For the third straight week of the NFL season, the survivor pool favorite has gone down.
Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos stunned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a dominant 26-7 win at Raymond James Stadium in Florida on Sunday afternoon. The win marked the Broncos’ first of the season and the first of Nix’s career in the league.
Perhaps more importantly, the upset win eliminated almost 30% of Yahoo Sports survivor pool entries. An incredible 29.99% of entries still alive in Yahoo Sports survivor pools selected the Buccaneers to win on Sunday in one of the biggest picks of the weekend.
The Cleveland Browns earned nearly 13% of picks on Sunday, though they fell to the New York Giants at home 21-15. It marked the first win of the season for the Giants and quarterback Daniel Jones, who threw for 236 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Malik Nabers. The win came after the Giants turned over the ball and gave up a touchdown in the first 11 seconds of the game.
That brought the total amount of users eliminated almost 43% of entries.
Then in the afternoon wave, the Carolina Panthers picked up their first win of the season in dominant fashion with veteran quarterback Andy Dalton at the helm. The Panthers cruised to a 36-22 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, which eliminated nearly 25% of entries.
Thanks to those three games, an incredible 67.89% of entries were eliminated.
The San Francisco 49ers stumbled in the final minutes of their game against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday afternoon, too, which eliminated another 3% of entries. That brought the total eliminated over 70%. In total, before “Sunday Night Football” and the pair of games on Monday that close out the Week 3 schedule, 72.66% of entries were knocked out.
It was the third straight week of massive survivor pool eliminations this season. About 43% of users were knocked out in Week 1 after the New England Patriots beat the Cincinnati Bengals, and then more than 29% of users were eliminated last week when the visiting Raiders beat the Baltimore Ravens.
The Broncos didn’t waste any time on Sunday. They jumped out to a 17-0 lead after Nix and running back Jaleel McLaughlin ran in short touchdowns in the first quarter and Will Lutz drilled a 43-yard field goal early in the second.
Though Denver didn’t score a touchdown the rest of the way, it shut down Baker Mayfield and the Bucs in the second half. They held Tampa Bay scoreless after Mayfield’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Chris Godwin late in the second quarter. Lutz kicked two more field goals in the fourth quarter to seal the 19-point win.
Mayfield, who led the Bucs to back-to-back wins to start the season, finished 25-of-33 for 163 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the loss. Bucky Irving added 70 rushing yards on nine carries, and Godwin had 53 yards and a touchdown on six catches.
Nix completed 25 of 36 passes for 216 yards and he added 49 yards on eight carries with his touchdown on the ground. Running back Tyler Badie finished with 70 yards on nine carries. Courtland Sutton had 68 receiving yards on seven catches.
While the NFL season isn’t even a month old, survivor pool entries seem to be dropping faster and faster week after week.