NFL Week 3 1 PM Recap: Jacksonville Humiliates New England, Seattle Finally Cracks, Buffalo Survives Five Turnovers and the AFC North Gets Messier

The 1 p.m. slate in Week 3 gave us a little bit of everything. Jacksonville absolutely embarrassed the defending AFC champion Patriots, Washington ended Seattle's massive winning streak despite getting outgained by almost 180 yards, Pittsburgh survived Cincinnati in a classic AFC North rock fight with actual offense mixed in, the Giants somehow won a game without scoring a touchdown, Kansas City quietly moved to 3-0, Houston found a new and creative way to lose, Detroit survived a legitimately good Geno Smith performance, and Buffalo somehow committed five turnovers and still beat the Chargers by eight. It was one of those Sundays where almost every game had a completely different personality, which is why RedZone remains one of humanity's greatest inventions.

Jaguars 35, Patriots 6: New England Got Absolutely Smoked

This was not close. It was not competitive. It was not one of those games where the final score looks worse than what actually happened. Jacksonville beat New England 35-6, and the Jaguars looked like the more physical, more prepared and more dangerous team basically from the second quarter onward. Trevor Lawrence threw three touchdowns, Jacksonville scored two touchdowns within 18 seconds late in the third quarter, and the game went from mildly uncomfortable for New England to completely over almost instantly.

The funny part is that the total-yardage numbers were almost identical. New England finished with 317 yards. Jacksonville had 315. Each team ran exactly 60 plays. Both averaged 5.3 yards per play. If somebody showed you only those numbers, you would think this was a one-score game.

It was a 29-point massacre.

That is what three turnovers will do to you.

Drake Maye finished 14-of-25 for 199 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions before Tommy DeVito finished things out. New England also lost a fumble, and Jacksonville continuously turned those mistakes and short fields into points. Maye's postgame comments were appropriately harsh, saying he needed to look at himself in the mirror and treat the loss as a turning point. That is probably the correct attitude after getting blown out by a team that only outgained you by two yards.

Lawrence did not need to put together some 400-yard masterpiece. He went 19-of-29 for 182 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Jakobi Meyers caught seven passes for 64 yards and a touchdown against his former team, Parker Washington added another score, and Jacksonville ran the ball efficiently enough to keep everything balanced.

Bhayshul Tuten finished with 73 yards and a touchdown, while Chris Rodriguez added 37 yards and another score.

Jacksonville is now 2-1 and has won 10 of its last 11 regular-season games going back to last year. That is starting to feel less like a cute streak and more like this might actually be a good football team.

New England, meanwhile, falls to 1-2 after reaching the Super Bowl last season.

Football moves fast.

One minute you are playing in February.

Seven months later you are losing 35-6 in Jacksonville.

Commanders 33, Seahawks 31: Seattle Finally Lost, and It Took Three Turnovers to Do It

Seattle came into Sunday riding a 12-game winning streak going back through last year's

Super Bowl run.

That streak is dead.

Washington beat Seattle 33-31 in one of the strangest box scores of the entire afternoon. The Seahawks outgained Washington 437-258. Sam Darnold threw for 379 yards and four touchdowns. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had 10 catches for 128 yards and two scores.

And Seattle lost.

Three turnovers were the reason. Washington did not turn the ball over once. Seattle turned it over three times, and the killer came with just over four minutes remaining when Washington linebacker Kain Medrano intercepted Darnold and returned it for a touchdown to make it 33-24. Seattle scored again with 2:55 left, but the Commanders were able to bleed out the remaining clock.

Marcus Mariota deserves a ton of credit here. Washington was without Jayden Daniels, but Mariota did exactly what a backup quarterback is supposed to do. He threw for only 183 yards, but he completed three touchdown passes, did not turn the ball over and made enough plays to keep Washington in control of the game. Terry McLaurin had six catches for 77 yards and a touchdown, and Washington consistently took advantage of Seattle mistakes.

