Sports

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At the end of September, nobody had it better than the Buffalo Bills. 

Since September, they've looked like a middle of the pack NFL team, at best. 

The Bills were 4-0 once upon a time, looking at the AFC landscape and wondering who could even compete with them for the No. 1 seed. Since then they're 2-3, and Sunday brought a miserable 30-13 loss to a bad Miami Dolphins team. That beautiful, perfect start to the season is gone. 

The Bills had a big win over the Kansas City Chiefs last week but those chips were given away in Miami. The Bills have gone from looking like a sure Super Bowl favorite to maybe not even the best team in the AFC East, especially as the New England Patriots were getting a big Week 10 road win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It seems obvious the Bills will be in the playoffs, but the Buffalo team we have seen since September is no sure thing for that either. It's not like wild-card spots are easy to come by. 

The Bills were simply bad on Sunday. They got very little offense going against a Dolphins defense that has been one of the worst in football, and the defense couldn't stop a Miami offense that has been one of the worst in football. It's not like the Bills have had many problems with the Dolphins. Miami hadn't had a two-score lead over Buffalo since Week 16 of the 2016 season, according to Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN. The Dolphins hadn't shut out the Bills for the first three quarters since 2003, according to the CBS broadcast. Miami led 16-0 into the fourth quarter. The Dolphins, who lost 28-6 in Week 9 to fall to 2-7, looked like the superior team. That's alarming. 

It makes Bills GM Brandon Beane's "it's not fantasy football" comment after the trade deadline look a little worse. The Bills should have been a buyer for a few reasons. They are a Super Bowl contender and decided to do nothing, which seems odd. Also, they had shown a few cracks lately. The defensive line, which took on some injuries, needed help. Josh Allen probably could have used another receiver, though Beane seems oddly stubborn about that fact. The Bills are usually aggressive and they reportedly tried to make some big moves, but were shut down. But making no moves didn't seem like the right play either. They acted with no urgency and that might be haunting if they don't get close to a championship this season. 

It's not like any one or two trade deadline additions would have saved them Sunday though. They were awful all around against one of the worst teams in the NFL. There was a terrible play call on a fourth-and-1 in the first half in which Allen rolled out and had nothing but was expected to make something out of it, which is how the Bills operate too often. James Cook had a brutal fumble in Dolphins territory later in the half. When the Bills had signs of life in the second half, Allen threw a bad interception into the end zone to Miami safety Ifeatu Melifonwu. After Buffalo finally scored in the fourth quarter, Allen lost a fumble and then Dolphins running back De'Von Achane broke a 59-yard touchdown run to put the Bills out of their misery. Achane went wild against the Bills defense with 225 total yards and two touchdowns. It was about as bad of a performance as you'll find from a supposedly good team. 

Maybe the Bills just aren't that good. It's hard to argue anymore they look like the best team in their own division. There's a long way to go this season and Buffalo can still get it together, but we're on a month and a half of mediocre to below-average football. If the Bills are just an average team and there's no big push coming the rest of the way, that's another year of Allen's prime in the rear-view mirror with no Super Bowl appearances to show for drafting an MVP quarterback. Sunday should be a wake-up call, but the Bills should have been wide awake to their issues before that loss. They just decided to do nothing about it at the trade deadline. 

Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 10 of the NFL season: 

WINNERS

A healthy Ravens team: The Baltimore Ravens have won three in a row after a quality road 27-19 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, and their upcoming schedule is a part of the story too. Here's what the Ravens have coming up in their next five games: at Browns, vs. Jets, vs. Bengals, vs. Steelers, at Bengals. There's a real chance for the Ravens to win eight in a row, or at least seven of eight. The Ravens are 4-5 after a 1-5 start and have the chance to blow past .500 in the next month. 

The Ravens might not be as good as they were last season, when they were arguably the best team in the second half of the season before a playoff disappointment. But they are getting better. The Ravens defense continues to look improved. Lamar Jackson is back and healthy. Beating the Vikings was a great sign for where they're going this season. The path for the Ravens to get on a long winning streak is very clear now. 

Drake Maye: Is Maye the best quarterback in the AFC East? Probably not yet, but after Sunday there might be a conversation about it. 

On a day that Josh Allen and the Bills flopped, the New England Patriots got a huge win that further legitimized their 8-2 start. The Patriots beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Maye once again led the way. 

Maye threw for 270 yards and a couple touchdowns, and made play after play as the Patriots held off Tampa Bay 28-23. Maye did have a bad interception into the end zone in the fourth quarter, which gave the Buccaneers some life. It was a bad mistake, but Maye is still a young quarterback. New England's defense had Maye's back and got a big fourth down stop after that pick. Rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson closed the door after that with a 69-yard touchdown run, his second long score of the day. 

Maye continues to impress, and he'll continue to be in the MVP conversation. And after Sunday, it looks like he's leading the best team in the AFC East. 

