Rare free kick attempt goes wide for Panthers

Carolina’s Joey Slye missed a 60-yard attempt on a rare free kick for a field goal at the end of the first half against Tampa Bay.

Slye got his opportunity after the Panthers called for a fair catch at midfield with 1 second left in the half. Tampa Bay had falsestarted three straight times before the punt.

The Panthers chose the option of a free kick. That allowed Slye to kick from the 50 with the Bucs players forced to remain 10 yards back. The kick went wide right and Carolina’s lead remained 17-7 at the break.

Long day for Winston

Jameis Winston started the day with an interception on Tampa Bay’s first play from scrimmage. He ended it staring into space following his sixth giveaway of the day.

A 400-yard passing day and his 100th career TD pass were overshadowed by the kind of sloppy performance from the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft that has become all too commonplace in his five seasons in Tampa Bay.

Winston committed six of Tampa Bay’s seven turnovers on the day and the Buccaneers had another rough stay in London, losing 37-26 to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Quite a return

Welcome back, Tyreek Hill.

The Chiefs’ two-time AllPro outjumped Texans cornerback Phillip Gaines and safety Justin Reid to haul in a 46-yard touchdown reception to punctuate Hill’s first drive since Week 1.

Hill had been sidelined with a broken clavicle sustained against the Jaguars.

Help from above

The New Orleans Saints got an unexpected — and probably unintentional — backer for their game at Jacksonville.

Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, included the Saints’ Twitter logo in a tweet Sunday morning — one New Orleans football fans took as a good omen for their team.

“Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new #Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession,” the Pope tweeted after canonizing five new saints at a mass at Vatican City.

The hashtag and capitalization of Saints added the Fleur de Lis, the emblem associated with the Saints and worn on the team’s helmets.

People certainly noticed as one person wrote, “Who Dat, father?” At least one Saints player took the tweet as a good sign: “Wow, are we blessed or what?!??”