This was a brutal loss for Seattle because the Seahawks played well enough offensively to win by two scores. Darnold had one of his best statistical games, JSN was excellent again and Seattle averaged 6.8 yards per play.

But Darnold also threw two interceptions.

Seattle also lost a fumble.

That is the entire game.

You can survive one turnover.

You can sometimes survive two.

You usually do not survive three when the other team has zero.

Seattle is still 2-1 and still looks like one of the better teams in the NFC, but this was the reminder that the defending champions are, in fact, capable of losing football games.

Steelers 30, Bengals 27: AFC North Football With Just Enough Offense to Be Entertaining

This was probably the best pure football game of the early slate.

Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati 30-27 in a game where both quarterbacks actually played pretty well and neither offense spent four quarters trying to set football back 40 years.

Aaron Rodgers went 19-of-34 for 292 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Joe Burrow went 28-of-37 for 282 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

That is not your grandfather's AFC North game.

Jaylen Warren was the difference-maker for Pittsburgh. He ran for 127 yards on 17 carries and added 49 receiving yards. He also had an 87-yard run wiped out by holding in the fourth quarter, which looked like it might completely change the game. Instead, Pittsburgh immediately responded with a 14-yard completion to DK Metcalf, a 47-yard catch-and-run by Darnell Washington and then a 26-yard Warren run that put the Steelers in field-goal range. Chris Boswell eventually hit from 33 yards to make it 30-27 with 2:15 remaining.

Burrow got the ball back with enough time to win it.

For about 90 seconds, it looked like we were headed for another classic Burrow drive.

Then Derrick Harmon destroyed everything.

Harmon sacked Burrow, forced a fumble and Sebastian Joseph-Day recovered it with 44 seconds left. Game over.

That one play changed the entire AFC North picture.

Pittsburgh is now 2-1.

Cincinnati is 2-1.

Cleveland is 2-1.

Baltimore had not played yet when the early slate ended.

So after three weeks, three teams in this division are sitting with identical records and

nobody has any clue who is actually good.

Very AFC North.

Ja'Marr Chase had nine catches for 98 yards and a touchdown. Tee Higgins had 90 yards and a score. DK Metcalf scored for Pittsburgh. Roman Wilson caught a 38-yard touchdown.

This game had actual skill-position production.

I barely recognized the division.

Giants 12, Titans 7: The Giants Won Without Scoring a Touchdown

This game was disgusting.

I mean that respectfully.

The Giants beat Tennessee 12-7 and scored exactly zero touchdowns.

Undrafted rookie kicker Dominic Zvada scored all 12 Giants points with four field goals.

That is the entire New York scoring summary.

Four field goals.

No touchdowns.

Victory.

Football is beautiful sometimes.

Jameis Winston got the start after Jaxson Dart's season-ending knee injury and did exactly what the Giants needed him to do: do not ruin the game. Winston completed 14-of-22 passes for 118 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

If you are a longtime Jameis watcher, a zero-touchdown, zero-interception stat line almost feels suspicious.

Cam Skattebo ran for 60 yards. Najee Harris added 52. New York controlled the ball for more than 34 minutes and simply waited for Tennessee to eventually make a mistake.

The Titans finally did.

Cam Ward actually gave Tennessee a chance late. He threw a four-yard touchdown to Wan'Dale Robinson with 5:39 remaining to make it 12-7, then drove the Titans all the way to the Giants' seven-yard line in the final minute.

First-and-goal.

Seventeen seconds left.

One shot to steal the game.

Ward threw an interception in the end zone to Jevón Holland.

That is absolutely brutal.

Ward finished 23-of-36 for 181 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Tennessee actually outgained New York 262-238, but committed two turnovers while the Giants committed none.

The Titans are now 0-3.

The Giants are somehow 2-1 after losing their rookie quarterback for the season and then winning a game where their offense never reached the end zone.

That feels sustainable.

