The Cleveland Browns thumped the Cincinnati Bengals 32-13 on Monday, snapping a four-game NFL skid and halting their Ohio neighbor’s two-game winning streak.
Browns quarterback Jacoby Brissett ran for a touchdown and completed 17 of 22 passes for 278 yards and a touchdown to propel Cleveland.
Brissett connected with Amari Cooper for a TD and Nick Chubb rushed for 101 yards and two TDs.
Cleveland’s defense, led by Myles Garrett, stepped up as well, forcing two turnovers and holding Cincinnati scoreless in the first half.
It was a tough night for Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who was without his top target with receiver Ja’Marr Chase sidelined by a hip injury.
Cleveland sacked Burrow five times, intercepted him once and forced a fumble.
Burrow finished the night with 232 yards off 25 passes with two TDS.
After a scoreless first half, Chubb ran for a three-yard TD and a two-point conversion to put the Browns up five minutes before halftime.
Cade York added a field goal before the break, and Brissett added a three-yard touchdown run and the scoring toss to Cooper in the third.
The Bengals got on the board in the fourth with Burrow’s 13-yard scoring pass to Tyler Boyd, but Chubb added an 11-yard touchdown run before Burrow connected with Tee Higgins to cap the scoring.
Burrow fell to 0-4 against the Browns. Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski, meanwhile, improved to 5-0 against the Bengals.
Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles ran over Green Bay on Sunday, knocking Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers out in the third quarter of a 40-33 NFL victory.
The Eagles improved their NFL-best record to 10-1 while the Packers, their playoff ambitions in tatters, fell to 4-8.
“We got the GOAT!” Eagles quarterback Hurts said in a post-game television interview, though he was quick to wish four-time NFL Most Valuable Player Rodgers a speedy recovery.
Rodgers, already nursing a broken thumb, said he suffered a rib injury in the first half, which was aggravated in the third quarter apparently when he absorbed one of three sacks on the night.
“I was just having a hard time breathing and rotating my upper body,” Rodgers said. “I was worried about a punctured lung as well, so I wanted to get that checked out. I’ll get a scan tomorrow.”
Rodgers said his lung was fine, and despite “intense” pain he envisioned playing next weekend “as long as I check out OK tomorrow.”
The Packers had trimmed the deficit to 34-23 with a field goal before Rodgers departed.
Backup Jordan Love connected with Christian Watson for a 63-yard touchdown and authored a field goal drive, but it wasn’t enough against the formidable Eagles offense.
Hurts piled on 310 total yards, completing 16 of 28 passes for two touchdowns. His 157 rushing yards set the Eagles’ single-game record for a quarterback as the team gained a whopping 363 yards on the ground.
Hurts connected with Quez Watkins for a 30-yard touchdown to make it 27-20 at halftime, and pushed the lead to 34-20 midway through the third with a six-yard scoring pass to A.J. Brown.
Bengals claim victory
Elsewhere on Sunday, the suddenly surging Cincinnati Bengals claimed a third straight victory on Sunday as the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs both took their win streaks to five games.
The Bengals, who fell to the Los Angeles Rams in last season’s Super Bowl, beat the AFC South-leading Tennessee Titans, 20-16, in Nashville.
Quarterback Joe Burrow hit Tee Higgins with a 27-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to secure a fifth win in six games for the 7-4 Bengals.
“This is the kind of game that great teams win,” Burrow said. “It’s not always going to be pretty. This is the NFL. You’re playing really, really good teams on the opposing end.
“You’ve got to find ways to win, and we’re starting to do that.”
In Kansas City, the Chiefs notched a 26-10 win over the Rams in a game quarterback Patrick Mahomes called “ugly.”
Mahomes threw one TD, Isiah Pacheco ran for another and Harrison Butker kicked four field goals as the Chiefs failed to convert five of their six red-zone scoring chances into touchdowns.
“I felt like we didn’t execute at a high level in the red zone,” Mahomes said. “I threw a dumb, dumb interception there at the end of the game. But it’s a team game. The defense stepped up — they played great.”
