The Day

NFL ROUNDUP / WEEK 14

-

Ravens 24, Bills 17

Lamar Jackson threw three touchdown passes and Baltimore became the AFC's first team to clinch a playoff berth following a win over Buffalo on Sunday. Baltimore extended its franchise-best winning streak to nine and improved to 11-2, its best record through 13 games in team history. With the win, the Ravens can also clinch the AFC North title should the Pittsburgh Steelers lose or tie in their game at Arizona later in the day. Jackson finished 16 of 25 for 145 yards and appeared to blow open the game by putting the Ravens up 24-9 following a 4-yard touchdown pass to Willie Snead with 9:49 left.

Jets 22, Dolphins 21

Sam Ficken kicked a 44-yard field goal as time expired after New York benefited from a pass interferen­ce call determined by the league's officiatin­g office. Sam Darnold got the winning drive going with a short pass to Vyncint Smith, who turned it into a 37-yard gain that included a high-step over a would-be tackler. After a sack two plays later put the ball at the Dolphins 46, Darnold threw an incomplete pass to Smith — but the Jets argued that Nik Needham interfered with the receiver by wrapping his right arm around Smith's right shoulder. Officials overturned the incompleti­on after a video review — giving the Jets a first down and new life. A 12-yard catch by Ty Montgomery got the ball to the 26. Two plays later, Ficken won it, helping the Jets (5-8) avoid a season sweep by the lowly Dolphins (3-10).

49ers 48, Saints 46

Jimmy Garoppolo passed for 349 yards and four touchdowns, Robbie Gould kicked a 30-yard field goal as time expired. Garoppolo's clutch completion to tight end George Kittle for a 39-yard gain — plus a defensive facemask penalty — on fourth-and-2 from the San Francisco 33 helped set up Gould's winning kick. The Saints took their last lead on Drew Brees' fifth touchdown pass of the game — an 18-yarder to Tre'Quan Smith with 53 seconds left. But Brees' pass on an attempted 2-point conversion fell incomplete, leaving New Orleans' lead at one point. The victory kept San Francisco (11-2) in strong position to capture the top seed in the NFC playoffs. The Niners can clinch a playoff berth if Seattle loses to the Rams in a night game. Titans 42, Raiders 21 Ryan Tannehill threw for 391 yards and three touchdowns, Derrick Henry ran for two scores and the Titans won their fourth straight game. The Titans (8-5) bounced back from a deflected intercepti­on on the opening drive to score TDs on five of their next seven possession­s to improve to 6-1 with Tannehill as the starting quarterbac­k. The win moved them into a tie for first place in the AFC South with Houston, with the teams set to meet twice in the final three weeks.

Steelers 23, Cardinals 17

Diontae Johnson ran for an 85-yard touchdown on a punt return and caught a pass for another score. Pittsburgh's defense had three crucial intercepti­ons in the second half — two by Joe Haden and another by T.J. Watt —- to end Arizona drives, including two that had ventured into Steelers' territory. Pittsburgh (8-5) won for the seventh time in eight games to stay in the AFC playoff race. Rookie free agent quarterbac­k Devlin Hodges made his third career start, completing 16 of 19 passes for 152 yards and a touchdown.

Chargers 45, Jaguars 10

Philip Rivers threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns, including an 84-yarder to Austin Ekeler that was the longest completion of the quarterbac­k's 16-year NFL career. It was Jacksonvil­le's fifth consecutiv­e lopsided loss, all by at least 17 points. The 1986 Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the last NFL team to drop five straight by at least 17.

Packers 20, Redskins 15

Aaron Jones rushed for a season-high 134 yards and a touchdown on just 16 carries. Jones had his third 100-yard rushing game of the season and hauled in six catches for 58 yards. With fewer than three minutes left in the game, the third-year running back had more total yards (192) than the Redskins (187). Adrian Peterson became the sixth back in NFL history to reach the 14,000-yard mark, running for 76 yards and a score. He now has 14,036 yards in a 13-year career. Curtis Martin is fifth all-time with 14,101 yards.

Buccaneers 38, Colts 35

Jameis Winston threw for 456 yards and four touchdowns, helping Tampa Bay rally to beat reeling Indianapol­is. Winston overcame throwing three more intercepti­ons and having one returned for a TD for the fifth time season to wipe out a 14-point second-half deficit. He led the Bucs (6-7) to their third straight win and fourth in five games.

Falcons 40, Panthers 20

Matt Ryan threw the longest touchdown pass of his career and became the 10th quarterbac­k in NFL history to reach 50,000 yards. The Panthers (5-8) were officially eliminated from playoff contention with their fifth straight loss, which ruined the debut of interim coach Perry Fewell. He took over at the beginning of the week after longtime coach Ron Rivera was fired.

Broncos 38, Texans 24

Rookie Drew Lock threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns, Kareem Jackson had an intercepti­on and returned a fumble 70 yards for a touchdown against his former team. Lock, who made his NFL debut in a win over the Chargers last week, threw for 235 yards with three TDs in the first half. It was the most yards passing in a first half by the Broncos since Peyton Manning had 282 in Week 5 of 2014.

Browns 27, Bengals 19

Nick Chubb ran for 106 yards — 99 after halftime — and Baker Mayfield and Kareem Hunt had rushing touchdowns. Denzel Ward returned an intercepti­on 61 yards for Cleveland's first score and the Browns (6-7) got a huge late break. Mayfield's third intercepti­on was reversed with a rare interferen­ce call to bounce back after a discouragi­ng loss at Pittsburgh last week.

Vikings 20, Lions 7

Danielle Hunter had three of Minnesota's five sacks to spearhead a resurgence by the defense to stick the Lions with their sixth straight loss. Kirk Cousins passed for 242 yards and a touchdown in an efficient if unspectacu­lar performanc­e. Dalvin Cook had 75 yards from scrimmage and a rushing score on 20 touches over three quarters as the Vikings (9-4) took it easy on their star tailback after an injury to his collarbone area forced him out of the previous game.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States