Chiefs 24, Dolphins 10: Kansas City Is 3-0 and Nobody Is Talking About It Enough

Kansas City just keeps winning.

The Chiefs beat Miami 24-10 to improve to 3-0, and this one felt remarkably routine. Patrick Mahomes completed 20-of-24 passes for 246 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Kenneth Walker III ran for 70 yards and a touchdown and also caught another score. Travis Kelce had only two receptions, but one went for 48 yards and the other was an 11-yard touchdown that essentially put the game away late.

Miami actually possessed the ball for nearly nine minutes longer than Kansas City and finished with only five fewer total yards.

Did not matter.

Kansas City was dramatically more efficient.

The Chiefs averaged 6.8 yards per play compared with Miami's 4.9 and repeatedly finished drives while Miami stalled out.

Malik Willis continues to show flashes for Miami. He threw for 210 yards and added 56 rushing yards, but he did not throw a touchdown and was intercepted. Ollie Gordon scored Miami's only touchdown and ran for just 41 yards on 17 carries.

Miami is now 0-3.

That offense has looked disjointed for three straight weeks, and eventually "we moved the ball pretty well between the 20s" stops being comforting when you keep scoring 10 points.

Kansas City, meanwhile, is quietly doing Kansas City things again.

Mahomes is completing passes.

Kelce is still alive.

The defense is doing its job.

Kenneth Walker has given them a legitimate running game.

And the Chiefs are 3-0 without needing some insane late miracle every week.

That should probably concern everybody else in the AFC.

Colts 19, Texans 17: Houston Found Another Way to Lose

The Texans are 0-3.

That sentence alone is wild.

Houston lost 19-17 to Indianapolis in a game where the Colts turned the ball over three times and still won.

That should almost be impossible.

The Colts fumbled twice, Daniel Jones threw an interception and Indianapolis still walked out with the win because Houston's offense again could not consistently finish drives.

C.J. Stroud went 16-of-27 for 167 yards and one touchdown. Houston finished with only 223 total yards and averaged 4.4 yards per play. The rushing offense did basically nothing. David Montgomery had 33 yards on 11 carries. Woody Marks had 15 yards.

You cannot ask Stroud to win every possession with absolutely no help and expect good things to happen.

Indianapolis was not spectacular either. Daniel Jones threw for 235 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Jonathan Taylor ran 23 times for only 68 yards.

But the Colts possessed the ball for more than 35 minutes, converted enough third downs and kept giving themselves chances.

Eventually that mattered.

Houston actually took a 17-16 lead with 1:50 remaining on a Woody Marks touchdown.

That should have been the comeback.

Instead, Indianapolis drove into field-goal range and Spencer Shrader drilled a 53-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining to put the Colts back ahead 19-17.

Houston got one final desperation possession but could not get into range.

The Colts are 1-2 and very easily could be 2-1 after losing in overtime to Kansas City last week.

Houston is 0-3.

That is the headline.

The Texans have too much talent to be sitting here winless after three games, but at some

point talent stops mattering if the offense cannot consistently score.

Their first three point totals: 31, 32, 33.

That is not good enough.

Lions 31, Jets 24: Geno Smith Played Great, and the Jets Still Found a Way to Lose

Geno Smith deserved better than this.

He completed 31-of-37 passes for 321 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Garrett Wilson had 10 catches for 107 yards and a touchdown. Rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq had seven catches for 105 yards and a score.

The Jets scored 24 points.

And still lost 31-24.

Detroit's offense was just a little better.

Jared Goff completed 25-of-32 passes for 269 yards and two touchdowns. Jahmyr Gibbs ran for 99 yards and two touchdowns, then caught seven passes for another 65 yards and a third score.

That is a monster game.

Every time the Jets got close, Detroit answered.

New York cut the lead to 24-17 early in the fourth.

Detroit kept moving.

The Jets then tied it 24-24 with 4:06 remaining after Geno hit Garrett Wilson for a 23-yard touchdown and converted the two-point attempt.

At that point it felt like Detroit might have finally blown it.

