B.C. Lions roughed up by Riders
The Lions got off to a solid start against Seattle, breaking a scoreless tie late in the first quarter on Matthew Stafford’s 39-yard pass to Marvin Jones. The Lions were then held scoreless for two quarters before Stafford threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Jones early in the fourth to cut the deficit to 14.
Stafford lost a fumble midway through the fourth quarter and threw an interception with 3:08 to go at the Seattle 1.
EAGLES 24 JAGUARS 18 LONDON — Carson Wentz threw three touchdown passes to different players as the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 24-18 at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
Tight end Dallas Goedert caught one of the touchdown passes in the first half, and running back Wendell Smallwood and tight end Zach Ertz scored theirs in the second half for the Eagles (4-4), making their first appearance in England.
Blake Bortles, restored as the starter despite being pulled in a loss to the Houston Texans a week earlier, completed 24 of 41 passes for 286 yards for the slumping Jaguars (3-5), who lost their fourth consecutive game.
Despite Jacksonville’s familiarity with playing in England — it was the Jags’ sixth consecutive year of playing overseas, and they had won their last three — the record crowd of 85,870 formed a decidedly proEagles crowd.
PANTHERS 36, RAVENS 21 CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cam Newton torched the league’s No. 1ranked defence, completing 21 of 29 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns and running for 52 yards and another score.
Christian McCaffrey had two touchdowns and electrifying rookie wide receiver D.J. Moore turned in his best game as a pro with 129 yards from scrimmage as the Panthers won their ninth straight game at home.
Trailing 7-0 early, the Panthers (52) scored on four straight possessions in the final 16 minutes of the first half to break open the game and take a 24-7 halftime lead.
STEELERS 33, BROWNS 18 PITTSBURGH — Ben Roethlisberger threw two touchdown passes to Antonio Brown, James Conner scored twice to bring some solace to a city grieving from tragedy.
The Steelers (4-2-1) overcame a slow start and their own mistakes to win their 15th straight at Heinz Field over the Browns (2-5-1), who have lost 25 consecutive road games — one shy of the NFL record.
The win brought temporary comfort to Pittsburgh’s fans a day after a gunman stormed into the Tree of Life Synagogue and killed 11 people.
A moment of silence was observed before the game and several signs with the Steelers’ helmet logo — inlaid with a Star of David — were displayed by fans.
REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders clinched a home playoff berth for the first time in five years, but if they’ll have quarterback Zach Collaros for the post-season remains to be seen.
Saskatchewan earned home-field advantage in the playoffs thanks to a 35-16 victory over the visiting B.C. Lions on Saturday. It was a dominant defensive effort by the Roughriders, but one that their starting quarterback watched from the locker-room for the final three quarters of the game.
Collaros was on the receiving end of a hard hit to the head from Lions defensive end Odell Willis late in the first quarter. Collaros delivered a pass on the run just before a charging Willis knocked him to the turf.
“He took a good shot. It was a headgear-to-headgear shot and for precautionary reasons our trainers thought it was best to take him out of the football game,” said Riders head coach Chris Jones.
Collaros did not return. Brandon Bridge and David Watford split time under centre for the remainder of the contest. Collaros completed five of eight pass attempts for 52 yards.
The win also bumped Saskatchewan (12-6) into a tie with the Calgary Stampeders (12-5) for first place in the West Division. The Lions, having already clinched a playoff berth, are 9-8 and will cross over to the East Division for the post-season.
ALOUETTES 40 ARGOS 10 MONTREAL — Johnny Manziel lingered outside the Montreal Alouettes locker-room after Sunday’s win, signing autographs for fans hanging over the stadium railing.
Manziel finally had something to celebrate — his first Canadian Football League victory.
The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback known as “Johnny Football” threw for one touchdown, while Will Stanback scored two to lead the Montreal Alouettes to a 40-10 rout of Toronto on Sunday, in a battle of beleaguered basement dwellers.
“I’m damn excited. I’ll stop you before you even get to it,,” Manziel said, interrupting a reporter midquestion. “I’m damn excited. It was a good win for our team.
“But finally to get the first win out of the way, and to do it at the end of the season where I feel we’re building into something, this season into the next season, it’s what we wanted to do. . . No matter how cold, how bad the weather was, today was fun.”