Browns down Bucs
Miami’s fifth straight victory was a comfortable 30-15 decision against the hapless Houston Texans.
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw for 299 yards and one touchdown and extended his run without an interception to four games.
The Las Vegas Raiders won a shootout in Seattle in overtime, beating the Seahawks, 40-34.
In Cleveland, Nick Chubb ran in an overtime touchdown to give the Browns a 23-17 comeback win over Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Tampa Bay had led 17-10 going into the fourth quarter after Brady had found Ko Kieft with a five-yard pass in the third.
But with 32 seconds left on the clock, Browns quarterback Jacoby Brissett found David Njoku in the endzone to take the game into overtime.
Trevor Lawrence threw for three touchdowns and 321 yards as the Jacksonville Jaguars upset the Baltimore Ravens, 28-27.
Lawrence found Marvin Jones with a 10-yard touchdown pass with 14 seconds left and then found Zay Jones for the game-winning two-point conversion.
Ravens kicker Justin Tucker missed a 67-yard field goal on the last play, an attempt which would have had to beat his own NFL record field goal distance of 66 yards set against Detroit in September 2021.
The Cincinnati Bengals shrugged off driving snow to defeat the Buffalo Bills 27-10 and return to the AFC Championship game while the San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys 19-12 on Sunday to head to the NFC title contest.
Bengals winning
The Bengals win sets up a repeat of last year’s AFC Championship clash with the Kansas City Chiefs while the 49ers will face the Philadelphia Eagles for a place in the NFL’s Super Bowl.
While the Bengals will again be slight underdogs against Patrick Mahomes and company, they showed all their qualities of tough, no-nonsense football, with their offensive line giving outstanding protection to quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow completed 23 of 36 passes, throwing for 242 yards and two touchdowns while running-back Joe Mixon put up 105 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.
“It was a complete game from everybody, offense, defense, special teams, domination from start to finish, that is what we expected,” Burrow told CBS television.
The Bengals set the tone from the opening series with Burrow leading his team on a six-play, 79-yard drive completed with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Ja’marr Chase.
Cincinnati soon had a 14-0 first quarter lead with Burrow finding an open Hayden Hurst with a 15-yard TD pass.
Injured Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who suffered a cardiac arrest in the abandoned regular season game against the Bengals earlier this month, was watching the game from a suite and received a standing ovation when he was introduced to the crowd.
But despite the home field advantage, the Bills struggled to get their offense moving until quarterback Josh Allen got them on the scoreboard with a one-yard rush at the end of a 15-play drive in the second quarter.
The Bengals thought they had a third touchdown just before half-time with a superb Burrow pass to Chase at the back of the end-zone but the catch was ruled incomplete after review and Cincinnati had to settle for a field goal which sent them in 17-7 up at half-time.
A Bills field goal brought them within a score of levelling the game but the Bengals were playing with a smart, disciplined approach and they extended their lead when the tireless Mixon finished off a 12 play drive with a one-yard rush.
Cowboys wait continues
The Cowboys’ 27 year wait for a return to the Super Bowl continues after they once gain failed to get past the divisional round.
Dallas have lost on each of the last seven occasions they have reached the divisional round and in a gruelling game, dominated by the defenses, they were hampered by losing their lead running-back Tony Pollard with an ankle injury in the second quarter.
After San Francisco opened the scoring with a field goal, Dallas responded with a second quarter four-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott to Dalton Schultz.
But troubled kicker Brett Maher missed the extra-point conversion — the sixth miss in his last seven kicks — and two interceptions from Prescott before the half didn’t help.
Robbie Gould had no such problems, converting from 47-yards and 50-yards before half-time to give the 49ers a 9-6 lead at the break.
Maher’s relief was evident after he was successful with his field goal attempt from 25 yards in the third quarter.
But San Francisco, led by rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, then produced the best drive of the game with George Kittle juggling the ball to complete a crucial 29 yard catch before the series ended with Christian McCaffrey’s two-yard burst into the end-zone.
