Sports

NFL Week 3 winners and losers led by Cowboys' defensive calamity

Nairavoice · Sep 28, 2026 · 7 min read

It took a second trip to the Southern Hemisphere this month, but the NFL managed to export a premier product to a new market that should be enthralled by what it witnessed.

The Baltimore Ravens’ 34-31 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro – kicker Tyler Loop drilling the game-winning, 56-yard field goal on the final play in a country famed for golden boots (Pelé, Garrincha, Neymar, Ronaldo, Marta, the list goes on) – was arguably the best international performance ever in the two decades since the league began playing regular-season games abroad. It was an even bigger win for the NFL given all the speculation leading up to the game that the field conditions at Maracanã Stadium wouldn’t be up to snuff for the league’s first game in South America’s third-largest city.

But by night’s end, there was plenty of chatter about a dramatic game – specifically its ending – and hardly a peep about a playing surface that held up for 793 yards of aggregate offense. It even survived a halftime show featuring Ricky Martin and Brazilian pop star Pedro Sampaio.

So count the NFL as a major beneficiary amid its ongoing bid for galactic eminence. As for Week 3’s other winners and losers?

The first Rio game was a classic, the Cowboys and Ravens exchanging the lead in a fourth quarter that seemed destined to produce overtime prior to the frenetic finish. It was certainly a much better show than the Los Angeles Rams (specifically) and San Francisco 49ers managed in Melbourne, Australia, in Week 1. Now the league can only hope to maintain its momentum abroad. The Rio contest kicked off a stretch of five consecutive weeks (and eight of the next nine) with an international matchup, which will include the first regular-season sojourn to Paris (Steelers-Saints in Week 7) and the first game in Mexico City since 2022 (Vikings-49ers in Week 11) in a season with a record number of overseas dates. Expect more in 2027, especially if foreign fans are treated to showcase matchups like Sunday’s.

The league loves the on-field kind. Twelve of Sunday’s 14 games were of the one-score variety – tying the record for a single day. Six teams scored the game-winning points in the final three minutes.

Let’s show ’em some love. Start with the Indianapolis Colts‘ Spencer Shrader, whose 2025 season was cut short when his knee got wrecked by the Raiders during an extra-point attempt. Sunday was shaping up as another forgettable day for Shrader, who injured his groin while kicking off against the Houston Texans. Yet he still managed to convert his PAT try and all four FG attempts, including the game-winning 53-yarder in the final seconds – despite a terrible snap.

Spencer Shrader nails the 53-yard field goal to give the Colts the late lead! pic.twitter.com/5DFKtnodPM

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 27, 2026

Loop celebrated as if he’d won the World Cup in Rio – and why not? After his rookie season, during which he was trying to replace legendary (on the field) Ravens K Justin Tucker, ended with a missed 44-yard field goal that cost Baltimore a winning record and playoff berth – and, to some degree, John Harbaugh his job – Loop had a heckuva highlight Sunday.

And how about undrafted rookie Dominic Zvada of the New York Giants. All he did was drill all four of his field-goal tries Sunday – accounting for all of his team’s points in a 12-7 victory over the Tennessee Titans – while a nor’easter pummeled New Jersey.

One more component to Loop’s laser? The CBS play-by-play man’s gem of a call: “A trio in Rio!”

TYLER LOOP WINS IT FOR THE RAVENS pic.twitter.com/fqMQ09xGYI

— NFL (@NFL) September 27, 2026

The Giants’ Jameis Winston and Washington Commanders’ Marcus Mariota, thrust into the lineup after their teams’ QB1s were injured in Week 2, led their NFC East squads to victory Sunday. Mariota (three TD passes) was especially stellar in a 33-31 upset of the previously undefeated Seattle Seahawks … who turned back to Sam Darnold even though their backup, Drew Lock, currently rates as the NFL’s most efficient passer (127.3 rating). Monday night, Chicago Bears journeyman Case Keenum is expected to get his chance to shine as his team plays its first game of the season without injured star Caleb Williams.

