NFL 2011, Week 3: Two Surprising undefeated teams exorcise some past demons

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Week 3 Sunday is almost over in the National Football League (NFL). There are two undefeated teams that snapped long losing streaks against division rivals. The Buffalo Bills and the Detroit Lions beat the New England Patriots and the Minnesota Vikings respectively to remain undefeated at 3-0.

The Bills snapped a 15 game losing streak against Tom Brady-led New England Patriots. Their last victory was in their season opener in 2003. Fast forward 8 years, the Pats scored the first 21 points in the game. At 6:01 left in the second quarter, the score was in favor of the Patriots 21-0. The Bills managed to score to ten points before halftime to cut the deficit to just 11 points. They eventually took the lead in the 4th quarter via a Drayton Florence pick 6 of  a Brady pass (he had 4 INTs in the game), 31-24. The Pats equalized with 3:25 left as fantasy stud Wes Welker grabbed his second TD of the game at 4th and goal at the Buffalo 6. Ryan Fitzpatrick (369 yds 2 TDs 2 INTs) led a drive that ended with Rian Lindell kicking a 28 yard field with 3 seconds left to win the game. It was the second straight 4th quarter win by the Bills and now they are the surprise leaders of the AFC East.

The Lions has not won in the Metrodome in Minneapolis since 1997. Only veteran kicker Jason Hanson was on that winning Lions team and the 13 teams that lost every year since then. The streak was likely to continue as the Vikings took a 20-0 lead at the half. The Vikings has lead at the half on the previous two games and end up losing in the second half. This game was no different as the Lions led by QB Matthew Stafford (378 yards 2TDs) and WR Calvin Johnson (7 rec 108 yds 2TDs) rallied to even take the lead at 23-20 with 2:30 left on the clock. The Vikings managed to even it up with 1:11 left with 49 yard FG by Ryan Longwell. The game went into overtime and Stafford connected with Johnson to set-up the game winning field goal by Jason Hanson (4/4 FGs 2/2 XPs). The Lions ties the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers at 3-0 for the NFC North lead.

The 2 teams continued their surprising runs and many experts are noticing a slight change of the balance of power in the NFL. If they continue their good play, the teams will be on their way to their first postseason berths in the century.

Related articles

• Week 3 NFL Picks: Which Teams Will Stay Undefeated? (bleacherreport.com)
• You: Detroit Lions: Winners and Losers from Lions’ Win Vs Vikings (bleacherreport.com)
• NFL 2011: Undefeated teams after Week 2 action (caloysports.wordpress.com)
• Bills and Lions continue perfect starts (reuters.com)
• Surprising Lions remain undefeated (theglobeandmail.com)