Rams grab NFC West division crown
Pats win
DETROIT, Dec 3, (AP): Todd Gurley ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns to help the Los Angeles Rams overcome a sputtering start to beat the Detroit Lions 30-16 Sunday and clinch the NFC West title for a second straight season.
The Rams (11-1) also moved a step closer to earning home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs, taking a one-game lead over New Orleans after it lost to Dallas on Thursday night. It is a cushion Los Angeles needs because its only loss was against the Saints last month.
The Lions (4-8) have lost five of six since a surge of success gave them a winning record in late October.
Detroit’s defense held Los Angeles’ highpowered offense in check for three quarters, giving the slumping team a shot to potentially pull off a stunning upset. The Lions, though, failed to make the most of the opportunity because their offense struggled to move the ball and score.
Aaron Donald helped seal the win by forcing Matthew Stafford to fumble midway through the fourth quarter. The star defensive tackle had two strip-sacks in his last game on Nov 19, a 54-51 win over Kansas City.
The Rams were able to lean on Gurley, who has a single-season franchise record with 15 rushing touchdowns. The standout running back also caught three passes for 33 yards.
Cardinals 20, Packers 17 In Green Bay, Wis, the Packers fired coach Mike McCarthy after the loss to one of the NFL’s worst teams.
Zane Gonzalez kicked a 44-yard field goal with 1:41 left, then Green Bay’s Mason Crosby missed a 49-yard attempt as time expired.
Crosby pushed his kick wide right, with the flags atop Lambeau Field blowing in toward the field at the time of the kick.
The stunned Packers suffered a major blow to their fading playoff hopes. Sputtering Green Bay (4-7-1) has lost three straight and five of six.
Cardinals rookie Josh Rosen struggled for much of the afternoon, but hit Larry Fitzgerald for a sliding 32-yard
Gurley
completion on third-and-23 to help set up Gonzalez’s winning kick.
Arizona (3-9) won on the road for the first time since Oct 7 at San Francisco.
Aaron Rodgers was 31 of 50 for 233 yards and a touchdown. A couple throws looked off, especially in the first half, and receivers had a few drops.
Rookie Chase Edmonds ran for two touchdowns for Arizona. Rosen was 11 of 26 for 149 yards.
Chargers 33, Steelers 30
In Pittsburgh, Michael Badgley kicked a 29-yard field goal on the final play to lift Los Angeles past Pittsburgh.
Badgley initially missed a 39-yard kick but Pittsburgh was called for offsides. Badgley’s ensuing 34-yard attempt was blocked, but the Steelers were again flagged jumping across the line of scrimmage before the snap. He drilled his third attempt, and the Chargers declined another Pittsburgh penalty.
Philip Rivers completed 26 of 36 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns for Los Angeles (9-3). Keenan Allen caught 14 passes for 148 yards and a score and Justin Jackson ran for 63 yards and a touchdown in place of injured starter Melvin Gordon. Desmond King added a 73-yard punt return for a score as the Chargers erased a 16-point halftime deficit.
Ben Roethlisberger threw for 281 yards and two scores for the Steelers (7-4-1), who have lost two straight and are now clinging to the AFC North lead over surging Baltimore. Antonio Brown caught 10 passes for a seasonhigh 154 yards and a touchdown. James Conner added 60 yards rushing and two touchdowns before leaving in the fourth quarter with a leg injury.
Giants 30, Bears 27, OT
In East Rutherford, NJ, Aldrick Rosas kicked a 44-yard field goal in overtime and the Giants beat NFC North-leading Chicago, snapping the Bears’ five-game winning streak.
The Giants (4-8) blew a 10-point lead in the final 1:13 of regulation. They didn’t nail down the win until Janoris Jenkins knocked away a deep fourth-down pass to Taylor Gabriel after quarterback Chase Daniel fumbled on consecutive plays on the rainy afternoon to set up a fourth-and-8.
Chicago (8-4) forced overtime by getting a 21-yard field goal by Cody Parkey and a 1-yard touchdown pass from halfback Tarik Cohen to Anthony Miller as time expired in the fourth quarter. The trick-play touchdown was set up by a recovered onside kick by Daniel Brown on a play Giants star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. did not dive for the loose ball. Then came a questionable pass interference call in the end zone against cornerback B.W. Webb with :03 to go.
Chiefs 40, Raiders 33
In Oakland, Calif, Patrick Mahomes threw four touchdown passes to join Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the only QBs to reach the 40 TD mark through 12 games.
The Chiefs won their first game since releasing star running back Kareem Hunt. The Chiefs (10-2) cut ties with Hunt after a months-old video surfaced on TMZ on Friday, showing him shoving and kicking a woman. No charges have been filed in the case from February, but the Chiefs let Hunt go because he misled them about the incident .
