Week 3 NFL Scores And Results: The Early Games

What's that? You only just got done watching the Texans choke down the stretch against the Saints? And you want to know what happened in the rest of the early games? Let's run through things...

New Orleans 40, Houston 33: A really, really nice game for the Texans offense and defense was wasted by a terrible fourth quarter. When the pressure was on and the Texans needed to stop Drew Brees and the Saints offense, they gave up big plays to Darren Sproles and passes down the seam. Then, the rushing attack proved how much it missed Arian Foster as Ben Tate could not make a play when he needed to in the red zone. The Saints won this one, but the Texans should have.

Detroit 26, Minnesota 23: Minnesota may be the best worst team in the NFL this season. After leading the Lions by 20 points in this one, they gave up a third straight comeback in the overtime loss to Detroit. Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford both had big games but this roll has been inexcuseable for the once-vaunted Viking defense.

Buffalo 34, New England 31: Wow. After a huge start by Tom Brady, the Bills capitalized on interceptions and some big plays from Stevie Johnson and Fred Jackson to beat the Patriots for the first time in 14 tries. There's still a lot of season left, but the Bills could surprise some people this year, like they obviously surprised the Pats.

Cleveland 17, Miami 16: Color me surprised, but Colt McCoy proved something here and the Browns moved to 2-1 this season. McCoy led his team down the field when it mattered and overcame an interception early in the contest. Oh, and the Browns did this without Peyton Hillis. Unexpected all around.

Tennessee 17, Denver 14: Speaking of unexpected...Chris Johnson continues to prove that holding out for all of training camp after a prolonged lockout is a bad idea, as the dynamic runner only had 21 yards on 13 carries. The Broncos offense wasn't bad, but Willis McGahee showed no explosiveness and the passing game had to rely too much on Eric Decker. Another big game for Nate Washington makes him a very solid No. 2 option on most fantasy teams.

Carolina 16, Jacksonville 10: Cam Newton's marvelous run of passing yards ended in a driving rainstorm. I can understand why he wasn't sharper in this one, but the Carolina running game continued to struggle. Jonathan Stewart was the leading rusher for the Panthers and not multi-millionaire DeAngelo Williams. Oh, fellow rookie starter Blaine Gabbert looked no better for Jacksonville. The Jags may look back at that victory over the Titans in Week 1 as the high tide mark of the season.

Giants 29, Philadelphia 16: Mike Vick is out again. This time, he broke his non-throwing hand. No telling how long that will keep him out, but it shows just how fragile the dynamic quarterback can be. If you were the Eagles, do you turn to Vince Young or Mike Kafka? Shady McCoy had a big day, rushing for over 120 yards. Philly needed to get bigger plays from its receiving corps as both DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin had slightly disappointing days. Big win for the Giants despite a depleted receiving corps.

San Francisco 13, Cincinnati 6: This was not a good game. In baseball, low scores are considered "pitcher's duels." This was less a defensive battle than a bad offense battle. San Fran could be the team who steals a division title despite being a 7-9 team.