Nobody was leaving the stadium early in Buffalo, Chicago, Indianapolis, Denver, Washington and the New Jersey Meadowlands.
If they had they would have missed some thrilling finishes Sunday.
Such as the Bills moving to 3-0 with a wild comeback capped by Rian Lindell's 38-yard field goal as time expired for a 24-23 victory over Oakland.
"It means a lot,"
quarterback Trent Edwards said after going 14-of-19 for 183 yards and a touchdown in producing scores on the final three drives. "We're going to grow up a lot from this win."
So might the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who got Matt Bryant's 21-yard field goal in overtime to beat the Bears 27-24.
"This is huge,"
coach Jon Gruden said. "We lost a difficult game at the end of regulation in New Orleans, and we didn't want to lose another in a similar fashion."
The Jaguars replicated Tampa Bay's blueprint, although they didn't quite need extra time to beat the Colts 23-21. Josh Scobee did the honors with a 51-yard field goal with 4 seconds left.
Denver, coming off one of the wildest finishes in recent memory in its win over San Diego, had to survive some last-minute fireworks against New Orleans before holding on 34-32. Washington got a fluky late interception to set up the winning touchdown in a 24-17 victory against Arizona.
And the Super Bowl champion Giants were forced into overtime before getting a 22-yard field goal from John Carney to beat Cincinnati 26-23 and improve to 3-0.
With all those close encounters, it figured if there was a rout, it would be in New England. And it was, with the Miami Dolphins pulling off a stunner, 38-13 to snap the Patriots' NFL record 21-game regular-season winning streak.
"That was fun. It was obviously a pretty emotional deal,"
said first-year coach Tony Sparano, who took over a 1-15 team. "They executed the game plan on both sides of the ball to perfection."
Also remaining perfect this season were Tennessee, 31-12 over Houston; Baltimore, 28-10 over Cleveland; and Dallas, 27-16 at Green Bay.
Elsewhere, it was Philadelphia 15, Pittsburgh 6; Minnesota 20, Carolina 10; San Francisco 31, Detroit 13; Seattle 37, St. Louis 13; and Atlanta 38, Kansas City 14.
San Diego hosts the New York Jets on Monday night.
Bills 24, Raiders 23
At Orchard Park, N.Y., the Bills overcame a sloppy start to produce a second straight fourth-quarter comeback victory. Edwards finished 24-of-39 for 279 yards and a touchdown a week after he rallied the Bills to a 20-16 win at Jacksonville. That the victory came against the hard-luck and dysfunctional Oakland Raiders (1-2) didn't matter for a Bills team off to its first 3-0 start since 1992.
The defeat spells trouble for Raiders coach Lane Kiffin, who is on the hot seat after Oakland opened the season with a 41-14 loss to Denver. Kiffin got a reprieve after a 23-8 win at Kansas City last weekend.
Buccaneers 27, Bears 24, OT
At Chicago, former Bears quarterback Brian Griese set up Matt Bryant's winning field goal with a 38-yard pass to Antonio Bryant.
The Buccaneers got a 35-yard field goal from Bryant with 3:11 left, and Griese orchestrated a 79-yard touchdown drive in the final 1:49, hitting Jerramy Stevens with a 1-yard pass in the closing seconds of regulation.
Tampa Bay (2-1) had a third-and-9 at its 8 when Griese hit Jerramy Stevens with a 2-yard pass. There was a pileup and Bears cornerback Charles Tillman jumped in late, leading to an unnecessary roughness penalty that gave the Buccaneers a first down at the 24. That new life led to the winning kick.