Spencer Ware replaced Hunt as starter and scored on a direct snap on fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the third quarter. Mahomes did most of the rest of the damage against the Raiders (2-10) with his arm.
He connected on two short touchdown passes to Travis Kelce in the first half, then found another tight end, Demetrius Harris, on a 13-yard pass late in the third quarter one play after an apparent TD to Kelce was called off by a replay review.
Mahomes finished 23 for 38 for 295 yards and engineered a late TD drive capped by a 2-yard pass to Chris Conley after Oakland cut the deficit to Baltimore Ravens cornerback Tavon Young (25) runs into the end zone for a touchdown after a Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan fumble during the second half of an NFL football game on Dec 2 in Atlanta. The Baltimore Ravens
won 26-16. (AP)
three.
Patriots 24, Vikings 10
In Foxborough, Mass, Tom Brady passed for 311 yards and a touchdown, while Bill Belichick earned his 250th victory, including playoffs, as Patriots coach.
Brady completed 24 of 32 passes and now has 579 touchdown passes, including the playoffs, tying him with Peyton Manning for the most. He also has 508 regular-season TD passes, which ties him with Brett Favre on the career list. Manning is first with 539 and Drew Brees has 518.
James Develin added a career-high two touchdown runs.
The Patriots (9-3) have won eight of nine since starting the season 1-2. They have clinched their 18th straight winning season. It is the second-longest streak in NFL history. The record is held by the Cowboys at 20 seasons from 1966-85.
Minnesota (6-5-1) has lost two of its past three.
The Vikings entered the game allowing the third-fewest rushing yards in the league (93.6 per game). But New England was able to spread them out, rushing for 160 yards.
Seahawks 43, 49ers 16
In Seattle, Russell Wilson threw three first-half touchdowns on just four completions and finished with four TD passes. Bobby Wagner capped a blowout with a 98-yard interception return touchdown, and the Seahawks won their third straight game.
Seattle (7-5) stayed in the middle of
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) runs for a first down against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half of an NFL football game
on Dec 2 in Foxborough, Mass. (AP)
the NFC playoff race by jumping to a 20-0 lead and cruising to its ninth straight victory over its NFC West foe. But it won’t win the division because the Rams clinched it earlier in the day with a win at Detroit.
Wilson wasn’t asked to do much in the first half, but the little he did found the end zone. He hit Jaron Brown on a 4-yard TD pass in the first quarter, found Tyler Lockett for a 52-yard score and connected with Doug Baldwin on a 1-yarder. According to Sportradar, Wilson throwing three touchdowns on four completions made for the fewest TDs/completions in a first half dating to 1991. The previous low was six.
Rashaad Penny added a 20-yard run on the first offensive play of the second half following an 84-yard kickoff return by Lockett for a 27-3 lead.
Wilson finished 11 of 17 for 185 yards and has thrown at least two touchdowns in eight straight games. It was the eighth time in the regular season Wilson has thrown four or more TD passes.
Titans 26, Jets 22 In Nashville, Tenn, Marcus Mariota threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Corey Davis with 36 seconds left, and the Titans rallied from a 16-point deficit.
The Titans (6-6) snapped a twogame skid to keep themselves on the fringes of the AFC playoff chase.
The Jets (3-9) had one last chance to snap their own losing streak, but Malcolm Butler intercepted Josh McCown’s pass with 21 seconds left to seal Tennessee’s victory and the Jets’ collapse. New York now has lost six straight.
Mariota looked nothing like the quarterback who turned in the secondbest single-game performance in NFL history last week, completing 95.7 percent of his passes in a loss at Houston. Home fans booed early and often as Jets cornerback Trumaine Johnson got only his second interception this season and ran it back 31 yards for an early TD and a 10-0 lead.
It was the Jets’ first after the franchise tied a league record for futility for not forcing a turnover in five straight games. The Jets also sacked Mariota three times. In the end, though, they fell apart.
Jaguars 6, Colts 0 In Jacksonville, Fla, Jalen Ramsey and the Jaguars delivered one of the most dominant defensive performances in franchise history. The Jaguars (4-8) needed that kind of effort to make up for a lackluster offense and end a seven-game losing streak. They also snapped Indy’s five-game winning streak.
Ramsey was the best of the bunch, helping hold T.Y. Hilton to six catches for 56 yards. Ramsey also made a game-ending tackle on Erik Swoope with 8 seconds remaining.
Ramsey hit Swoope near the sideline at the end of a third-and-6 play at the Jacksonville 29, and the tight end seemed to land out of bounds. But an official ruled him in and kept the clock running. The Colts were out of timeouts and could only watch the clock wind down.
Andrew Luck completed 33 of 52 passes for 248 yards and an interception. He was sacked three times after getting hit just five times in the entire month of November. He was sacked once in the previous five games.
The Colts (6-6) entered with the fourth-most points in the league, having averaged more than 33 a game over their last eight.