Gostkowski’s money as Titans win again BUCCANEERS 28, BRONCOS 10
MINNEAPOLIS — Ryan Tannehill and the Tennessee Titans have had little reason to sweat these tight finishes.
That shaky start with his new team now a distant memory, Stephen Gostkowski had this late-game part down a long time ago.
Gostkowski made his careerhigh sixth field goal of the game, a 55-yarder with 1:44 left that lifted undefeated Tennessee to a 31-30 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday after Tannehill directed another comeback.
“Every phase of our team has to improve and get better, but there’s no panic,” said coach Mike Vrabel, who took the Titans to the AFC championship game last season.
Derrick Henry rushed 26 times for 119 yards and two third-quarter touchdowns for the Titans, who improved to 3-0 for the first time since 2008 after trailing for a total of 32:07 in the game including a 12-point deficit until late in the third quarter.
Tannehill passed for 321 yards, guiding the Titans on a go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter or overtime for the sixth time in 16 games since becoming the starter. The Titans are 12-4 behind Tannehill, including the playoffs, and they’re
15-0 when Henry — the NFL rushing leader last year — hits the 100-yard mark.
“We just kept chipping away chipping away, believing in each other,” said Tannehill, whose streak of nine straight games — the fourth-longest in NFL history — with two or more touchdown passes and one or fewer interceptions ended.
Dalvin Cook rushed for a career-high 181 yards and a score and rookie Justin Jefferson had seven catches for 175 yards and a touchdown for the Vikings, who are 0-3 for the first time since 2013, the year before coach Mike Zimmer was hired.
■ NEXT: Steelers at Titans, 10 a.m. Sunday. Vikings at Texans, 10 a.m. Sunday.
Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes and Shaq Barrett celebrated his homecoming with a pair of sacks, one for a safety, as the Buccaneers kept the host Broncos winless. With his first road win for Tampa Bay (2-1), Brady evened his career record against the Broncos at 9-9 with just his fifth win in a dozen trips to Denver. Before Sunday, the Broncos were the only team in the NFL with a winning record against the six-time Super Bowl champion. This also marked the first time since in almost a decade — Nov. 14-21, 2010 — that the Buccaneers won back-to-back games by 14 or more points. The Broncos (0-3) completed a second straight winless September under head coach Vic Fangio, who donned a face shield a la Andy Reid after getting fined $100,000 for failing to wear a face mask last week. Barrett, who led the league last year with 19½ sacks in his first season in Tampa, picked up his first sacks of this season in the city where he played from 2014-18 after starring at Colorado State.
And just days after insisting he was in Tampa to serve as “a blocking tight end,” Rob Gronkowski caught six passes for 48 yards after getting shut out last week and coming into the game with just two receptions for 11 yards.
■ NEXT: Chargers at Buccaneers, 10 a.m. Sunday. Broncos at Jets, 5:20 p.m. Thursday.