Thanks in large part to a London game and a pair of Monday Night Football games, all of which featured entertaining playoff teams, the meat of the Sunday slate in Week 7 of the NFL season was a bit of a snoozer. Bad quarterbacks permeated multiviews all around the country as some teams ascended and cemented themselves as contenders and others hit rock bottom with embarrassing losses.
This list of losers from Week 7 is consistent with some of the losers in the NFL over the past couple of seasons. It was a bad week for some of the worst franchises in football, but which ones cracked the list of losers?
Raiders, Dolphins hit rock bottom
The Raiders and Dolphins are getting grouped together after a day where both of them were embarrassed by AFC foes. The Raiders managed less than 100 yards and only recorded three first downs (one by penalty) against the Chiefs in a 31-0 loss.
On the other hand, Tua Tagovailoa threw three more interceptions — less than 10 may be okay for Mike McDaniel — and was benched in a 31-6 loss to the lowly Cleveland Browns. The Dolphins now sit at 1-6 on the season, and the only mystery left with how their season is going is how many more Mike McDaniel coaches. If the answer is more than two, I would be pretty stunned.
At this point, this era of Dolphins football seems to be over. McDaniel is almost certainly on the way out, while Tagovailoa may be in his last year starting for the franchise and is on an awful contract. Tyreek Hill is likely gone after his season-ending injury, and it's clear that things are going to get worse before they get better in South Beach. Sunday was rock bottom for an operation that seemed so promising just a few seasons ago.
On the other hand, the Raiders are just getting started with this era, and it already feels over before it really even got started. Geno Smith, who just got a big contract from Las Vegas this offseason, looks like one of the worst quarterbacks in football, and there is just no sense of cohesion with Pete Carroll's squad in his first year as head coach.
An injury to Brock Bowers isn't helping matters, nor is a lack of talent throughout the defense. But if things continue like they did on Sunday, it's going to be a long season with an even longer list of questions to answer afterward.
Giants' Jaxson Dart vibes go out the window in a heartbeat
The vibes couldn't have been better in New York heading into Week 7, as Jaxson Dart had led the Giants to a pair of wins in his first three starts and was coming off of an absolute beatdown of the Eagles in prime time. Brian Daboll and company continued to ride those emotions into the Mile High City for a clash with the Denver Broncos, as New York dominated for most of the game en route to building a 26-8 lead with less than seven minutes to go.
Then, everything quickly fell apart. A Denver touchdown cut the lead to 10, and then Dart threw an inexcusable interception on third down deep in his own territory. That set up another Denver score, before the Giants quickly went three-and-out.
Nix's second rushing touchdown of the quarter put the Broncos ahead, and even a penalty-aided touchdown drive from Dart was enough. Nix completed two more long passes — one of which to a receiver he wasn't even targeting — and Wil Lutz drilled the game-winner to give Denver a 33-32 win in a game where the Giants missed a pair of extra points.
In six fateful minutes, in which the Giants became the first team in 1,602 games to lose an 18-point lead in the final six minutes, all of the good vibes around the Giants went away and were let out in one very loud Brian Burns rant.
Now, New York is 2-5 and has an angry Eagles team to play on Sunday. The Giants don't play a team that is currently below .500 until Dec. 14 against the Commanders, so things could get worse far before they get better.
The Jekyll-and-Hyde Falcons come crashing down
Earlier in the season, the Falcons took down the Washington Commanders, only to follow it up with a 30-0 loss to the Panthers. However, Michael Penix and company seemed like they turned a corner in Week 6 with a convincing win over the Bills on Monday Night Football and were headed for playoff contention.
The next step on that journey was another prime time showcase, this time a trip to San Francisco to take on the banged-up 49ers led by Mac Jones. But the Falcons fell flat on their face once again, losing 20-10 thanks to a lifeless showing from the entire offense for most of the night.
Maybe this is just who the Falcons are. The defense still played well, even if it made some crucial errors down the stretch, but the offense struggled to run the ball before completely abandoning what is usually a very effective ground game. If those kinds of inconsistencies continue, it could cost this team a chance to make the postseason in a crowded NFC.
The Falcons get a mouthwash game in Week 8 against the Dolphins before challenging matchups against the Patriots and Colts. Maybe they will settle on an identity in the next month.
Justin Fields gets benched and then thrown under the bus
Justin Fields has had it rough this season with the New York Jets… well, other than the $20 million he is getting to be the worst quarterback in football. Now, he may be getting all of that money to sit on the bench and watch Tyrod Taylor play instead.
The Jets finally benched Fields in the second half after he threw for less than 50 yards on just six completions in the first half of a 13-6 loss to the Panthers on Sunday. That performance was coming off of a brutal game against the Broncos in London where Fields recorded the same number of completions as sacks taken (nine) and finished with negative net passing yards after all of those sacks were accounted for.
On Tuesday, Jets owner Woody Johnson threw Fields over the bus and drove over him a few times, saying that most coaches would have similar results as Aaron Glenn does with a quarterback like Fields, though he didn't call him out by name. Now, it looks like Fields could be on the bench permanently moving forward as the Jets still hunt for their first win.
