New York Giants misery and a shock defeat for the Buffalo Bills. We select some of the winners and losers from NFL Sunday in Week 10 of the 2025 season...
Jonathan Taylor is inevitable. Shane Steichen has his not-so-secret winning formula: continue to hand the ball to Jonathan Taylor and you are probably going to win the game. Taylor dazzled on the European stage Sunday as he lifted the Indianapolis Colts to a 31-25 overtime win against the Atlanta Falcons in Berlin, personally providing the finishing touches with an eight-yard game-icing touchdown to cap a seven-play 57-yard drive during which he had carried the ball six times. With the game on the line, facing the league's No 1-ranked passing defense - Steichen turned to his best player; Taylor is an igniter, a sustainer, a closer and everything in between.
Were it not for him the Colts don't reach overtime in the first place, relying on a career-long 83-yard touchdown run from their Offensive Player of the Year contender to turn the game around after being shutout for the best part of 40 minutes. Taylor finished with 32 carries for 244 yards and three touchdowns alongside 42 receiving yards, becoming the first player to break the 1,000 rushing yards mark this season - in just Week 10 - and breaking the Colts franchise record for rushing touchdowns. Per Next Gen Stats, he gained 165 yards from 11 missed tackles - the most in the NFL this season - and recorded the only game with more than 200 yards after contact (228) since at least 2017. Taylor would rescue a passing offense frustrated all afternoon. MVP, anybody?
What is this season? Who is good? Who wants it most? The door is wide open for the Buffalo Bills, and yet they are all-too capable of days like this. Days when they fall to 30-13 defeats to a Miami Dolphins team with little to play for but still capable of disrupting the playoff hunt. Occasionally, more than occasionally, there are question marks over what Buffalo would be without Josh Allen; no quarterback in the league elevates their team as much as the reigning MVP, which is exactly why he is the reigning MVP. Allen was running for his life and threw an end-zone interception, James Cook coughed up a fumble on a day when Buffalo's No 1-ranked rushing offense was limited to a season-low 87 rushing yards, concerns over Buffalo's receiving corps resurfaced and Sean McDermott's defense let the game get away from them early. Suddenly, they sit two games back from the Patriots in the AFC East if you include New England's advantage in the head-to-head record.
This slot was almost reserved for the New York Jets and Will McDonald IV, who recorded four sacks to help Aaron Glenn's team to a 27-20 win over the Cleveland Browns in a battle of the bad. If there was anything to typify the Jets, it was that Justin Fields completed just six passes for 54 yards, a 42-yard Breece Hall touchdown and an interception while relying on punt and kickoff return touchdowns.
Instead, Danielle Hunter gets the nod after posting 3.5 sacks and four quarterback hits to inspire the Houston Texans in their 36-29, 19-point fourth-quarter comeback win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Hunter was an athletic mutant on a mission, supported by Will Anderson Jr. in inflicting more misery on Liam Coen's side, who were sizeable losers in fallen to a Davis Mills-led offense. Hunter's day included a pivotal sack for a loss of nine on Trevor Lawrence with the Jags trailing 30-29 while chasing the game with 27 seconds remaining. Houston's offense continues to hobble, but DeMeco Ryans' defense remains one of the league's most potent.
If Jonathan Taylor dominance is inevitable, so too is New York Giants misery. Brian Daboll's team continue to find ways to lose winnable games, and while there have been flashes of long-lost spirit for Big Blue, there also remains a lingering darkness halting the franchise's progress. They don't know how to navigate leads nor do they know how to close games, and that is a major indictment of the Giants' coaching staff. They led 17-7 in the third quarter by way of Jaxson Dart scoring a rushing touchdown for an NFL quarterback-record fifth successive game, and their rookie play-caller spreading the ball between Wan'Dale Robinson, Theo Johnson and Darius Slayton - albeit making some dangerous mis-fires - while also leading the team in rushing yards, only for him to leave the game with a concussion prior to the fourth quarter. A field goal drive behind Russell Wilson would make it 20-10, before the Giants' final three drives came up empty as Chicago snatched a 24-20 victory on Caleb Williams' 17-yard touchdown run. New York fall to 2-8 while Daboll drops to 20-40-1 in his 61 regular-season games as head coach.
Why is TreVeyon Henderson not playing a starring role for the New England Patriots every week? Only Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels can answer that. Henderson rushed for 1,016 yards and 10 touchdowns on the way to College National Championship glory with Ohio State in 2024, before being selected by the Patriots with the 38th overall pick in the second round of the NFL Draft earlier this year. He has since managed 10 or more carries in just four games this season in a secondary backfield role, but a breakout opportunity presented itself on Sunday in light of Rhamondre Stevenson's injury setback. Henderson's response was a career-best 14 carries for 147 yards and two touchdowns to guide the Patriots to a 28-23 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
His first 55-yard touchdown run was the longest run for a Patriots running back since Stevenson's 64-yard score in November 2023. But it was Henderson's game-icing burst that stole the show, the former Buckeye patiently peeling off a pile of bodies and an accompanying blocker to explode away for a 69-yard touchdown. So quick is Henderson that he even had time to flatten his run while asking Vrabel and the rest of the Patriots sideline - mid-play - whether they wanted him to score or take a knee to chew down the clock in the closing moments. New England moved to 8-2 on the year, and might have unleashed their new X Factor.
The Pittsburgh Steelers offense played as bad as they possibly could have on Sunday night. The good news? They surely cannot play any worse. Aaron Rodgers produced the worst performance of his storied career as he finished 16 of 31 passing (51.6 completion percentage) for 161 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions with a passer rating of 50.6 and a quarterback rating of, wait for it, 5.6 as Pittsburgh were beaten 25-10 by the Los Angeles Chargers. He was skittish in the pocket all night - exemplified when he bizarrely retreated into his end zone before surrendering a safety to his old foe Khalil Mack - he was overthrowing receivers all night, he was one or two clicks off when it came to decision-making and diagnosing the field all night. It was far and away his most glaring, concerning off night for the Steelers this season, his defenses five sacks and nine quarterback hits going unrewarded in a familiar tale when it comes to Mike Tomlin's Steelers, who turned the ball over three times and converted just two of 11 third downs. While the Steelers fell to 5-4 at the top of the AFC North, Lamar Jackson's revived Baltimore Ravens are on the hunt after their 27-19 win over the Minnesota Vikings to improve to 4-5 in second in the division.
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