Sunday was a day of frustrating defeats. Every NFL team gets upset about losing, of course, but Week 3 was full of dramatic collapses, bizarre endings and a shocking number of blocked field goal attempts. In a matter of minutes, there was a pair of block-scoop-and-score touchdowns, as Jordan Davis sealed up a comeback win for the Eagles while Will McDonald IV appeared to set one up for the Jets.
The Jets couldn’t hold onto their lead against Baker Mayfield and the cardiac Buccaneers, and the Texans and Jaguars played a sloppy game in which neither side appeared as if it wanted to win. But beyond what the Jets and Texans endured, there were a few teams that went home Sunday night feeling as if they were robbed or threw away a game in which they were the better team. These infuriating losses hit another level.
Subscribe: ‘The Bill Barnwell Show’
Which of those losses was the most frustrating? Let’s rank the four most agonizing defeats of Week 3, break down what went wrong and pick the most enraging of the bunch. I’ll start there, with arguably the league’s most impressive team through two games melting down in the most unlikely of places.
Jump to:
Broncos | Packers | Patriots | Rams
Win expectancy peak: 94.0% with 10:59 to go in the fourth quarter
After two weeks of looking like the best team in football, the Packers and their ever-growing bandwagon crashed out in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon. As heavy favorites against the lowly Browns, Matt LaFleur’s team failed to pull away while its defense was dominating. A furious Browns comeback and a mistake from Jordan Love tied the score, and while it looked as if the Packers had bailed themselves out at the last moment, a blocked field goal attempt and a 55-yard kick by Browns rookie Andre Szmyt was enough to humble them.
Editor’s Picks
2 Related
How did a team that looked so dominant against the Lions and Commanders struggle to move the ball against a Browns team that ranked 15th in EPA per play on defense coming into the game? It lost the line of scrimmage.
In part, that owed to injuries; the Packers got starters Aaron Banks and Zach Tom back this week, but Tom played only one snap before reaggravating his oblique injury, and Banks didn’t return for the second half after reinjuring his groin. But even with Banks on the field, the Browns simply dominated the Packers up front. Four different Packers linemen gave up at least two quick pressures, per NFL Next Gen Stats (snaps when the rush almost immediately blows up a play). Myles Garrett unsurprisingly played well, but Browns first-round pick Mason Graham posted a staggering 43% pass rush win rate on the interior, nearly five times the average for a defensive tackle.
A Packers passing attack that has picked apart defenses with chunk plays and deep shots had no time to operate. Love’s average pass traveled just 1.6 yards in the air, down from a league-high 12.2 air yards per throw over the first two games of the season. He was entirely fine without pressure, going 14-of-18 for 162 yards. But he was sacked five times, was pressured on nearly 39% of his dropbacks and went just 4-of-7 for 21 yards under duress.
And though Love has generally avoided mistakes this season, the 26-year-old chose an inopportune time to throw his first interception of the season. With the Packers facing a third-and-3 with a seven-point lead and 3:18 to go, Love didn’t seem to be on the same page with slot receiver Dontayvion Wicks. The pass wasn’t near Wicks, and Grant Delpit got underneath the ball for a pick. Getting to fourth down and punting in that situation would have forced the Browns to go the length of the field to score a touchdown and tie the score; instead, Delpit returned the ball to the 4-yard line. Two plays later, Quinshon Judkins scored to tie the score at 10.
Third-and-3 might be a rushing down for the Packers, but their other problem in this game was a complete inability to run the football, something that has been a reality for them even throughout their 2-0 start. Josh Jacobs had 16 carries for only 30 yards in this game, with a mere four successful runs and minus-25 rush yards over expectation (RYOE), per NFL Next Gen Stats. He also fumbled as the Packers tried to get into field goal range on their ensuing possession, though a Browns challenge didn’t yield a clear recovery for Cleveland.
