Brady, Pats belt Raiders in Mexico
MEXICO CITY — Tom Brady felt right at home in his first appearance in Mexico by throwing for 339 yards and three touchdowns, to the delight of an adoring crowd, in the New England Patriots’ 33-8 victory over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.
Brady completed his first 12 passes and picked apart Oakland’s suspect defense to chants of “Brady! Brady!” from an amped-up crowd at Azteca Stadium. The large contingent of Patriots fans in the well-divided crowd for a Raiders “home” game had plenty to cheer about as New England (8-2) dominated from start to finish.
After winning their debut trip to Mexico City last year against Houston, the Raiders (4-6) were completely overmatched in their return. The offense failed to score until Derek Carr threw a touchdown pass to Amari Cooper in the fourth quarter with Oakland trailing by 30 points.
The defense got victimized by short passes by Brady and then beaten on a 64-yard touchdown to Brandin Cooks on the third play of the second half that gave New England a 24-0 lead.
Chiefs 12, Giants 9, OT
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Roger Lewis Jr. made a spectacular catch to set up the winning 23-yard yard goal by Aldrick Rosas in overtime and the Giants responded from weeks of adversity to beat the AFC West-leading Chiefs on a blustery, cold day.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Giants (2-8) and sent the Chiefs (6-4) to their fourth loss in five games.
The winning kick came two plays after Lewis was yanked to the ground on a deep pass from Eli Manning, but still caught the ball while flat on his back for a 34-yard completion on a fourthdown heave. Had he not caught it, flags flew for pass interference.
It was an unexpected was for a team that came into the game in turmoil, with questions about the future of coach Ben McAdoo and many wondering whether the Giants had quit in onesided losses to the Rams and then the winless 49ers in the past two weeks.
Few expected them to beat the Chiefs, especially with Andy Reid’s record coming off a bye week. He was 16-2.
Vikings 24, Rams 7
MINNEAPOLIS — Latavius Murray rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns, Adam Thielen turned a short catch into a 65-yard score and the Vikings smothered the NFL’s highestscoring offense.
Case Keenum completed 27 of 38 passes for 280 yards and no turnovers against the team that benched him last season for No. 1 overall draft pick Jared Goff. He also guided the Vikings (8-2) to their sixth straight victory in a matchup of division leaders.
Minnesota’s defense started the second half by forcing four punts in a row by the Rams (7-3), whose four-game winning streak in which they scored 144 points was finished in convincing fashion. The Rams led the league entering the weekend with a third-down conversion rate of 46.7 percent, but were just 3 for 11 against the Vikings.
The Los Angeles defense was trampled in the second half for 288 yards, and Keenum went without a sack for the sixth game this season. Thielen handed him the longest touchdown pass of his career by turning a simple curl route early in the fourth quarter into a game-breaking score after spinning past Rams cornerback Dominique Hatfield.
Ravens 23, Packers 0
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Ravens forced five turnovers in their third shutout of the season. Baltimore last accomplished the feat when the Ray Lewis-led defense had four shutouts for the Super Bowl-winning team in 2000.
Chargers 54, Bills 24
CARSON, Calif. — Casey Hayward made two of the Chargers’ five interceptions during a horrific first half by Buffalo rookie quarterback Nathan Peterman, and Los Angeles cruised over the slumping Bills.
Bengals 20, Broncos 17
DENVER — Andy Dalton threw three touchdown passes in Cincinnati’s win over the Broncos, their first win in Denver since 1975 when franchise founder Paul Brown was their head coach.
Lions 27, Bears 24
CHICAGO — Matthew Stafford threw for 299 yards and two touchdowns, Matt Prater kicked a 52-yard field goal with 1:35 remaining.
Jaguars 19, Browns 7
CLEVELAND — Blake Bortles threw a touchdown pass and Jacksonville linebacker Telvin Smith recovered a fumble for a TD with 1:14 remaining as the Jaguars won their fourth straight and moved into sole possession of first place in the AFC South.
Buccaneers 30, Dolphins 20
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for 275 yards and two touchdowns, Patrick Murray kicked a 35-yard field goal with 4 seconds remaining and Tampa Bay snapped a sixgame road slide by topping the penalty-prone Dolphins.
Texans 31, Cardinals 21
HOUSTON — Rookie D’Onta Foreman ran for 65 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns before being carted off the field with an ankle injury to help the Houston Texans snap a three-game skid.