Down seven points, Dallas came up against an impressive San Francisco defense, living up to their ranking as the league’s number one.
Maher struck a 43-yard effort between the sticks but with Gould responding and the 49ers not offering Cowboys any gifts, Dallas were left with 45 seconds to try and conjure up a miracle that didn’t materialise.
Purdy, a seventh round draft pick, didn’t throw a touchdown but nor did he throw an interception as he threw for 214 yards completing 19 of 29 passes and notched up his seventh straight win since being thrust into the starting role.
“He’s playing at a high level,” Kittle said of his quarterback. “Getting our best players the ball. He’s awesome and confident in the huddle. He’s just doing a great job.”
Patrick Mahomes threw for two touchdowns and ran for another on Sunday as the Kansas City Chiefs clinched an eighth straight NFL playoff berth.
Jerick McKinnon’s 26-yard touchdown run in overtime gave the Chiefs a hard-fought 30-24 victory at league-doormat Houston, clinching Kansas City’s seventh straight AFC West division title.
Mahomes completed 36-of-41 passes, including 20 in a row to finish the game, for 336 yards without an interception and ran for 33 yards to spark a second-half comeback.
“We’ll enjoy it, then we will get right back to it,” Mahomes said. “We’ll go back and watch some film. We’ve got to get better and better as we try to work our way into the playoffs.”
Mahomes was concerned about two lost fumbles and 10 penalties for 102 yards against a Texans team that fell to 1-12 with one draw.
“Guys had to continue to battle,” Mahomes said. “We hurt ourselves a lot. We’ve got to cut out the penalties, cut out the turnovers and be cleaner or there are going to be a lot more battles for us.”
The Chiefs followed the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings into the post-season, and the Dallas Cowboys also advanced with a little help from the New York Giants.
Dallas missed a chance to clinch a playoff spot by losing 40-34 at Jacksonville on a 52-yard overtime interception return touchdown by the Jaguars’ Rayshawn Jenkins.
The Cowboys lost another chance to reach the playoffs when Detroit edged the host New York Jets 20-17 on Jared Goff’s 51-yard touchdown pass to Brock Wright with 1:49 to play.
But the Cowboys claimed a spot when the New York Giants beat the Washington Commanders 20-12 in an NFC East division battle that capped the day’s action.
The Eagles improved the NFL’s best record to 13-1 with a 25-20 triumph at Chicago.
Jalen Hurts ran 17 times for 61 yards and three touchdowns while also throwing for 315 yards as Philadelphia won despite three turnovers.
“There was so much that we overcame. We persevered,” Hurts said. “It was ugly at times but we found a way. Great teams find a way.
“We stuck together. There was adversity. We turned it over. We gave them some things. When it mattered most, we found a way.”
Bengals beat Bucs
In a showdown of division leaders, Joe Burrow threw for four touchdowns and the Cincinnati Bengals won 34-23 at Tampa Bay.
A sixth consecutive victory put the Bengals at 10-4, one game ahead of Baltimore atop the AFC North, while Tom Brady’s Buccaneers fell to 6-8, one game atop the rest of the NFC South.
Seven-time Super Bowl champion Brady fell to 89-1 in home games when his team led by 17 or more points.
Two Brady touchdown passes helped lift the Bucs ahead 17-0, but then Brady made four consecutive turnovers — twice on lost fumbles plus two interceptions — and Cincinnati scored the next 34 points.
Burrow answered with touchdown passes of three yards to Tyler Boyd, five yards to Tee Higgins, eight yards to Ja’Mar Chase and 12 yards to Mitchell Wilcox.
The wildest ending came in Las Vegas, where New England tried a rugby-style lateral on the last play of regulation in a deadlocked game.
An errant backward toss went to Raiders’ defender Chandler Jones and he ran 48 yards with the fumble recovery to give Vegas a 30-24 victory.