While Jacobs had five catches for 44 yards, the run game has been disappointing in 2025. Jacobs is averaging 3.1 yards per carry. Among the 20 backs with 40 attempts or more, Jacobs is last in RYOE and first downs over expectation (FDOE), 14th in success rate and EPA, and 18th in first down rate. Only one of his 58 carries this season has gone for more than 10 yards — a 15-yard gain against the Lions.
0:35
Grant Delpit picks off Jordan Love for Browns
Grant Delpit makes a nice play to intercept Jordan Love’s pass for the Browns vs. the Packers.
Jacobs had a 31-yard catch on a screen pass in this game and looked plenty elusive, so I don’t think there’s a health concern. But the Packers simply haven’t gotten what they need or want from their run game, which is dominated and driven by their lead back. They were so good within their passing game and on defense over the first two weeks that it was easy to oversee what they weren’t getting on the ground. Here, on a day when the Packers had only four first downs with their rushing attack and sustained only one long drive in the second half, the lack of a reliable run game stung.
The game script also prevented the Packers from leaning into their biggest strength on defense, which has been their pass rush. Getting big leads early against the Lions and Commanders turned those teams one-dimensional, allowing Micah Parsons & Co. to pin their ears back and go after the opposing quarterback. Coordinator Jeff Hafley can call all kinds of fun pressures when the Packers are up by two scores and the opposing team is in third-and-long.
On Sunday, though, the Packers were up only 3-0 until late in the third quarter, when a 14-play drive from Love’s offense finally delivered a touchdown pass to tight end John FitzPatrick. In a close contest, the Browns stuck with the run, and it eventually paid dividends. Though Cleveland’s offense wasn’t able to sustain itself for most of the day, Judkins finally broke off an explosive run in the fourth quarter, picking up 38 yards on a snap when Green Bay’s inside linebackers ended up being blocked into each other, leaving nobody to clean up on the second level. (Before Jerry Jones gets excited, no, the run wasn’t Parsons’ fault.)
The Packers then extended that drive with two penalties on third downs. And though a Wyatt Teller chop block pushed the Browns off the goal line, Cleveland kicked a field goal to get to within one score. Love’s interception set up the Browns with the short field they needed to tie the score.
Though a pass interference call and a throw to the flat to Tucker Kraft appeared to get the Packers in range for a blush-sparing field goal, the drive stalled there. Jacobs nearly fumbled on first down, then lost a yard on second down after Isaiah McGuire stonewalled backup tackle Anthony Belton and prevented Jacobs from getting outside. After a 2-yard gain, the Packers set up for a 43-yard field goal, only for Denzel Ward to get around Kraft on the end of the line and block the kick. That was Kraft’s only snap of the game on special teams, as the Packers used FitzPatrick in that same spot on Brandon McManus’ successful field goal earlier in the game.
0:58
Andre Szmyt’s 55-yarder walks it off for Browns
Andre Szmyt drills a 55-yard field goal to walk it off for the Browns as time expires vs. the Packers.
The Packers needed a stop to push the game to overtime, but they couldn’t get one. Parsons committed a neutral zone infraction to start the drive, one of a whopping 10 penalties called on the Packers in the fourth quarter, making them only the third team in the past decade to commit 10 infractions in the final quarter of an NFL game. Hafley sent a six-man blitz on third-and-2, but David Njoku beat Evan Williams to a slant for a first down, and the Browns spiked the ball with three seconds left. One kick later, the Packers were 2-1.
Win expectancy peak: 94.4% with 2:30 to go in the third quarter
Can a final score be more misleading? Philadelphia’s second blocked field goal of the quarter sealed up an Eagles victory, but Jordan Davis’ scoop-and-score inflicted what will go down on “SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt” as one of the worst bad beats of the year. An Eagles team which trailed for most of the day not only came up with a last-second victory but also covered the 3.5-point spread with their touchdown.