Nope.

Goff drove the Lions right back down the field and found Gibbs for an 11-yard touchdown with 2:30 remaining.

31-24.

The Jets still got the ball back with enough time.

Geno moved them into Detroit territory.

Then with 51 seconds remaining, Chandler Clark sacked Geno, forced a fumble and Jack

Campbell recovered it.

That was it.

Another Jets loss where they were competitive enough to make it hurt.

The Jets are now 1-2 after losing two straight games by a combined 10 points.

Detroit is 2-1 and probably feels a lot better after getting punched around by Buffalo on

Thursday night last week.

The biggest positive for New York is Geno.

He looks good.

The biggest negative is that "the quarterback looked good and we still lost" is basically the Jets' historical mission statement.

Bills 24, Chargers 16: Buffalo Turned It Over Five Times and Still Won

This might be the most insane stat of the entire early slate.

Buffalo turned the football over five times.

Five.

And won by eight.

That should not happen.

Josh Allen threw two interceptions. Buffalo lost three fumbles. The Bills also committed 10 penalties for 88 yards.

And somehow Los Angeles still could not beat them.

That tells you everything you need to know about where these two teams currently are.

Buffalo is 3-0.

The Chargers are 0-3.

James Cook was the hero. He ran 24 times for 154 yards and the touchdown that essentially iced the game late. Josh Allen had a very un-Allen passing line, going 16-of-26 for 204 yards with no passing touchdowns and two interceptions, but he still ran for two touchdowns and made enough plays when Buffalo absolutely needed them.

The Chargers actually led 10-0 after the first quarter.

Justin Herbert threw an early touchdown to Keaton Mitchell, and Buffalo looked completely out of sync.

Then the Bills settled down.

They tied it 10-10 before halftime. The Chargers kicked a field goal in the third to go back ahead 13-10.

Then Buffalo took over in the fourth.

Allen scored from one yard out to make it 17-13.

Cook scored from three yards out to make it 24-13.

Game.

Herbert finished with 226 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The Chargers ran the ball reasonably well and actually out-possessed Buffalo, but once again they could not consistently finish drives.

Buffalo also got a massive defensive performance from Greg Rousseau, who recorded his fifth sack of the season and, according to the Bills, passed Bruce Smith for the most sacks by a Buffalo player through the first three games of a season. That is a pretty good name to pass.

The Bills are 3-0 despite playing a pretty sloppy game.

That is usually the sign of a very good team.

The Chargers are 0-3 despite having Justin Herbert.

That is usually the sign of a franchise that enjoys emotional violence.

What the 1 PM Slate Told Us

Jacksonville might actually be legitimate. That defense is creating turnovers, Lawrence is playing controlled football and the Jaguars are winning without needing him to throw for 350 yards every week.

New England has problems.

Seattle is still very good, but three turnovers will eventually get anyone.

Washington just saved itself from a disastrous 0-3 start with its backup quarterback.

Pittsburgh and Cincinnati look extremely evenly matched, and Cleveland somehow gets to sit there at 2-1 with both of them.

The Giants are 2-1 despite losing Jaxson Dart and scoring zero touchdowns today.

Kansas City is 3-0 and quietly looks extremely normal again, which is probably terrifying.

Houston is 0-3 and desperately needs to figure out why an offense with C.J. Stroud is producing so little.

Detroit is going to keep winning games as long as Jahmyr Gibbs is doing ridiculous things.

The Jets might actually have a quarterback and still cannot escape Jets football.

Buffalo turned the ball over five times and still won.

And the Chargers are 0-3.

That last one deserves its own sentence.

The Chargers are 0-3.

It is only Week 3, but we are already getting to the point where certain teams are building

themselves massive holes. Houston, Miami, Tennessee and Los Angeles are all winless.

Meanwhile Buffalo and Kansas City are both sitting at 3-0.

Three weeks is not enough to decide an entire season.

It is absolutely enough to start getting nervous.