, Lamar Jackson hitting Zay Flowers for 26 with a timeout and one second left. Tyler Loop from 56. Ravens 34, Cowboys 31. International novelty games usually flatten into forgettable boxes. This one didn't. Baltimore is 2-1 with a signature road win; Dallas is 1-2 and still searching for a closing kit.
Lambeau statement. Bijan Robinson: 194 rush yards, two touchdowns. Michael Penix Jr., first start since last November's ACL tear: 18-of-25, 256 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Drake London piled up a huge receiving day. Final rush margin: Falcons 242, Packers 17. Atlanta 35, Green Bay 14 — Packers' first home-opener loss since 2012, ending a 13-straight home-opener win streak. Both teams sit 1-2. Only one looked like a team with a plan for October.
Buffalo's five-turnover win. Josh Allen: two interceptions and a fumble. James Cook and Dalton Kincaid also put the ball on the ground. Five giveaways, and the Bills still beat the Chargers 24-16 — first Buffalo win with five-plus turnovers since 1997. Cook ran for 154 on 24 carries; Chauncey Gardner-Johnson's goal-line interception set up Allen's one-yard plunge for the first lead with 7:35 left. 3-0 never looked this messy. It still counts.
Purdy keeps dealing. San Francisco never trailed in Arizona. Brock Purdy threw four touchdown passes; George Kittle caught two in the end zone. 49ers 36, Cardinals 30. SF is 3-0 and still the cleanest tape in the league. Arizona drops to 1-2 with another late collapse pattern that won't heal on vibes alone.
Chiefs grind Miami. Patrick Mahomes went 20-of-24 for 246 yards and two scores; Travis Kelce found the end zone late. Kansas City 24, Miami 10. Chiefs 3-0, Dolphins 0-3. Miami's early-season floor is no longer a soft landing — it's a trapdoor.
Rodgers edges Burrow. Aaron Rodgers threw three touchdowns; a late strip-sack of Joe Burrow sealed Pittsburgh's 30-27 win. Steelers and Bengals both 2-1. Cincinnati's first loss of the year came against a quarterback who still looks like he can steal a division if the defense keeps finishing drives.
Watson's home debut. Deshaun Watson's first home start of the year: two touchdown passes, including a go-ahead 14-yarder to Harold Fannin Jr. under two minutes. Browns 21, Panthers 18. Cleveland 2-1; Carolina 1-2 and suddenly quiet after last week's Atlanta thrashing.
Colts finally win. Spencer Shrader kicked four field goals, including the game-winning kick in the final 20 seconds, and Indianapolis beat Houston 19-17 for its first win since November. Daniel Jones put three fumbles on the ground and still left with a W. Colts 1-2, Texans 0-3 — one of those outcomes that settles nothing about either roster's ceiling.
MNF thoughts (not played). Eagles (2-0) at Bears (1-1), 8:15 p.m. ET, Soldier Field. Caleb Williams is out (hamstring). Chicago is choosing between Case Keenum and Tyson Bagent (cleared concussion protocol; game-time), with Miller Moss as the emergency. Jalen Hurts is at roughly 64.5% through two games, 467 yards, five touchdowns, two interceptions — efficient enough to make this a road statement if Philadelphia's defense travels. Rankings for both clubs below are provisional until the final whistle.
I Think I Think
Seattle's streak dying on a Mariota night is the clearest early signal that the NFC has no locked No. 1. San Francisco's tape says otherwise on efficiency. The standings say five teams are 3-0 and the champs just got punched. Both can be true until October sorts it.
Marcus Mariota didn't "save" Washington's season. He bought it a week of oxygen and a highlight that will loop until Daniels' elbow timeline clears. The Commanders' real test is whether that supporting cast — Medrano included — shows up when the next opponent isn't coming off a 12-game high.
Buffalo winning with five turnovers is not a personality quirk. It's a warning. Cook's 154 yards covered for Allen's giveaways once. Gardner-Johnson's goal-line pick won't be available on demand. 3-0 teams that survive self-inflicted wounds either tighten up or meet a cleaner opponent that doesn't.
Bijan Robinson at Lambeau was the individual offensive performance of the weekend. One hundred ninety-four rush yards and two scores against a Packers front that looked unprepared for gap integrity is a scheme win and a talent flex. Penix's return made it sustainable; Bijan made it inevitable.
Tyler Loop from 56 with one second left in Rio will be the clip that sells the next international package. Fair. The football point underneath: Baltimore's willingness to use the timeout, trust Lamar for the 26-yard chunk, and let the kicker cook is the opposite of panic. Dallas's inability to finish the comeback is the part that travels into Week 4 film rooms.
On the Jacksonville kneel: Lawrence thought the clock was lower and took a knee at the 1 with roughly eight minutes left. Then Tuten scored anyway. The Jaguars still won 35-6. Situational awareness is a coaching point, not a crisis — but it's the kind of detail that becomes a crisis if it shows up in January.
Deep dive on the early 0-3 cluster: a) Tampa Bay's first 0-3 since 2014 includes a special-teams dagger and a Murray return touchdown against them — that's not just "bad luck," it's a roster that can't cover multiple phases. b) Houston losing on a late Colts field goal after another unfinished afternoon suggests the problem is finishing, not talent scarcity. c) Chargers failing to punish five Buffalo turnovers is the most damning tape of the three. Opportunities define floors. They left theirs on the field.
Aaron Rodgers throwing three touchdowns and finishing Burrow with a strip-sack is the Steelers' 2026 thesis in miniature: veteran quarterback, opportunistic front, one-score games. It won't always be pretty. In the AFC North, pretty is optional.
The Eagles-Bears preview writes itself as a mismatch on paper — until you remember Philadelphia's two wins weren't blowouts and Chicago's defense can still generate pressure with a backup under center. If Bagent or Keenum manages the game and the run fits, Soldier Field at night gets weird. If Hurts hits early explosives, it doesn't.
Green Bay's home-opener streak dying on a 242-17 rush deficit is the kind of loss that rewrites a coaching staff's week. Scheme, edges, and pride all took the same hit. A 1-2 Packers team that can't stop the run at Lambeau has a different October than the one fans booked in August.
Dominic Zvada's four field goals and a Giants win without a touchdown is peak early-season chaos. Winston starting, Dart out, Burns hurt, Holland sealing it. New York is 2-1 and somehow still a medical-report franchise first. Enjoy the record; don't build a parade float.
Next week's watch list writes itself after tonight: whoever sits at 3-0 Monday night joins the early separation tier, and whoever sits in that 0-3 pile has to decide whether September is a hole or a grave. Three weeks is early. Three losses already isn't nothing.