Nine months after Jalen Carter ended the Rams’ season with back-to-back pressures of Matthew Stafford at the end of their divisional-round game in the snow, Los Angeles was tormented yet again by the Eagles’ interior linemen, this time on special teams. The Eagles lined Davis and Carter up next to each other over a guard on each of Los Angeles’ failed field goal tries, and their overwhelming size and athleticism caved the line in both times. Kevin Dotson was overrun on Carter’s block with 8:46 to go. That led the Rams to use Beaux Limmer in that spot on the game-winning try, only for the utility lineman to be driven backward and allow Davis to make the game-deciding deflection at the line. It’s hard to block one of those guys, let alone hold your own when they’re rushing you simultaneously.
Of course, the Rams might feel like this game shouldn’t have come down to a blocked field goal. Trailing 26-7 in the third quarter, the defending champion Eagles had been booed off the field by their own fans, who were furiously looking up replacements for offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo after a dismal start to the day on offense. The Rams were 31-0 under Sean McVay when they had a three-possession lead in the second half of games, and no team had overcome such a deficit during the 2024 or 2025 seasons against any head coach before Sunday.
Catch up on NFL Week 3
• Takeaways, questions from all games »
• Graziano overreacts to Week 3 games »
• Top plays » | Best, worst from fantasy »
• Full Week 3 scoreboard » | More »
To say that things did not look good for Philadelphia would be an understatement. The Eagles were down star right tackle Lane Johnson, who left the game with a neck injury. Replacement Matt Pryor allowed a strip-sack to Jared Verse, and the Eagles then benched their backup tackle for Fred Johnson. The Rams scored on six straight possessions, while Philly’s six corresponding drives produced zero first downs and minus-10 net yards. The Rams had every bit of momentum imaginable.
Well, Jalen Hurts doesn’t believe in momentum, and from that point forward, the quarterback who often gets criticized or diminished for not having a significant résumé of games where he has thrown the Eagles back into a contest did just that. Over the final four drives, Hurts went 16-of-23 for 206 yards and three touchdown passes. A team that had seemingly forgotten about A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith suddenly found their star receivers over and over again until Smith caught a fourth-and-goal touchdown pass with 1:51 remaining to take the lead.
The Rams struggled to get consistent pressure on Hurts during that spell, which left their cornerbacks vulnerable to physical mismatches. With Ahkello Witherspoon on injured reserve, the Rams were forced to open up playing time for Darious Williams, who was a healthy scratch in the opener and probably wouldn’t be on the roster if the Rams weren’t on the hook for his $8 million guaranteed contract this season. Brown caught a touchdown pass over Williams and then ran away from him on a curl for extra yardage, which essentially ended the 32-year-old cornerback’s day.
With Williams out, Hurts and the Eagles’ offense moved onto Emmanuel Forbes Jr., the former Commanders first-round pick who joined the Rams last year. Brown gave Forbes fits when the two were in the NFC East together in 2023, and Forbes won’t have fond memories of his reunion. Brown picked up a first down on a third-and-10 curl and then ran through a Forbes tackle attempt for 23 yards. On the fourth-and-goal that decided the game, Forbes was in coverage in the slot against Smith, who likely had a two-way go off the line and beat Forbes to the sideline for a touchdown to take the lead.
Throw in a deep Brown catch over Cobie Durant and a Dallas Goedert seam route that the Rams simply didn’t track, and we have the recipe for a spectacular comeback. The Eagles unlocked their offense by having no choice but to pass, which seems remarkable until we consider how disappointing the run game has been so far this season. You can understand why Patullo has leaned on the run and why the Eagles believe it’ll turn around, but there’s no getting around the reality that it hasn’t been a positive so far this season.
Saquon Barkley, who ran for 460 yards in two games against the Rams alone last season, is averaging just 3.3 yards per carry this year with a 36% success rate. After seeming capable of breaking a home run on any play last season, Barkley doesn’t have a single run of 20 yards or more so far this season. He had 17 such runs during the 2024 regular season and added four more during the playoffs.
0:20
Jalen Hurts finds DeVonta Smith to put Eagles up
Jalen Hurts connects with DeVonta Smith in the end zone to give the Eagles a late lead.
