Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger feature in Neil Reynolds' Pick Six
Monday 16 November 2015 15:18, UK
It was a night of high drama as several teams recorded historic, streak-ending victories in tense and exciting fashion across the NFL.
The Detroit Lions won in Green Bay for the first time since 1991, the Miami Dolphins won in Philadelphia for the first time since 1993, the Jacksonville Jaguars won in Baltimore for the first time since 1999, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Dallas Cowboys for the first time since 2003 and the New England Patriots beat the New York Giants for the first time since 2007.
All five of those games featured late drama that left NFL fans on the very edge of their seats. It was top-flight American football action at its very best.
Time to bench Manning?
But let's start in Denver, where the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Broncos for the first time since 2011 (there is a theme here, you see?) Peyton Manning broke Brett Favre's all-time passing mark in the first half with a four-yard completion to Ronnie Hillman, at that time giving him 71,840 yards for his career.
But it was symbolic that after taking the applause of the crowd, Manning threw the ball to the sideline - it was almost as if he knew that football was going to be a piece of the worst game of his career, and he wanted no part of it.
Manning threw five completions to his own team and four interceptions to Kansas City defenders as the Chiefs eased to a 29-13 victory. The future Hall of Famer looked a spent force and it might be time to sit him down in favour of the younger but obviously less experienced Brock Osweiler.
It may seem like sacrilege to suggest such a thing but if you took the name and number off his jersey and watched Manning this season, you would tell me he was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league. Head coach Gary Kubiak insists there is no quarterback controversy and that Manning was nursing foot and rib injuries on Sunday, but the Broncos can't afford too many more showings like that, given they are supposed to be in the thick of a Super Bowl race.
Giants let Patriots off the hook
They had them. The New York Giants could have beaten the undefeated New England Patriots on Sunday evening but they let Bill Belichick and Tom Brady off the hook.
To beat New England, you have to be totally ruthless and take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. The Giants didn't do that on three vital occasions in the waning moments in New York - Odell Beckham Jr dropped a touchdown pass in the end zone, meaning New York kicked a field goal for a late two-point lead that would not be enough. Had Beckham scored, the Patriots would have needed a touchdown to win instead of a field goal of their own.
Then safety Landon Collins dropped a sure-fire interception on an errant Brady throw. Collins not only failed to secure the ball, he probably took it away from a better-positioned team-mate in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Finally, the Giants forced New England into a fourth and 10 situation only to allow Brady to complete a 12-yard strike to Danny Amendola.
The rest is history - Stephen Gostkowski landed the 54-yard field goal with one second remaining and the Patriots, who dug deeper than required all season long, remain in the land of the perfect.
Packers lose third game in a row
The headline from this contest will be centred around the struggling Detroit Lions winning at Lambeau Field for the first time since 1991, snapping a 24-game road losing streak to the Packers in the process.
Detroit were holding on for dear life at the end. The Packers scored a late touchdown to pull within two points, then failed on the two-point conversion. But somehow, Green Bay secured the onside kick that went through Calvin Johnson's hands and had one final shot. But Mason Crosby's 52-yard field goal screwed off target and the Lions had a famous win.
But all of that drama masks a serious problem for the Packers - they cannot protect star quarterback Aaron Rodgers and their receivers are not doing enough to get open on the outside. It has been a stunning fall from grace for a Packers team that opened the year with six straight wins.
Bears waking from hibernation
There are still a lot of teams ahead of them in the NFC play-off picture, but the Chicago Bears have bounced back very nicely indeed from their 0-3 start. Chicago's 37-13 win in St Louis was their fourth victory in their last six games and came while battling some key injuries.
Jay Cutler looks very comfortable in Adam Gase's offense and head coach John Fox appears to have this team in a good state of mind. With Matt Forte sidelined through injury, rookie rusher Jeremy Langford has emerged as a star with 182 total yards and two touchdowns on Sunday.
The suddenly-dangerous Bears could present a real challenge to Manning and the Broncos this coming weekend.
Cowboys drop seventh straight game
I know we're not even at Thanksgiving yet and our marathon in-studio triple-header, but you can put a fork in the Dallas Cowboys - they're done.
The Cowboys had genuine Super Bowl hopes coming into the 2015 season but the alarm bells started ringing when star quarterback Tony Romo went down with a broken collarbone in a Week 2 win at Philadelphia. Dallas targeted a Week 11 (this coming Sunday) return and simply wanted to stay respectable in Romo's absence.
Well, that has not worked out. Rather than stay competitive and maybe scrap out three or four wins, the Cowboys have gone 0-7 with Brandon Weeden and Matt Cassel at quarterback. But is this all on the quarterbacks in Dallas? There are other stars on this team such as Dez Bryant - he had two catches for 12 yards a couple of weeks back against Seattle and just five for 45 yards in a 10-6 loss to Tampa on Sunday.
That's not good enough, no matter who is throwing the passes.
Just Ben being Ben
There was a typical Ben Roethlisberger display on Sunday night as he led the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 30-9 victory over the Cleveland Browns. But it should have been anything but typical because Big Ben was on the field when most men would have been sat at home feeling sorry for themselves with a sprained foot.
Roethlisberger was reportedly going to be out two to three weeks after spraining his foot against the Raiders last week, but he refused to be fully taken out of commission and opened Sunday's contest as the reserve to Landry Jones.
But Jones lasted just seven plays before suffering a foot injury of his own and in came Big Ben. The two-time Super Bowl winner soon showed his pedigree and trademark toughness and ended the day with 379 passing yards and three touchdowns.
With such leadership at the game's most important position and with a wide receiver who many feel is the NFL's best in Antonio Brown in such devastating form (445 yards of offense over the past two weeks), even the elite teams in the AFC will not fancy taking on the Steelers should Mike Tomlin's men make the play-offs.
