Bo Nix needed two points, so he threw the ball to the one place only his man could reach: the very back corner of the end zone, over the top of a defender, where Jaylen Waddle got his toes down before he fell out. What a throw, and what a catch. It pulled Denver back within a single score, in a game they had trailed 16-0, and it set the tone for a Sunday won at the thinnest margins in the sport.
Twelve of the day’s games were decided by one score. That ties the NFL record for a single week. Week 3 was not about who ran up the score, it was about the inches: a perfect throw, a leap over the pile, and more than one referee’s flag that a whole fanbase is still furious about.
The Week 3 results
| Matchup (away at home) | Result |
|---|---|
| Atlanta Falcons at Green Bay Packers | Falcons 35-14 |
| Kansas City Chiefs at Miami Dolphins | Chiefs 24-10 |
| Carolina Panthers at Cleveland Browns | Browns 21-18 |
| Tennessee Titans at New York Giants | Giants 12-7 |
| New England Patriots at Jacksonville Jaguars | Jaguars 35-6 |
| Los Angeles Chargers at Buffalo Bills | Bills 24-16 |
| New York Jets at Detroit Lions | Lions 31-24 |
| Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts | Colts 19-17 |
| Seattle Seahawks at Washington Commanders | Commanders 33-31 |
| Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers | Steelers 30-27 |
| Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers | 49ers 36-30 |
| Minnesota Vikings at Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Vikings 23-16 |
| Las Vegas Raiders at New Orleans Saints | Raiders 35-27 |
| Baltimore Ravens at Dallas Cowboys | Ravens 34-31 |
| Los Angeles Rams at Denver Broncos | Broncos 30-26 |
| Philadelphia Eagles at Chicago Bears | Bears 27-7 |
Following the Raiders? They beat the Saints 35-27 to move to 3-0, the only unbeaten team left. I break their game down in the Raiders Week 3 review.
How Denver came back from 16 down
The Broncos did not score for a half. Then they scored 30 and won, and they did it with the two boldest plays in the book. Twice in the third quarter, after a touchdown, Denver turned down the routine one-point kick and went for a two-point conversion instead, one play from close range for two points rather than one, riskier and rarer. Nix threw for both. The first was that throw to Waddle in the back corner, which pulled Denver within a single score at 8-16; the second, to Pat Bryant, drew them level at 16-16. If you want the full menu of how points go up, how scoring works lays it out.
Bo Nix tough 2-point conversion to Jaylen Waddlepic.twitter.com/9TMiZLYgCi
— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) September 28, 2026
Then the defence scored, which is the fastest swing in football. Safety Talanoa Hufanga stepped in front of a Matthew Stafford pass and ran it back for a pick-six, and the team that had not scored for a half was suddenly ahead.
The winner was the oldest short-yardage play there is. On a quarterback sneak, the QB takes the snap and lunges straight ahead behind his own blockers for the yard he needs. Nix added the flourish, leaping over the top of the pile to break the plane inside the final minute. It is one of the few times a quarterback is handed the ball to run by design. For who does what on the field, positions, explained has it.
A team can look dead for a half and still win it late, if it takes the aggressive points and the defence chips in.
Twelve one-score games, and a record
Denver’s four-point win was not the exception this week, it was the rule. Twelve of Sunday’s games finished as one-score games, and that tied the NFL record for a single week.
A one-score game is one decided by eight points or fewer. Eight is the magic number because it is the most a team can score in a single possession: a six-point touchdown, plus a two-point conversion. So “one score” means the losing team was, right to the end, one good drive from drawing level. The Colts won by two, Washington by two, the Ravens, Browns and Steelers each by three, Denver by four. Up and down the schedule, one play would have flipped it.
That is the quiet argument for why the NFL holds a country’s attention every autumn. It is not that the games are high-scoring. It is that so many of them stay live until the final minute.
Pass interference: the hardest call in the game
The officials were the story in more than one stadium. In Baltimore, the crew came under fire for a set of late calls in the Ravens’ 34-31 win over Dallas. In Denver, the Rams felt they were wronged by a pass-interference flag. Different games, same argument, and it is almost always about the same rule.
THE REFS SCREWED THE RAMS
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) September 28, 2026
Broncos WR Pat Bryant FLOPPED pic.twitter.com/yEiJzjn8vm
This was called defensive pass interference instead of an interception for the Rams 🤔 pic.twitter.com/xGOfie2eQw
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) September 28, 2026
Here is what the rulebook actually says. Pass interference is defined in Rule 8, Section 5:
“It is pass interference by either team when any act by a player more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage significantly hinders an eligible player’s opportunity to catch the ball.”
Every word in that sentence is load-bearing. The contact has to be more than one yard past the line. It has to significantly hinder the catch, not just brush it. And it applies to either team, so a receiver can be flagged as easily as a defender. The penalty is brutal: a defensive foul hands the offence the ball at the spot of the contact, which on a deep ball can be forty yards from one flag.
The reason it starts fights is the very next part of the rule. Alongside the fouls, the book lists the contact that is allowed, and then adds the line that decides most of these calls: “If there is any question whether contact is incidental, the ruling shall be no interference.” Two players can tangle, both reaching for the ball, and the correct call is often nothing at all. Whether a collision cleared the “significantly hinders” bar is a judgement made at full speed by one official, and it is the most contested decision in the sport. For the rest of the flags and what they cost, penalties, explained breaks them down, and for which calls replay can and cannot fix, replay and challenges covers it.
I am not going to tell you either flag was wrong, because from my sofa I cannot know. What I can tell you is that the rule is written to be waved off whenever there is doubt, which is worth remembering the next time a stadium is booing one.
Three weeks in
The league has now shown its full range in three Sundays: a record shootout, a defensive strangling, and a week won by inches. The scoring is the easy part to watch. The two-point gamble, the sneak that breaks the plane, the flag that lands or does not, that is where these games are actually decided, and it is the part I will keep pulling apart.
Wonder which way it swings next. Roll on Week 4.