Cameron Dicker kicked a 43-yard field goal with four seconds remaining to give the Los Angeles Chargers a 17-14 victory over visiting Tennessee, trimming the Titans’ AFC South lead over Jacksonville to one game.
New Orleans edged visiting Atlanta 21-18 while Pittsburgh won 24-16 at Carolina and host Denver defeated Arizona 24-15 in matchups of clubs with losing records.
Jalen Hurts threw four touchdown passes, three of them to A.J. Brown, as the NFL’s only unbeaten team, the Philadelphia Eagles, crushed the Pittsburgh Steelers 35-13 on Sunday.
Hurt’s Inspiration
Impressive Hurts cast aside any lingering doubts about his ability, completing 19 of 28 passes for 285 yards, and the Steelers had no answer to his connection with Brown, who had six receptions for 156 yards as the Eagles moved to 7-0.
“It’s a testament to the receivers we have, the protection we had all day,” Hurts said. “It’s a testament to the work we put in as a team. No man is an island. You’ve got to draw your strength from others.”
The three Hurts-to-Brown touchdowns came in the first half to give the Eagles a 21-0 lead at the half and the win was secured thanks to a 34-yard pass from Hurts to Zach Pascal in the third quarter and an 11-yard touchdown run from Miles Sanders in the fourth.
“We just want to be great,” Brown said of his connection with Hurts. “He knows what I want to accomplish and I know what he wants to accomplish. We’re just having fun and playing for one another.”
It’s only the second time in franchise history that the Eagles have opened the season 7-0 and the first since the 2004 season.
“There isn’t any time to celebrate,” Eagles defensive tackle Javon Hargrave said. “We’re glad we’re 7-0 but there’s a whole lot more to accomplish.”
The Minnesota Vikings improved to 6-1 with a 34-26 victory over the Arizona Cardinals while running back Tony Pollard rushed for three touchdowns as the Dallas Cowboys rose to 6-2 by beating the Chicago Bears 49-29.
A pair of third-quarter touchdowns gave the Vikings an 11-point lead over the Cardinals.
Arizona reduced the deficit to 28-26 after Kyler Murray found Rondale Moore with a 34-yard touchdown pass and Matt Prater added a field goal, but Kirk Cousins wrapped up the win with a 5-yard pass to K.J Osborn.
Dallas running back Pollard starred with a career-best effort, rushing for 131 yards on 14 carries and three touchdowns.
Buffalo improved to 6-1 by defeating the visiting Green Bay Packers 27-17 as Josh Allen threw for 218 yards and two touchdowns.
The Packers fell to 3-5 despite Aaron Rodgers throwing for 203 yards and two touchdowns and Aaron Jones rushing for 143 yards.
McCaffrey hits treble
San Francisco routed the reigning NFL champion Los Angeles Rams 31-14 as 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, in only his second game since arriving in a deal with Carolina, delivered an epic effort.
McCaffrey became the first NFL player since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2005, and only the fourth since 1970, to throw and run for a touchdown and catch a touchdown pass in the same game with a 34-yard touchdown toss to Brandon Aiyuk, a 9-yard scoring grab from Jimmy Garoppolo and a 1-yard touchdown run.
Derrick Henry ran 32 times for 219 yards and two touchdowns to give Tennessee a 17-10 triumph at Houston. It was his sixth career 200-yard rushing performance, matching the NFL record shared by O.J. Simpson and Adrian Peterson.
South Korean-born Younghoe Koo kicked a 41-yard field goal in overtime to give Atlanta a 37-34 home victory over Carolina while Geno Smith threw for 212 yards and two touchdowns to lead Seattle over the visiting New York Giants 27-13, dropping New York to 6-2.
Taylor Heinicke’s 1-yard touchdown run and a conversion kick with 22 seconds remaining gave Washington a 17-16 victory at Indianapolis.
Nick Folk kicked five field goals for New England in the Patriots’ 22-17 triumph at the New York Jets while Andy Dalton threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns in New Orleans’ 24-0 home victory over Las Vegas.