The Rams did a better job of maintaining their gap discipline and preventing Barkley from getting to the second level than they did in either of their matchups with the Eagles last season. What they didn’t do in the second half, though, is seal up the game. It would be one thing if the Rams were simply overwhelmed by the Eagles’ defense in the second half and stopped being a threat, but they continued to move the ball and ended up in very advantageous situations. Those spots just ended in frustrating fashion.
After the Goedert touchdown got the Eagles back in the swing of things, the Rams drove to midfield and faced a third-and-2. McVay called the exact same spot concept that the Dolphins dialed up on the Tua Tagovailoa interception late in Thursday night’s loss to the Bills, and the Eagles also sniffed it out. Stafford wasn’t able to get to the back side of the play and scrambled for a 0-yard sack. Los Angeles then punted on fourth-and-2 on Philadelphia’s side of the field.
On the next drive, the Rams faced a third-and-1 on Philadelphia’s 46-yard line, and McVay elected to try a deep shot to Davante Adams, which fell incomplete. Coaches usually make that call only if they’re sure they’re going for it on fourth down, but the Rams called a timeout after the play to make their decision, costing them a stoppage they probably could have used later in the quarter. McVay did decide to go for it and handed the ball to Kyren Williams, but Davis and Carter both slipped around blocks at the line of scrimmage and met the Rams halfback in the backfield for a loss.
After the Eagles failed on their own fourth-down shot, the Rams inherited a short field and drove into field goal range. Up by five with 8:52 to go and facing a third-and-2, Stafford took another shot to Adams downfield, only for his back-shoulder attempt to be broken up by Reed Blankenship. Adams versus Blankenship is a good matchup, and the throw was fine, but the Rams promptly had their field goal to go up eight points blocked by Carter. On the ensuing possession, Williams and Puka Nacua helped push the Rams again into field goal range, but Davis sealed a stunning upset.
I’m not second-guessing throwing the ball downfield on third-and-short, and the Williams stuff on fourth down proves that the Rams couldn’t rely on just running the football to seal up the game. This was the best performance of the three the Rams have put on against the Eagles over the past 12 months, and it’ll feel like one that got away. If you watched this and thought the Rams were the better team, you weren’t the only one.
0:47
Eagles seal win on blocked FG
The Eagles snuff out Joshua Karty’s 44-yard field goal attempt as time expires to secure a comeback win over the Rams.
In multiple key moments, though, the Rams didn’t have anybody who could block Carter or Davis or anyone who could cover Brown. And they couldn’t find Adams to strike the final blow. That’s going to make for a very frustrating flight home to Los Angeles, though the Rams will have to let go of their loss to prepare for another undefeated team: the 3-0 Colts, who head to Southern California next weekend.
Win expectancy peak: 64.4% with 8:20 to go in the fourth quarter
This was a different sort of frustrating loss. The Packers held a lead for most of the day against inferior competition before letting the Browns back into the game late. The Rams were on top before blowing things and got back in position to win the game, only to have it snatched away at the last moment.
The Patriots, on the other hand, never led for a single second of their game with the Steelers.
Instead, the Patriots took defeat from the jaws of victory. Despite making it onto Pittsburgh’s side of the field for each of their final seven possessions of the game and advancing inside the 10-yard line three times, the Patriots mustered only 14 points. Drake Maye’s offense had 26 first downs and outgained the Steelers by 166 yards, but it turned the ball over twice inside the 5-yard line, two of the Patriots’ five giveaways on the day.
Here’s where I tell you that there was some bad fortune involved. The Steelers recovered all five of the fumbles in this game, four of which were lost by the Patriots. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know forcing fumbles is a skill, but what happens after they hit the ground is mostly random. The Patriots were probably unlucky to miss out on recovering at least one or two of those fumbles, and the Steelers going 5-for-5 probably decided the game.
All of ESPN. All in one place.