Tyler Shough: The New Orleans Saints had to get a look at Shough, their second-round pick, after giving Spencer Rattler some starts. And what they saw Sunday was promising. 

The Carolina Panthers were exposed as being far worse than their 5-4 record coming in would indicate, but perhaps the more important takeaway was Shough's play. In his second start Shough made several nice passes and the Saints looked like the better team in a fairly one-sided 17-7 win. Shough's touchdown passes to Chris Olave and Juwan Johnson were more than enough for the Saints. He threw for 282 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions for a 128.9 passer rating. 

New Orleans' season hasn't been pretty, and it's not like Shough is getting the Saints back into the playoff race. But his promising start on Sunday gives the Saints something to monitor the rest of the season. 

Jonathan Taylor for MVP: A running back hasn't won MVP since 2012. Voters have practically made it a quarterback-only award. 

Taylor is going to test that. 

Taylor had another remarkable game, saving the Indianapolis Colts in their 31-25 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons from Germany. The Colts mismanaged when to go for it and when it take field goals, Daniel Jones had a shaky performance until late in the fourth quarter and overtime when he came up with some big plays, but it didn't matter because Taylor has been the best player in the NFL this season. 

An 83-yard touchdown, when he had nothing but somehow got free and took it all the way for a score, gave the Colts the lead and is his MVP moment. Later in overtime, he walked off the Falcons with an 8-yard touchdown. He had 286 yards from scrimmage and his fourth three-touchdown game of the season. The 83-yard run was the longest touchdown run in Colts history. His 244 rushing yards ranks second for a game in Colts history.  

The Colts are 8-2, which was the best record in football at the conclusion of that game. Taylor is by far the best player on the best team. That usually gets MVP consideration, regardless of position. 

LOSERS

Jaxson Dart's health: It's likely the New York Giants coaching staff has repeatedly told Dart to protect himself better, and he just doesn't listen. Either way, the excitement of Dart's rookie season is being overshadowed by how much punishment he takes. 

For three quarters, the story of the day was the Giants taking a lead over the Chicago Bears behind another strong performance by their rookie quarterback. That's not how the story ended. 

Dart took a hard hit, appeared to be knocked out and was ruled out with a concussion. He left the game, Russell Wilson couldn't close out a win and Caleb Williams brought the Bears back for a 24-20 victory. It's not like this is an isolated incident with Dart. He has been taking hard hits since the preseason. It doesn't help the optics when one of the images of the Giants' season is coach Brian Daboll entering the medical tent and then screaming at the team doctor on the sideline while Dart was evaluated for a concussion in Week 6. 

The Giants have a keeper in Dart. He can make plays with his legs and has rare passing acumen for a rookie. But it doesn't matter if he can't protect himself from injuries. Sunday's injury cost the Giants a win. 

Jacksonville Jaguars: The Jaguars led 29-10 in the fourth quarter against a Houston Texans team that was starting Davis Mills, not an injured C.J. Stroud, at quarterback. They managed to lose. 

The Jaguars' 36-29 loss was perhaps the most unbelievable of an odd Sunday of games. Houston started very poorly. On Houston's first two possessions of the game quarterback Davis Mills threw an interception and the Texans fumbled away a kickoff return, leading directly to 10 points for the Jaguars. Jacksonville controlled the game for the first three quarters. Then the fourth quarter happened. 

The Jaguars couldn't move the ball at all on offense and Mills came alive. On Houston's game-winning drive, the Jaguars got a break when Houston took two false start penalties after advancing to the 2-yard line, but Mills scrambled in for a 14-yard touchdown on third-and-goal with 31 seconds left. 

The Jaguars still had a shot with Cam Little, who hit an NFL record 68-yard field goal last week. After a sack, Trevor Lawrence gained 21 yards on a scramble. On the next play he hit Parker Washington for enough yardage to give Little a shot, but an illegal use of hands penalty wiped out that catch and moved Jacksonville back 10 yards. On the final play Lawrence was hit, fumbled and the Texans returned it for a touchdown with no time left. That finished a 26-0 quarter for Houston. 

Jacksonville had been a contender in the AFC South, or for a wild-card spot. Sunday's loss might end up keeping them from either goal. 

Browns special teams: Bad teams find ways to lose. The Browns have a very good defense and on Sunday they did enough on offense to be competitive. But two plays lost them the game. 

In the first quarter, the New York Jets had a kickoff return for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown. When that happens, even one of the worst teams in the NFL can win and the Jets did, going on to a 27-20 victory. 

The Browns are 2-7 and it's not like it mattered much if they beat the Jets, who were 1-7 coming in and just traded defensive stars Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner this week. It was just another reminder that the Browns are still a team that figures out ways to lose winnable games, something that has been going on for more than a couple decades.