Every Sunday, we cut through the noise to spotlight the NFL's most important developments and break down why they matter moving forward.
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Sunday night spotlight
Seahawks didn't let Walker beat them
Reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker left Seattle in the offseason, and prior to Sunday night, everything was going great. He averaged 133 rushing yards in his first five games with the Kansas City Chiefs, scoring eight touchdowns.
However, his former team made sure the good times didn't roll through Seattle on Sunday Night Football.
The Seahawks' defense, which hasn't allowed a 100-yard rusher since October 2024, held Walker to only 36 yards on 14 carries. Seattle dared Patrick Mahomes to beat them with his banged-up wide receiving corps. By the final whistle of the Seahawks' 20-3 win, Mahomes had 162 yards, an interception, and a 62.7 passer rating. No Chiefs WR had even 20 yards.
Not every defense will be able to replicate the Seahawks' dominance of the Chiefs' run game. But Kansas City should probably expect more opponents to prioritize slowing Walker down and dare Mahomes and Co. to win through the air moving forward.
Late slate
Lions' win over Packers was a comedy of errors
Detroit and Green Bay combined for 739 yards of offense in what would've been the most exciting game of the day, if not for the silly mistakes made by just about everyone.
Lions coach Dan Campbell nearly cost his team the win by making questionable decisions to go for it on fourth down in two critical moments. Neither of those gambles worked.
Instead of a 23-yard field goal, the Lions went for it on a fourth-and-goal from the 6-yard line and turned it over on downs. The next roll of the dice - and subsequent turnover on downs - was even worse. It handed the Packers the ball at Detroit's 22-yard line with less than five minutes left in a tie game.
The Packers blew that opportunity by failing to score a touchdown and settling for a 35-yard field goal that Trey Smack promptly missed. The rookie kicker also unsuccessfully attempted a 26-yard field goal in the first quarter. Those are two of only three field goals missed by any NFL kicker from inside 35 yards this season.
Officials contributed to the silliness in Detroit, too.
Two Lions drives were aided by roughing the passer penalties that probably didn't need to be called. The second was called against defensive lineman Karl Brooks, who wasn't late, didn't hit Jared Goff high, and didn't land on the Lions' passer either. It handed Detroit 15 extra yards on the drive that ended with a game-winning field goal in a 20-17 victory.
Bo Nix silenced the haters ... a little
The Broncos' third-year quarterback has been taking some heat for his lackluster play this year. The team's 30-16 win over the Cardinals will quiet the criticism a bit.
Nix finished with 222 passing yards, 73 rushing yards, and no turnovers. He also became the fourth player in the Super Bowl era to record a 50-plus-yard rushing touchdown and 50-plus-yard passing TD in the same game.
Of course, it helped his case that his passing touchdown was a screen pass that RJ Harvey turned into a 52-yard play. Either way, leading a 30-point performance is enough to keep the doubters at bay.
Rams fend off dreaded 28-3 comeback
A couple of memorable NFL moments of the 21st century came to mind when the Las Vegas Raiders scored two touchdowns in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter Sunday after being down 28-3 earlier in the game.
One was the comeback orchestrated by now-Raiders owner Tom Brady in Super Bowl LI to help the New England Patriots erase a 28-3 deficit and get a 34-28 win over the Atlanta Falcons. The other was Kirk Cousins yelling "You like that?!" exactly 11 years ago today after he dug Washington out of a 24-0 hole to beat the Buccaneers 31-30.
Cousins' Raiders couldn't finish the feat Sunday, though.
Los Angeles slammed that door shut by putting together a 12-play, 66-yard touchdown drive that ate up more than half of the last 13 minutes of the game. The Rams claimed a 35-21 triumph to snap a two-game skid.
Early slate
Skattebo back in good favor
Whether or not Cam Skattebo was benched last week depends on who you ask. John Harbaugh said it wasn't an intentional decision to give the running back zero touches against the New Orleans Saints, but Skattebo told reporters that he was being punished for his fumbling issues. No matter how you cut it, Skattebo went from a nonfactor last week to a focal point against the Houston Texans on Sunday.
The second-year tailback made the most of his opportunity at redemption, carrying the ball 17 times for 124 yards, the first 100-yard rushing game of his career. Skattebo also bounced and spun off contact to bully his way into the end zone on a 16-yard touchdown that gave the Giants a 21-14 lead in the fourth quarter. But the cherry on top of his day was a 42-yard run in overtime that put his team in position to potentially kick a game-winning field goal. That wound up being unnecessary because Devin Singletary iced the win with a 30-yard touchdown on the next play.
With J.J. McCarthy connecting on deep balls, and the Giants running backs finally showing signs of life, the NFC East could be New York's for the taking.