Watch your favorite events in the newly enhanced ESPN App. Learn more about what plan is right for you. Sign Up Now
At the same time, though, is it shocking to see a running back who fumbled seven times last season lose two in the same game? Ball security must have been an offseason priority for Rhamondre Stevenson, but the veteran back lost two fumbles in Sunday’s game — including one within sight of the goal line, which the Steelers then recovered to end a promising drive.
Patriots coach Mike Vrabel took Stevenson out for Antonio Gibson, only for him to immediately lose a fumble himself on a carry where he was falling forward. Patriots fans obviously want to see more TreVeyon Henderson, but the second-round pick had a dismal game in pass protection against the Dolphins in Week 2 and was afforded only two snaps as a pass blocker on Sunday, seemingly misreading his assignment on one of them. The Patriots still need someone to be part of the rotation alongside Henderson, even if Vrabel surely won’t trust Stevenson in a meaningful spot anytime soon.
Maye lost a fumble on a Nick Herbig strip-sack after attempting to scramble to extend a play without ever creating any space or making a decisive move. His interception was more curious, though. On a second-and-goal dropback with 16 seconds left in the first half, Maye was pressured and visibly hit his head on the turf, grabbing it in pain afterwards. That sequence should have triggered a concussion exam from the independent neurologist, but Maye stayed in the game. He threw an interception on the next play, and while correlation isn’t necessarily causation, it’s pretty clear that the second-year quarterback shouldn’t have been on the field in that moment, regardless of whether he was actually injured.
With three timeouts, would the Patriots have run the ball and likely kicked a field goal if Joshua Dobbs had been unexpectedly pushed into the game for Maye? Should the Patriots have at least called one of those timeouts to give Maye a chance to collect himself?
It’s a shame, because beyond the interception and the strip-sack, Maye was otherwise very good. He went 28-of-37 for 268 yards and two touchdown passes, including an impressive performance against the blitz (12-of-15 for 103 yards and a score). He was repeatedly able to find tight end Hunter Henry, who gave Pittsburgh’s struggling linebackers problems in coverage. In a game where rookie left tackle Will Campbell allowed four quick pressures, Maye more than held his own.
The Patriots aren’t good enough to be sloppy and win, though, and they were sloppy on both sides of the ball. In addition to the turnovers, the Pats had a 17-yard completion wiped off the board by an illegal man downfield penalty. Holding and unnecessary roughness calls extended and aided a Steelers touchdown drive. And per NFL Next Gen Stats, the Patriots whiffed on 23.3% of their tackle attempts, which The Athletic’s Nate Tice notes is the second-highest rate by any team in any game since 2016.
Pittsburgh will feel like this is the sort of game it wins. Five takeaways? Two sacks from T.J. Watt, who broke his streak of games without a takedown at six? Three touchdowns on three trips inside the 20 on offense? The only thing missing for a classic Mike Tomlin-era victory was a 50-plus-yard field goal from Chris Boswell. Tomlin will probably be mad they didn’t get in the blocked kick parade.
0:31
Steelers force a Drake Maye fumble for Pats 5th turnover
Steelers defense forces Drake Maye fumble, the Patriots fifth turnover on the day.
Maybe that’s all right, but despite the turnovers, I’m not sure the Steelers’ defense is back on its usual track. It’s not going to force five takeaways per game, and if it hadn’t Sunday, this might have been another loss. New England racking up 26 first downs and launching five drives of 45 yards or more isn’t what good Steelers defenses typically allow in close games. It has been a rough start to life in black and yellow for veteran corners Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey, and Patrick Queen has struggled to live up to his contract in Year 2.
The Steelers deserve the benefit of the doubt, and I have faith the defense will round into form. I’m just not sure they’re quite there yet, and the Patriots will feel like they missed an opportunity to pull out a home victory against a potential playoff team in the AFC.
Win expectancy peak: 89.2% with 5:02 to go in the fourth quarter
The ball seemed to hang in the air for minutes. With two minutes to go in a tie game, Denver coach Sean Payton trusted that the Chargers would be expecting something closer to the sticks and dialed up a vertical shot for his quarterback, Bo Nix. With three vertical routes, Nix fired downfield to Courtland Sutton, whose route took him easily past Chargers cornerback Donte Jackson. A catch would have set the Broncos up for a game-winning field goal and a crucial win against their division rivals.
