Brock Purdy and the 49ers couldn’t overcome all the injuries one more time. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs ran into the defending Super Bowl champions and their stingy defense.
Only the Minnesota Vikings remain unbeaten — for now — and they battled to beat the Colts.
Sunday kicked off with Aaron Rodgers leading the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 16-10 victory over the New Orleans Saints in the NFL’s first regular-season game in France. It ended with the Seahawks shutting down Mahomes, Kenneth Walker III and the Chiefs in Seattle in a 20-3 victory.
Despite a slew of injuries, San Francisco opened the season 6-0. But the 49ers wasted a 14-3 lead in a 29-20 loss at Atlanta. The Niners didn’t have their top five receivers, including Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel Sr. They lost Christian McCaffrey for part of the game. Still, they had the ball and an opportunity to drive for the go-ahead score until Purdy threw his second interception near midfield down by six with under three minutes left. The Falcons scored 13 points on San Francisco’s four turnovers.
“We had the momentum, we were moving the ball well, I feel like we were running the ball really well offensively and then all of the sudden it’s like a couple plays make you feel like dang, we’re not doing our job,” Purdy said. “Obviously, the most important thing is protecting the football. That’s really the number one thing in our organization as an offense. … and so when you do have those kind of costly mistakes, it does make you feel like all right we’re not doing anything, we’re not putting up points like we need to. It starts with me at quarterback and I think it bleeds into everybody else, too.”
The Niners get a week off to rest and recover before hosting Las Vegas (3-4) on Nov. 8.
The Chiefs (5-1) already had their bye week so they have to fix their problems quickly with a matchup for first place in the AFC West coming up next Sunday at Denver (5-2).
Seattle’s “Dark Side" defense held Walker to 36 yards rushing on 14 carries in his first game against his former team. The Super Bowl MVP entered Week 7 leading the NFL in rushing and had four 100-yard games in the first five.
Mahomes only completed 57.6% of his passes and didn’t guide Kansas City’s offense into the red zone for the first time in his career.
“You don’t want to perform like this in prime time in a big moment like this,” Mahomes said.
So the Vikings (6-0) are the last undefeated team in the league. But they need to improve a shaky offense to stay perfect.
Minnesota rallied for a 16-10 victory over Indianapolis thanks to another stellar effort from the defense, which held the Colts to just 218 yards.
Kyler Murray threw for 150 yards and the Vikings had just 275 total yards.
“You can’t get down on it right now, just because it’s still relatively early enough that we’re catching our stride,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said. “But at the same time, we know, with the type of teams that are going to be on our schedule the rest of the way and where we want to go with this team, we’ll keep progressing.”
The Vikings have a difficult stretch coming up. They visit the Lions (4-2) next week, host the Bills (5-1) and then face the Packers (4-3) and 49ers in back-to-back games on the road. They need more production on offense to stay on top in a tough NFC North that includes four teams with a winning record.
One of those teams almost gave a game away because of reckless play-calling. Lions coach Dan Campbell pulled a Barry Switzer and went for a fourth-and-1 at his 24 with the score tied and just under five minutes to go.
Jahmyr Gibbs was stopped for a 2-yard loss and the Packers took over at Detroit’s 22 but couldn’t go anywhere. Trey Smack’s 35-yard field goal was blocked, and the Lions drove for a winning field goal to save Campbell from another week of criticism for his questionable decisions.
Campbell cost the Lions a shot to play in the Super Bowl after two critical failed attempts on fourth down in field-goal range in the second half of a 34-31 loss in the NFC championship game in 2024.
His decision was reminiscent of Switzer twice going for a fourth-and-1 at the Cowboys 29 with just under two minutes left in a tie game at Philadelphia in 1995. Emmitt Smith was stopped on the first try but officials said the clock had run down to the two-minute warning. After the stoppage, Dallas ran the same play, Smith was stopped again and the Eagles drove for the winning field goal.
“Well, I thought we would get it, No. 1. I really believed we would get that,” Campbell said. “No. 2, I knew we would get the ball back if it didn’t work out. And those were the key thoughts.”
Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than wise.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray (1) passes against Indianapolis Colts defensive end Laiatu Latu (97) during the first half of an NFL football game in Minneapolis, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) scrambles before throwing a pass that was intercepted during the second half of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Seattle Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (7) pressures Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) during the second half of an NFL football game in Seattle, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Kevin Ng)
JALUD, West Bank (AP) — Israel's elections Tuesday could mark the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decades-long political career.
But his legacy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — of massive settlement expansion, the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the empowerment of armed settler extremists — will likely endure, even if his opponents seek to rein it in.
Israelis are deeply divided over Netanyahu's leadership and moral character, but they largely support settlement expansion and are opposed to a Palestinian state. So while Netanyahu's opponents have vowed to crack down on settler violence and remove the most contentious outposts, they are mostly against a two-state solution, seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.
“There shouldn’t be any illusions,” said Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“At best, (a new government) would be able to slow down the extremely crazy acceleration that we’ve seen in the last four years of every aspect of Israel’s aggression in the occupied territories and inside Israel itself.”
One legacy of Netanyahu’s nearly unbroken 17-year rule — the longest of any Israeli leader — is that large groups of armed settlers now routinely defy the Israeli military as they rampage through Palestinian communities, drive people from their homes and seize ever larger swaths of their land.
Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza turbocharged the process. Netanyahu's opponents could bring in more troops and authorize stricter measures, but the genie may already be out of the bottle.
Netanyahu's government has distributed thousands of firearms to the settlers, who have allies in the military and security forces. Some extremist settlers have become like sheriffs — making arrests, killing Palestinians they say posed a threat, summoning security forces and driving Palestinian families from their homes.
The Palestinian Tubasi family was forced out in July after settlers besieged their hilltop home in the West Bank village of Jalud for 19 days. The settlers cut off their water access and their electricity, and threatened to “barbecue” them if they didn’t leave, said Mahmoud Tubasi, 60, the patriarch.
An Israeli court ordered the military to bring the family back, but that hasn't happened. Troops aborted their latest mission soon after it began, when a mob of over 150 armed settlers quickly assembled, scaled the walls of the home and set a car on fire.
Troops threw Tubasi and his family into an armored jeep and drove them away as settlers torched the place. They now live in relatives' houses in the valley below their gutted and blackened home, around which settlers still roam.
Israel’s military did not respond to a request for comment.
“If they wanted to evacuate them, of course, 100%, they can do that,” Tubasi said. “This is an army that fights in Lebanon, Gaza and in Iran — they can’t control 150 or 200 settlers?”
Under Netanyahu, settlers have established over 250 rustic camps across the territory, focusing particularly on areas where Palestinian herding communities have dwelled for decades.
The outposts allow the settlers to effectively run Palestinians off vast rural areas by attacking shepherds, taking over water resources and grazing their own herds, all under the eye of Israeli troops.
Dror Etkes, a researcher with an Israeli anti-settlement group, says the outposts have allowed the settlers to seize effective control of around a fifth of the West Bank. Israel captured the territory, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Since 2023, the strategy has forced at least 127 Palestinian herding communities off their land, according to data gathered by Etkes' organization, known as Kerem Navot, and B'Tselem, another Israeli anti-settlement group.
The departures have cleared nearly the entire eastern flank of the West Bank, along the border with Jordan, of Palestinians. The settlers' explicit goal is to prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s opponents say they will go after the most violent settlers and dismantle outposts — which are illegal under Israeli law. But they will not evacuate the over 100 new settlements Netanyahu's government legalized, including 44 that were formerly outposts. Nor will they remove settlements dating back decades, many of which now resemble fully developed suburbs.
Most of the international community views all Israeli settlements as illegal and an obstacle to a two-state solution. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people and says its future status should be decided by negotiations — which have not been held in over a decade.
Even if some outposts are removed, many Palestinians seeking to return would find their homes burned and looted, and would continue to face threats from nearby settlers.
“The story is over. There will be no massive dismantlement of settlement,” said Etkes. “It’s now a full and prouder-than-ever apartheid regime.”
Amnesty International and other major rights groups accused Israel of the international crime of apartheid even before the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath. Israel denies the allegation.
The politician most likely to replace Netanyahu as prime minister is retired general Gadi Eisenkot, a political centrist. He hopes to form a majority coalition with three other parties spanning Israel's political spectrum and without Arab-led parties advocating a two-state solution.
Beth Oppenheim, an Israel analyst for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the opposition has “struggled to formulate a convincing alternative" to the right's new security strategy of “aggressively pre-empting threats, maintaining complete freedom of operation and imposing buffer zones.”
Palestinian attacks, like a shooting on Friday that killed two Israeli soldiers, and efforts on the right to cast the Israeli left as enemy sympathizers, have taken their toll. “The net effect is that talk of ‘peace’ and compromise has become politically toxic,” Oppenheim said.
Eisenkot does not support a Palestinian state but is open to limited self-rule in the 40% of the West Bank currently administered by the Palestinian Authority under agreements reached in the 1990s. He would allow settlement growth in the other 60% of the territory, which is under direct Israeli military rule.
He has also vowed to empower Israeli troops and paramilitary Border Police to crack down on settler violence.
Eisenkot “is interested in lowering the friction in the West Bank and interested in definitely lowering the sanctions and the intention for sanctions by European countries,” Zonszein said. “He’ll do kind of the minimum necessary to get the maximum effect.”
Eisenkot's prospective allies include left-wing politicians who oppose settlements and have favored a two-state solution, but they have agreed to set those positions aside to form a coalition to oust Netanyahu.
Israeli leaders have long balanced their ambitions in the occupied territories with demands from Washington aimed at resolving the conflict. But they are unlikely to face any significant pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who endorsed Netanyahu and has long backed his policies.
Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario.
FILE - An Israeli settler overlooks members of Israeli forces blocking a road preventing Palestinians from reaching groves to harvest olives in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - A burnt car is seen in front of one of the two Palestinian houses belonging to the Tubasi family, which were burned in the West Bank village of Jalud, Sept. 29, 2026, following an overnight attack by Israeli settlers. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - Israeli settlers are seen at one of the Palestinian houses belonging to the Tubasi family after they took it over in the West Bank village of Jalud, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
Mahmoud Tubasi, left, and his son Wael, over look their family's houses, which were burned by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Mahmoud Tubasi stands on a rooftop near his two family's houses, which were burned by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