Tua Tagovailoa’s third touchdown pass, an 11-yarder to Mike Gesicki with 12 seconds remaining, gave Miami a 31-27 victory at Detroit while Latavius Murray’s late 2-yard touchdown gave Denver a 21-17 victory over Jacksonville at London.
The Minnesota Viking’s Kirk Cousins threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns in a triumphant NFL return to Washington on Sunday while the Buffalo Bills were upset by the New York Jets.
Cousins, who spent six largely frustrating NFL seasons with Washington before joining the Vikings in 2018, sparked Minnesota over the Commanders 20-17.
“I knew I was going to be emotional pulling in, seeing the player parking lot where we used to hang out. I about shed a tear,” Cousins said.
“But we had a job to do, and we got the job done.”
The Vikings on the rise
The Vikings, who trailed 17-7 in the fourth quarter, improved to 7-1 overall — their best start since 2009 — and stretched their win streak to six games, each victory coming by eight points or less.
“We feel like we’re using too many of our lives right now. We need to win a little more convincingly,” Cousins said. “We’ve got to find ways to win a little better. We’ve got to play a little better.
“But I’d much rather have these conversations in the meeting room tomorrow after a win.”
Cousins completed 22 of 40 passes, including touchdown tosses of nine yards to Justin Jefferson and 12 yards to Dalvin Cook, and guided a six-minute drive to set up Greg Joseph’s winning field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
“We’re finding ways to win,” Cousins said. “We’re finding the inches. We grind on them and keep trying to pull them out at the end.”
At New York, the Jets drove 86 yards to set up Greg Zuerlein’s 28-yard game-winning field goal with 1:43 remaining to beat Buffalo 20-17 for their best start in 12 years.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen ran for two touchdowns but Jets defenders stifled the NFL’s top offensive unit as Buffalo fell to 6-2, still ahead of the Jets (6-3) atop the AFC East division.
Miami improved to 6-3 in the AFC East as Tua Tagovailoa threw for 302 yards and three touchdowns in the Dolphins’ 35-32 victory at Chicago.
Chicago’s Justin Fields, who had three touchdown passes and a touchdown run in a losing cause, ran for 178 yards to set an NFL one-game regular-season record for quarterbacks, five more than Michael Vick’s old mark from 2002.
AFC East rival New England improved to 5-4 with a 26-3 home rout of Indianapolis as Mac Jones threw for a touchdown and Jonathan Jones returned an interception 17 yards for a touchdown.
Brady heroics bring win
Tom Brady flipped a 1-yard touchdown pass to Cade Otton with nine seconds remaining to give Tampa Bay a 16-13 victory over the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.
The 45-year-old quarterback, winner of a record seven Super Bowl crowns, became the first player with 100,000 career p
Image of Tom Brady from Wikipedia.
assing yards, completing 36-of-58 throws for 280 yards.
Brady also delivered his NFL record 69th career game-winning drive in the last two minutes or overtime.
The Buccaneers improved to 4-5 while the Rams fell to 3-5 in the first meeting of the two prior NFL champions in which both had losing records.
The Green Bay Packers (3-6) suffered their fifth consecutive loss, falling 15-9 at Detroit as Aaron Rodgers threw three interceptions while Jared Goff threw two touchdown passes for the Lions.
Cincinnati’s Joe Mixon scored a team-record five touchdowns, running 22 times for 153 yards and four touchdowns with four receptions for 58 yards and another score, to power the Bengals over visiting Carolina 42-21.
Travis Etienne ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns and Trevor Lawrence threw for another score as host Jacksonville rallied from a 17-0 deficit to defeat Las Vegas 27-20.
Cameron Dicker’s 37-yard field goal on the final play gave the Los Angeles Chargers a 20-17 triumph at Atlanta. Austin Ekeler ran for one touchdown and caught a touchdown pass for the Chargers.
Geno Smith threw for 275 yards and two touchdowns and Kenneth Walker ran 26 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns to spark Seattle over host Arizona 31-21.