Instead, Nix’s pass fell just beyond Sutton’s fingertips. The Broncos punted and never got the ball back, as Justin Herbert and the Chargers picked up three first downs before Cameron Dicker’s 43-yard field goal gave Los Angeles a 23-20 victory. In front of a Broncos-friendly crowd in Los Angeles, Payton had to look over toward the other sideline and wonder what life might be like if his team had a quarterback like Herbert under center.
Herbert didn’t have a perfect day, tossing an interception and missing a couple of throws, but the passes he did make were spectacular. His touchdown throw to Keenan Allen to tie the game with 2:37 to go was one of the best highlights of the young season; he escaped pressure, scrambled away to space and quickly reset his body before firing a strike to Allen, who beat oft-targeted Broncos corner Riley Moss. The Broncos’ pass rush harassed and beat up Herbert all game (5.0 sacks, 14 QB hits), but you could see shoulders drop after the score. An excellent defense had Herbert in its grasp but couldn’t finish the job.
Nix was something different entirely. In my colleague Seth Wickersham’s excellent new book “American Kings,” he shares a story about Payton building a formula to identify which college quarterbacks avoid mistakes and negative plays as an attempt to find passers who might thrive in the pros. The formula helped lead him to Nix, whom the Broncos took in the first round of last year’s draft.
Facing an excellent defense, Nix and Payton did a great job of avoiding those big mistakes. Nix didn’t turn the ball over and was sacked only twice for 6 yards. He ran eight times for 33 yards, including a nearly spectacular run on third-and-13 in the fourth quarter that came up just short of a first down. In terms of minimizing negative plays, Nix did a better job than Herbert.
When it came to creating explosive positive plays, though, the Broncos didn’t have the same caliber of QB. Nix did convert a pair of fourth-and-short shots downfield when the Chargers were looking for something shorter, hitting Sutton with a great throw on a 52-yard touchdown and a 22-yard completion later in the game that set up a short field goal. Payton is often careful to scheme up the shot plays in the offense for moments when the opponent defense isn’t looking or expecting to see something downfield, and Sunday was no exception.
The problem is that Nix missed a number of other shots downfield that might have won the Broncos the game. On third-and-19, an audacious flea-flicker from Payton sprung two receivers streaking wide open downfield, with Nix overthrowing Marvin Mims Jr. for what should have been a 63-yard touchdown. After a Chargers fumble gave the Broncos a short field, Nix had Mims running open up the seam for another score but put his throw too far ahead of the young wideout. Toss in the miss to Sutton at the two-minute warning, and the Broncos left three huge completions on the field.
The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia noted that the Broncos rank 31st in offensive success rate this season, ahead of only the Texans. Teams can run a low success rate if they’re hitting explosives regularly, and the Broncos have gotten some big runs out of J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey through three games. But Nix is 25th in QBR and 27th in first down rate this season. The Broncos need the big plays to make anything happen on offense right now, and while Payton was able to dial up opportunities, Nix missed one or two too many of them to pull out a victory against Los Angeles.
0:16
Cameron Dicker’s walk-off field goal brings Chargers to 3-0
The Chargers stay perfect against the AFC West as Cameron Dicker drills a 43-yard field goal as time expires to down the Broncos.
The good news for Nix and the Broncos is that their schedule gets much easier in the weeks to come. Outside of a Week 5 trip to Philadelphia, they will be up against the Joe Burrow-less Bengals, Jets, Giants, Cowboys, Texans and Raiders before their first matchup against the Chiefs in mid-November. That’s a lot of winnable games, and Nix was very good last season when the Broncos faced weak competition and didn’t ask him to beat top defenses.
Having a quarterback who can avoid negative plays is great, but as the Broncos saw firsthand Sunday, having one who can make magic happen is a prerequisite if you want to hang with the top of the AFC.
