The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Steelers survive Titans rally, move to 6-0
Ben Roethlisberger threw two touchdown passes to Diontae Johnson, and the Pittsburgh Steelers remained perfect by holding off Tennessee for a 27-24 victory Sunday in a game postponed three weeks after the Titans came down with the NFL’s first COVID-19 outbreak of the season.
In a matchup of the AFC’s two remaining undefeated teams, the Titans rallied by scoring 17 straight after being dominated in the first half.
They failed to complete the comeback when Stephen Gostkowski, who made a 51-yarder earlier, missed from 45 yards wide right with 14 seconds left that sent the Steelers running around the field in celebration with the Titans (5-1) stunned.
“Oh, man. I mean, I was surprised he missed it,” Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith- Schuster said. “Our idea was to go into overtime. A good kicker. It’s tough. It’s good for us.”
The Steelers improved to 6-0 for their best start since 1978, when Pittsburgh won its first seven on the way to the Super Bowl.
This was just the fifth time undefeated teams had met in Week 7 or later, and the winner of the previous four all made the Super Bowl.
“We feel we have a really good football team,” Roethlisberger said. “We feel we can be really special … That’s going to be a short-lived happiness because we know what’s coming next.”
Washington 25, Dallas 3: Washington’s defense finally clamped down on a struggling opponent, piling up six sacks, an interception and a forced fumble that became a safety in a that snapped a five-game skid.
Montez Sweat had two sacks for Washington (2-5), Cole Holcomb had one to go along with a red zone interception and Landon Collins knocked the ball out of Andy Dalton’s hands for an early safety before leaving with an ankle injury. Dalton was under siege all day behind a patchwork offensive line before being knocked out of the game in the third quarter on a shoulder-to-head hit from Jon Bostic, who was ejected.
Detroit 23, Atlanta 22: Matthew Stafford connected with T.J. Hockenson on an 11-yard TD pass as time expired and Matt Prater booted a 48-yard extra point to give Detroit the improbable victory.
Trailing 16-14, the Falcons (1-6) were positioned to run down the clock and kick a chip-shot field goal for the win when they picked up a first down at the Lions 10 with just over a minute remaining.
Detroit had used up all its timeouts, so there was no way to stop the clock. Knowing their only chance was to allow a quick TD, the Lions made no attempt to stop Todd Gurley after he took a handoff from Matt Ryan. Gurley realized what the Lions were doing — but too late. He started to fall but landed on the goal line with 1:04 remaining.
Stafford drove his team 75 yards in eight plays. Detroit spiked the ball with 2 seconds to go, setting up the final play. Stafford was pressured in the pocket, rolled to his left and spotted Hockenson breaking free across the end zone.
Cleveland 37, Cincinnati 34: Baker Mayfield overcame a terrible start to throw for five touchdowns, including a 24-yard go-ahead score to Donovan Peoples-Jones with 15 seconds left, and Cleveland outdueled Cincinnati.
Nursing sore ribs, Mayfield started 0 for 5 — including an interception on his first attempt of the game. He then completed 22 of his next 23
passes. The last was the leaping grab by People-Jones to win it for the Browns.
New Orleans 27, Carolina 24:
Drew Brees passed for 287 yards and two touchdowns without two top receivers and rushed for another score to lead New Orleans past Carolina.
The Panthers had driven across midfield in the final minutes when Marcus Davenport’s sack of Teddy Bridgewater led coach Matt Rhule to send out kicker Joey Slye for a 65-yard field goal on fourth-and-19. The kick fell just short of the crossbar and the Saints (4-2) ran out the final 1:55.
Green Bay 35, Houston 20: Aaron Rodgers threw for 283 yards and four touchdowns Green Bay rebounded from its first loss.
Despite being without leading rusher Aaron Jones and left tackle David Bakhtiari, Green Bay (5-1) had no trouble handling the woeful Texans (1-6). The Packers built a 21-0 lead by halftime.
Green Bay’s strong day on offense was aided by a career-high 196 yards receiving by Davante Adams, who had TD receptions of 3 and 45 yards.
Tampa Bay 45, Las Vegas 20: Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes to move past Drew Brees for the most in NFL history and ran for another to lead the Buccaneers over the Raiders.
Brady connected with Rob Gronkowski in the second quarter and on a perfectly placed 33yarder to Scotty Miller later in the first half. He then helped seal the game with the throw to Chris Godwin that put the Bucs (5-2) up 31-20 over the Raiders (3-3) midway through the fourth quarter.
Kansas City 43, Denver 16: Kansas City took a 24-9 halftime lead even though Patrick Mahomes completed just one pass in the second quarter, a 5-yarder, and had just 99 yards through the air in the first half.
Mahomes finally extended his NFL-leading streak to 17 consecutive games with a touchdown throw when he hit Tyreek Hill from 10 yards with 11 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
L.A. Chargers 39, Jacksonville 29:
Justin Herbert got his first NFL win, throwing for 347 yards and three touchdowns as well as running for a score as the Chargers snapped a four-game losing streak.
Herbert, the sixth overall pick in April’s draft, completed 27 of 43 passes. He also rushed for 66. Herbert joined Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow as the only rookie quarterbacks in NFL history with 300 yards, at least three passing TDs, and one rushing in a game. Burrow did that earlier Sunday in the Bengals’ 37-34 loss to the Cleveland Browns.