A short list of everything that happened this week:
1. The Eagles, the NFL’s last undefeated team lost… on Monday night… at home… to a sub-.500 division rival.
2. The Colts hired a head coach from ESPN (Jeff Saturday) and went in to Las Vegas and beat the Raiders.
3. Tom Brady added yet another item to his Guinness Book of World Records-sized record book by becoming the first player to win a game in four different countries (USA, UK, Mexico, and now Germany) with the Bucs win over Seattle.
4. The Denver Broncos lost 17-10, marking the fifth time they’ve lost a game while surrendering less than 20 points. Taking the under in a Broncos game is getting to Service Academy levels – the under has hit in 8 of the Broncos’ 9 games. The one time they went over? A 32-23 loss against their Week 11 opponent, Las Vegas. That game also marks the most points the Broncos have allowed and scored themselves.
Of course, all of that pales to what is already being called the game of the season between the (now) 8-1 Vikings and the Bills in Orchard Park on Sunday. The Bills went ahead 27-10 in the third only for the Vikings to claw back the lead, aided by an 81 yard touchdown run by Dalvin Cook.
Late in the fourth, with the Vikes still down 27-23, Minnesota mounted a methodical drive – read: threw up jump balls to Justin Jefferson, including this stunning, contested one-handed grab on 4th-and-18 – and got it all the way to the one-foot line before Buffalo made a goal-line stand on 4th and goal (one for which I could not find on YouTube). Of course, Buffalo’s going to win, right? Ah, no… on the next play from the one-inch line, Josh Allen fumbles the snap, which is promptly pounced on by the Vikings in the end zone for the go-ahead score! This happens with 41 seconds left which, of course, is more than enough time for Josh Allen and the Bills to end regulation with a game-tying field goal, sending it into overtime. In overtime, the Vikings get a field goal, so the Bills need a score to end (or prolong) the game. With the Bills moving down the field, Allen throws this pick to end the game. That loss dropped the Bills from first in the AFC to third in their division, with Buffalo now looking up at Miami and the Jets in the division (and just one game ahead of the Patriots in the AFC East basement). The Vikings, meanwhile, are now second only to the Eagles (the only team to beat them) in the NFC standings and four games up on the Packers in the NFC Central (with the head-to-head tiebreaker).
APY POOL UPDATE
Our top scorer this week was Sam, who put up 13 points, including an impressive run that included wins by Carolina, Indy, Arizona, and Detroit. With that 13, she cracks the century mark and moves into 11th place.
Overall, Donna P continues her reign over the league, despite a bit of a slip-up, and now has 113 points and a 4 point lead over Randy. Salvo is in third place with 106 points, Paul is next with 105, and then there is a log-jam in fifth, with Tom, Kevin, Adam, and Fred all tied at 103.
