Rams keep Seahawks at bay
Brees’ masterclass sees him vault over Favre
LOS ANGELES: Jared Goff threw two touchdown passes as the league-leading Los Angeles Rams bounced back from their first loss of the season to hold on for a 36-31 victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
The Rams, who lost to New Orleans Saints 45-35 in their previous game, improved to a NFL best 9-1 with the win.
It was also a welcome distraction for southern Californians, who endured a tough week with fatal wildfires and a horrific mass shooting near the Rams’ Thousand Oaks training facility.
The team held a moment of silence before Sunday’s game.
The fire tragedy hit home for Goff, who was one of thousands forced to evacuate their homes. He passed for 319 yards as the Rams swept their season series with the Seahawks.
“It’s just been a tough week for the whole city, the whole area up there,” Goff said. “Hoping today provided a little bit of joy and regularity for those people.”
Rams receiver Cooper Kupp could be out for a spell after he left the game in the second half with a knee injury.
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s very good,” Rams coach Sean McVay said.
Elsewhere, Drew Brees passed another milestone as the New Orleans Saints piled up the points in a 51-14 demolition of the Cincinnati Bengals. Veteran quarterback Brees produced a sublime performance to make 22 of 25 pass attempts for three touchdowns and 265 yards.
The 39-year-old’s latest masterclass saw him vault over Brett Favre into second place on the list for all-time career passing touchdowns with 509, 30 behind Peyton Manning in first place.
“You play long enough I guess these things happen,” Brees said of his milestone.
“I just consider myself very grateful to have played for as long as I have with this team and these teammates.”
Brees’ display was the centerpiece of another dominant win for the Saints, who ended the Rams’ unbeaten start to the season last week and are rapidly emerging as favourites for next February’s Super Bowl.
The win saw the Saints improve to 8-1 at the top of the NFC and strengthened their claims to have the best offence in the NFL.
The Saints have averaged more than 36 points a game in their nine outings so far, and the Bengals never looked like staunching the scoring in Sunday’s clash in Cincinnati.
MAHOMES SETS MARK
In other games on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs continued their impressive campaign with a 26-14 win over the Arizona Cardinals at Arrowhead Stadium.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for two touchdowns and 249 yards as the Chiefs pulled further ahead at the top of the AFC West at 9-1.
Although it was the first time Mahomes had failed to throw for 300 yards since the opening game of the season, the Chiefs quarterback set a new franchise record for touchdown passes in a season.
Mahomes latest two touchdowns took him past the mark of 30 set by Len Dawson 54 years ago.
But while New Orleans and Kansas City rolled on smoothly on Sunday, the New England Patriots suffered a surprise reverse at the Tennessee Titans.
Tom Brady was sacked three times and made only 21 of 41 completions for 254 yards and no touchdowns as the Patriots went down 34-10 to the Titans, who improved to 5-4.
It was a chastening loss for Brady, who was benched for understudy Brian Hoyer midway through the fourth quarter.
In the late game, Ezekiel Elliott had 151 yards rushing and his go-ahead oneyard touchdown run in the fourth quarter helped the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-20.