Nnamdi Asomugha sat at his locker stall in full uniform with his head down long after the Eagles blew one they had in their grasp.
It’ll be a long bye week for this turnover-prone team.
Matthew Stafford rallied desperate Detroit back from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit, Jason Hanson kicked a 45-yard field goal in overtime and the Lions beat the Eagles 26-23 yesterday in Philadelphia.
“This is pretty bad because this was a big game for us,” said Asomugha, the two-time All-Pro cornerback. “We lost last week and going into a bye this hurts a lot because it would have helped us. If we can’t win a game like that, we have to go back to the drawing board. We have to close out a game like that.”
A defense that held Stafford and Calvin Johnson in check for 3 1/2 quarters collapsed at the end for the second straight week, and the Eagles (3-3) enter the bye with consecutive late losses. Ben Roethlisberger led Pittsburgh on a long drive that ended with a final-second field goal for a 16-14 win last Sunday.
“They wanted it more. We blew it,” cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said.
Stafford led Detroit to 17 points in the last 10 minutes to force overtime, throwing a TD pass and running for a score. He finished with 311 yards passing, one TD and one interception.
The comeback kept the Lions (2-3) from a 1-4 start a year after opening 5-0 en route to their first playoff appearance since 1999.
“It takes lot of heart,” Stafford said. “It would have been a lot easier to just pack it in. This team has lot of fight. We didn’t play great. We did on defense, not on offense. Every guy in that locker room didn’t stop playing and that’s what got us the win.”
Dolphins 17, Rams 14
In Miami, the Dolphins’ dysfunction took many forms, including a backward pass by Ryan Tannehill that flew out of bounds for a 7-yard loss. His offensive linemen managed to commit four penalties in a three-play span, while defensive breakdowns and replay overrules were recurring problems.
Even so, the Dolphins (3-3) did enough right to hold off the Rams.
Tannehill threw two touchdown passes and the Dolphins turned back several St. Louis scoring threats to win despite being outgained 462 yards to 192.