The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Titans rally to shock Ravens in OT, again
For three quarters, the undermanned Ravens put the clamps on Derrick Henry and the Tennessee Titans.
By the time if was all over, the star running back and Tennessee would again head out of Baltimore with an upset victory to savor.
Henry ran for a 29-yard touchdown with 5:21 left in overtime Sunday to cap another memorable performance against the Ravens and provide Tennessee with a 30-24 win.
Heading into the fourth quarter, Henry had 44 yards on 18 carries and the Titans trailed 21-13. He finished with 133 yards on 28 carries — his sixth 100-yard game of the season. His big day also put him over 1,000 yards for the third consecutive year.
“You could just kind of tell as the game wore on to the fourth quarter that we were wearing on them offensively,“Titans coach Mike Vrabel said.
It was reminiscent of Henry’s outing last January, when he rambled for 195 yards to carry the Titans to a 28-12 upset of the top-seeded Ravens in the AFC divisional playoff.
After forcing a punt to begin overtime, Tennessee (7-3) moved 73 yards on six plays to get back on track after losing three of its previous four games.
“I had a ton of confidence that as soon as we got the ball we were going to march it down and get in the end zone,” Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill said.
Baltimore (6-4) has lost two straight and three of four.
Pittsburgh 27, Jacksonville 3: Pittsburgh’s most dominant defensive performance of the season kept the Steelers perfect. Terrell Edmunds and Minkah Fitzpatrick intercepted two passes each and the Steelers steamrolled their way to a 10-0 record.
Rookie quarterback Jake Luton looked lost most of the day against the Steelers, who allowed 206 yards and finished with two sacks.
Ben Roethlisberger completed 32 of 46 passes for 267 yards and two touchdowns. He found Chris Claypool and Eric Ebron for scores.
New Orleans 24, Atlanta 9: Taysom Hill rushed for two touchdowns and passed for 233 yards in his first NFL start at quarterback, and the Saints got their seventh straight victory.
With 41-year-old quarterback Drew Brees sidelined at least three games with multiple rib fractures, Saints coach Sean Payton gave Hill the nod over offseason free agent acquisition Jameis Winston. Hill, who started his career as a utility player with the Saints in 2017, looked comfortable running the scheme Payton designed. He completed 18 of 23 passes without an interception and used his all-around athleticism to run intermittently on scrambles or designed read-option plays, finishing with a team-high 51 yards rushing.
Washington 20, Cincinnati 9: Top draft pick Joe Burrow was carted off with a left knee injury before Alex Smith rallied Washington.
Burrow, Cincinnati’s franchise quarterback, was injured early in the third quarter when he was hit high and low by two Washington linemen after throwing a pass. His left leg bent awkwardly, and he couldn’t put any weight on it, ending his day at 22-of-34 passing for 203 yards and a touchdown.
His season appears over, too. Burrow tweeted: “Thanks for all the love. Can’t get rid of me that easy. See ya next year.”
Cleveland 22, Philadelphia 17: Kareem Hunt hurdled Philadelphia’s Jalen Mills on a touchdown run, Olivier Vernon stepped up with star Myles
Garrett out with COVID-19 by getting three sacks and a safety for Cleveland.
Hunt’s leaping 5-yard score came shortly after a dazzling 54-yard run by Nick Chubb as the Browns (7-3) finally found traction in their running game in a constant downpour.
Carolina 20, Detroit 0: P.J. Walker threw for 258 yards and a touchdown in his first NFL start, the much-maligned Carolina defense earned its first shutout since 2015 and the Panthers (4-7) snapped a five-game losing streak.
Walker, a former XFL player, was made the starter less than two hours before kickoff when
Teddy Bridgewater was officially ruled out with a knee injury.
Indianapolis 34, Green Bay 31 (OT):
After allowing three touchdown passes and 28 first-half points, Indianapolis gave up only three secondhalf points. The Colts also forced a game-changing fumble less than a minute into overtime for a 34-31 victory over Green Bay.
Rodrigo Blankenship won it with a 39-yard field goal with 7:10 remaining.
Indy (7-3) did it with an old-school combination: The offense that played keep-away, a defense that came up with two three-and-outs and a fourth-down stop late in the fourth quarter, and the key turnover in overtime.
Dallas 31, Minnesota 28: Andy Dalton returned from a two-game absence to throw three TD passes, hitting Dalton Schultz for a 2-yard score with 1:37 left to lift Dallas.
Dalton went 22 for 32 for 203 yards and one interception after fill-ins Ben DiNucci and Garrett Gilbert started the previous two games. After missing games to a concussion and COVID-19, Dalton directed an 11-play, 66-yard drive down the stretch that was extended with a fourth-and-6 completion to Amari Cooper at the 19. Kris Boyd stepped in front of Schultz and nearly picked off a first-and-goal pass in the end zone, but Dalton delivered to his wide open tight end two plays later.
Denver 23, Miami 10: Justin Simmons intercepted Ryan Fitzpatrick’s pass in the end zone with 63 seconds left Sunday, sealing the Denver Broncos’ 20-13 win over the Miami Dolphins.
The Broncos (4-6) not only prevented Tua Tagovailoa from becoming just the second rookie in the past 40 years to win his first four starts but they sacked him a half-dozen times and knocked him from the game in the fourth quarter.
Fitzpatrick entered the game with the Dolphins down 10 points and drove them to a field goal that made it a one-score deficit.