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With 30 points and 411 yards of output in a 30-27 upset of the division rival Cincinnati Bengals, QB Aaron Rodgers and Co. easily exceeded their points total (16) from the first two weeks and came close to their aggregate yardage from Weeks 1 and 2, too. And while Rodgers has plenty of familiarity with new coach Mike McCarthy, going back to their Green Bay days, it appears the rest of the team is starting to acclimate to his approach, too – and Rodgers got almost everyone involved, distributing his 19 completions among nine different players.

The team that drafted No. 1 overall in April? It’s 3-0 on the heels of a 3-14 season? Get outta here.

With 390 yards through the air Sunday night in Denver, he became the first quarterback in league history to pass for 20,000 yards for two different franchises (Rams, Lions). He even appeared in Taylor Swift’s new “Patient Zero” video during MTV Video Music Awards earlier in the night. Talk about versatility.

They sit undefeated atop the NFC West, almost inarguably the league’s most unforgiving division.

Nick Bosa, Mike Evans, Trent Williams, Dre Greenlaw, Ricky Pearsall, De’Zhaun Stribling, Christian Kirk and Demarcus Robinson are all among the injured Niners. How much more can this team withstand, especially as the schedule prepares to serve up the Broncos and Seahawks the next two weeks?

His 33rd career pick-six, most in NFL history after he’d been tied with Hall of Famer Brett Favre, was a major component of the Rams’ 30-26 loss at Denver, one that dropped the overwhelming preseason Super Bowl 61 favorites to 1-2.

HUFANGA PICK-6! DENVER IS LOUD!@LARvsDEN on NBC/Peacock
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/53CZ9kkDpf

— NFL (@NFL) September 28, 2026

They went a collective 1-3 Sunday, the lone winner – the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen – was lucky to avoid his first loss of the season after turning the ball over three times in Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Chargers. But it’s the New England Patriots who are saying “Mayeday” after 2025 MVP runner-up Drake Maye had another abysmal performance in a 35-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, his three turnovers Sunday upping his season total to seven. “My concern level is very high for this football team,” coach Mike Vrabel said of the reigning AFC champions, who are now 1-2.

Allen defended Buffalo’s widely panned “Nickel City” alternate uniforms when they were unveiled this summer. Then he played like they look Sunday. The Colts’ “Anvil Strike” look wasn’t much better, though at least Indianapolis finally got a win in its new “Rivalries” threads.

Perhaps no assistant coach hiring over the offseason generated more hype and interest than the deposed Miami Dolphins coach taking his playbook across the country to join forces with Jim Harbaugh, Justin Herbert and the Chargers. But the results continue to be disappointing − something of an understatement. The winless Bolts have totaled just 44 points in three games with the normally reserved Herbert even displaying outward frustration. But Harbaugh has no plans to make a change … yet. “I’m not singling out anybody. We win these games as a team, we lose as a team,” he said. “Not where we want to be. Only one way to correct it: Just keep chipping away.”

Though they entered the weekend with an 0-2 record, their recent history – and the NFC South’s unimpressive track record – suggested the Bucs could quite reasonably get back into the fray. Instead, they lost to the Minnesota Vikings and, worse, seem likely to lose QB Baker Mayfield (dislocated thumb on his throwing hand) for a period of time. In reserve? Undrafted and unproven rookie Jalon Daniels. Who?

It was another rough day for the Cowboys’ rookie defensive coordinator. With 7 seconds on the clock and the game tied, Parker’s troops gave up a 27-yard completion to WR Zay Flowers – probably the one guy who needed to be contained in such a scenario – which set up Loop’s coup de grâce. “I thought the sequence played by the Dallas Cowboys at the end of the game in Rio was somewhat negligent, to be quite honest with you,” said NBC analyst and former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin in what seemed to be a rather universal assessment. (Though maybe the football gods intervened here given the dubious pass interference call the Cowboys benefited from prior to kicking the game-tying field goal prior to the Ravens’ game-winning, well, drive.)