NFC South wide open again
The stage was set for a great afternoon for the Carolina Panthers. After the Saints lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier in the day in Paris, Carolina faced the one-win Tampa Bay Buccaneers while the Falcons had a matchup against the undefeated San Francisco 49ers. If everything went right for the Panthers, they could've exited Week 7 with a 2.5-game lead in the NFC South and a couple of tiebreakers to boot.
Instead, just about everything went wrong for Carolina.
The Panthers were thoroughly dominated by the Bucs, while Atlanta handed San Francisco its first loss. Carolina still has the division lead at 3-3, but the 3-4 Falcons are breathing down their neck, and neither the 2-5 Buccaneers nor the 2-5 Saints are far behind.
Vikings keep winning with the same script
Minnesota stayed undefeated with a 16-10 win against the Colts that looked awfully familiar to most of the team's wins this season. The Vikings already have two victories without scoring a touchdown and only needed to cross the goal line once to beat Indianapolis.
While Daniel Jones almost went 60 minutes without turning the ball over, it was far from a mistake-free day for the Colts quarterback. He was sacked four times by the Vikings' defense, losing double-digit yardage on each one. With one last chance to steal a win, Jones made the egregious error he avoided all day and threw a pass straight to Minnesota's Harrison Smith.
One would assume that the 6-0 Vikings need to start scoring more points to keep winning. It hasn't been a problem yet, though.
49ers desperately miss Mike Evans
San Francisco got off to a good start against Atlanta on Sunday, but the offense struggled to do much in the last three quarters. The glaring issue for the Niners in the loss was the wide receiver position.
With Mike Evans joining Deebo Samuel, Ricky Pearsall, and others on the 49ers' list of injured receivers, most of Brock Purdy's completions (20 of 27) were split among running backs, a fullback, and tight ends. Wideouts Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins had three grabs each, but offseason addition Christian Kirk was never targeted in his 49ers debut. Veteran Brandin Cooks only caught one of the three passes thrown his way.
Purdy finished Sunday's 29-20 loss with 288 yards and one touchdown against two interceptions. He was also sacked twice.
The return of Evans or Samuel can't happen soon enough for the 49ers, and a trade to acquire additional receiver talent might need to happen, regardless.
Dolphins no longer winless
After seven weeks of NFL action, the Los Angeles Chargers (who are on bye) are the only team without a win.
In a surprisingly high-scoring contest, the Dolphins came out on top 28-25 against the Jets. Miami's offense had its best day of the season with youth leading the way. Second-year running back Ollie Gordon rumbled for 103 yards and a touchdown, and rookie receiver Caleb Douglas caught the first two touchdowns of his young career.
A tale of two halves for Bengals
Cincinnati had zero points and 59 yards of offense at halftime against the Baltimore Ravens. In the second half, Cincinnati scored touchdowns on five consecutive drives to cruise to a 35-13 triumph.
Joe Burrow threw four touchdown passes in that onslaught and leaned heavily on Tee Higgins, who finished with 148 yards and a touchdown. Ja'Marr Chase also found the end zone once.
It's a tight race in the AFC North where every team has a winning record, and the Bengals may be the scariest-looking team despite currently sitting in third place.
Browns keep finding a way
It was another week of the Browns seemingly going belly up before stealing a victory late. The Tennessee Titans raced out to a 14-0 lead early, and they later managed to put together a 63-yard touchdown drive to tie the game with just under a minute left in the fourth quarter. It wasn't enough to hold off Cleveland.
With just under 30 seconds left, Deshaun Watson found tight end Harold Fannin for a 36-yard gain to set up a 32-yard game-winner for kicker Andre Szmyt.
The 5-2 Browns haven't won a game by more than four points this season, and three of their wins have come on game-winning field goals in the final 10 seconds.
It's not looking good for Saints' leadership
Two weeks ago, Saints owner Gayle Benson said the team's recent performance was unacceptable, and that it needs to "prepare better" amid yet another disappointing start. While New Orleans narrowly avoided disaster when it almost blew a 34-10 fourth-quarter lead against the Giants last week, the Saints' 16-10 loss to the Steelers in Paris on Sunday was more of the same issues.
Pittsburgh's Jaylen Warren ran for 101 yards against the struggling Saints run defense, and New Orleans' offensive unit couldn't avoid the catastrophic errors that are proving costly on a weekly basis.
A 14-play drive for the Saints to start the second half ended without points due to a Tyler Shough interception. The next drive for New Orleans picked up 51 yards, but an ill-timed false start contributed to the team settling for a 52-yard field-goal attempt that was missed.
Despite their 2-5 record, the Saints aren't far from contention in the shaky NFC South. If they can't climb back into the mix soon, that could mean the end of the tenures of general manager Mickey Loomis and head coach Kellen Moore.
Adam Stites is a contributing writer for theScore.
