WEEK 9 RECAPS

SAINTS 45, RAMS 35

Michael Thomas caught a late 72-yard touchdown reception, then celebrated with a cellphone in a throwback to another famous New Orleans play. Drew Brees passed for 346 yards and four touchdowns as the Saints earned their seventh straight win, and Thomas finished with a franchise-record 211 receiving yards. But what happened after their last connection of the day really stole the show in a wild shootout between two of the NFL’s best offenses. The long touchdown came on a pivotal third-down play with about four minutes to go, when the Rams seemed to expect the Saints to run a play closer to the first-down marker. Thomas ran free behind Marcus Peters, caught the long throw by Brees virtually in stride and ran straight to the goalpost, where he got out an old-school flip phone — reminiscent of Joe Horn’s Sunday night celebration in 2003. Thomas, who caught 12 passes, eclipsed Wes Chandler’s team record of 205 receiving yards against Atlanta in 1979. New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara scored three times, all in the first half.

TEXANS 19, BRONCOS 17

Brandon McManus missed a 51-yard field goal as time expired, leaving Demaryius Thomas a winner in his homecoming as Houston escaped Denver with a win. Thomas, traded by the Broncos to the Texans this past week, had three catches for 61 yards, including back-to-back grabs for 31 and 18 yards on the Texans’ opening touchdown drive. Tight end Jeff Heuerman had 10 catches, his most as a pro, for 83 yards.

CHARGERS 25, SEAHAWKS 17

Philip Rivers made his 200th consecutive start and kept Los Angeles surging at the midpoint of the season. Rivers threw for 228 yards and two touchdowns, Melvin Gordon added 113 yards on the ground and the Chargers earned their fifth straight win. Desmond King provided the deciding points by stepping in front of Wilson’s pass for David Moore and returning it 42 yards for a touchdown with 6:44 remaining to give the Chargers a 25-10 lead. Russell Wilson managed to make the final minutes nervous for Los Angeles. Wilson hit Nick Vannett for a 6-yard touchdown with 1:50 remaining to cut the Chargers’ lead to one score.

STEELERS 23, RAVENS 16

James Conner rushed for 107 yards and caught a touchdown pass for the Steelers, who have won four straight since falling to the Baltimore Ravens at home on Sept. 30. Ben Roethlisberger was 28-for-47 passing for 270 yards. His 1-yard run put Pittsburgh up 20-6 in the third quarter, and the 36-year-old showed his grit by missing only one play after being flattened during a sprint from the pocket with just more than 13 minutes left. Joe Flacco was limited to 209 passing yards and sacked twice.

CHIEFS 37, BROWNS 21

Patrick Mahomes passed for 375 yards, threw three touchdown passes — two to Travis Kelce — and continued the best start by an NFL quarterback in 68 years as Kansas City’s impossible-to-handle offense kept rolling with a win over the Browns, who played their first game since coach Hue Jackson’s firing. Kareem Hunt had two scoring runs and one touchdown reception for the Chiefs, who came in having averaged 36.3 points per game with an offense overloaded with weapons for Mahomes. He and Cleveland counterpart Baker Mayfield didn’t match their epic college meeting in 2016, when they combined for more than 1,700 yards of offense, but the Chiefs put on another impressive offensive show with 499 total yards, averaging 8.6 per snap.

VIKINGS 24, LIONS 9

Defensive end Danielle Hunter had 3.5 of Minnesota’s franchise-record 10 sacks and a fourth-quarter fumble return for a touchdown, making for a miserable afternoon for quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Lions. Hunter, a fourth-year pro, also was credited with nine tackles and four quarterback hits as the Vikings limited the Lions to 214 total yards. Detroit had a streak of 25 consecutive games with at least 14 points scored stopped in humbling fashion.

DOLPHINS 13, JETS 6

Miami linebacker Jerome Baker intercepted fellow rookie Sam Darnold and scored the game’s only touchdown on a 25-yard return with 11 minutes left, and a resilient defense helped the Dolphins beat the Jets. Darnold threw four interceptions and took four sacks, and the Jets went 2-for-13 on third-down conversion attempts. The hobbled Dolphins endured another wave of injuries, but their defense was much improved after three consecutive poor games, with the quality of the opposition certainly a factor. Darnold tried to rally his sputtering team from a 6-3 deficit, but after a punt he took a high snap and made an ill-advised throw to tight end Eric Tomlinson. Baker stepped in front for his first career interception and scored untouched. T.J. McDonald and Walt Aikens picked off passes to end the Jets’ final two possessions.

BEARS 41, BILLS 9

Jordan Howard scored two touchdowns and Chicago’s defense had two others in a win over the Bills in what proved to be another comedy of errors for Buffalo and its anemic offense. Eddie Jackson scored on a 65yard fumble return and Leonard Floyd returned a tipped pass 19 yards for another score some 3 1/2 minutes apart in the second quarter. Howard, set up by Tarik Cohen’s 38-yard punt return, then scored on an 18yard scamper to cap a run in which the Bears scored four touchdowns in a span of 12 minutes, 20 seconds in the second quarter. The Bears won their second in a row and improved to 5-3 to match their best start to a season through eight games since 2013. Chicago also matched its win total from last year. Chicago’s defense forced four takeaways and limited the Bills to 264 yards despite missing star linebacker Khalil Mack, who missed his second straight game with an injury to his right ankle.

PANTHERS 42, BUCCANEERS 28

Cam Newton completed 19 of 25 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns, Christian McCaffrey racked up 157 yards from scrimmage and scored twice and the Panthers built an early lead and held on to beat the Buccaneers for their 10th straight home win. Newton threw scoring passes of 19 yards to Curtis Samuel and 17 yards to Greg Olsen, the seventh straight game he has thrown for at least two touchdowns. McCaffrey had 17 carries for 79 yards and five catches for 78 yards and turned in the play of the game when he leaped over a defender after a reception in the flat and kept going, turning it into a 32-yard gain. The Panthers scored touchdowns on five straight possessions during the first half to build a commanding 35-7 lead before the Buccaneers battled back to within a touchdown early in the fourth quarter behind Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick, who started in place of the turnover-prone Jameis Winston for Tampa Bay, finished with 243 passing yards and four touchdowns — two each to O.J. Howard and Adam Humphries.