Category: 
Author: Alex
Date: October 21, 2007
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DENVER — The Denver Broncos became the first team this season to score onPittsburgh’s defense in the first half when Brandon Stokley caught a 15-yardpass to tie the game at 7 after the first quarter on Sunday night. The Steelers marched the ball down the field with ease on their openingdrive, which culminated with Ben Roethlisberger’s 1-yard touchdown pass to tightend Heath Miller. It was Miller’s third touchdown catch of the season. |
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PHILADELPHIA — Don’t count out the Bears quite yet. Desperately needing a victory to stay in the NFC hunt, Chicago’s BrianGriese connected with Muhsin Muhammad for 15-yard touchdown pass with 9 secondsleft to lift the Bears to a 19-16 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sundaynight. The Bears didn’t even need Devin Hester to bail them out of jam with anexplosive return. Instead, the final, thrilling drive was all Griese. The Bears (3-4) were pinned on the 3-yard line with 1 minute, 57 secondsleft and trailing 16-12. Griese completed a series of short passes over themiddle that got the Bears quickly gaining yards after nearly 58 minutes ofnothing but stagnant football. Hester, the dynamic kick returner, had been shut down on special teams andwas a non-factor on offense until Griese found him for a 21-yard gain thatbrought Chicago to the 15 of Philadelphia. |
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IRVING, Texas — Scoring a first-quarter touchdown wasn’t the spark theDallas Cowboys thought it would be. Returning a blocked field goal for a touchdown for the first time since1983? Yeah, that did the trick. Chris Canty swatted a potential go-ahead kick by Minnesota and Pat Watkinsreturned it 68 yards for a go-ahead touchdown for Dallas, sending the Cowboyspast the Vikings 24-14 Sunday in a game they dominated but nearly gave away. Dallas bounced back from a lopsided home loss to New England and guaranteeditself at least two more weeks atop the NFC because of an upcoming bye. Duringthe time off, the Cowboys can savor being 6-1 for the first time since 1995(their last Super Bowl season) and having beaten the Vikings for the first since1996. Minnesota (2-4) lost for the third time in four games. Rookie AdrianPeterson followed his record-setting, 224-yard performance last week with only63 this time. |
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OAKLAND, Calif. — The Kansas City Chiefs didn’t need much production fromPriest Holmes to extend their winning streak over the Oakland Raiders. Larry Johnson scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 1-yard run early in thefourth quarter and the Chiefs beat the Raiders for the ninth straight time,winning 12-10 Sunday in Holmes’ return from a two-year absence. Holmes, Kansas City’s career leader in yards rushing and touchdowns, wasactivated this week for the first time since suffering a neck injury on avicious hit from San Diego’s Shawne Merriman on Oct. 30, 2005. Holmes entered the game on the third play of Kansas City’s third drive. Hecaught a screen pass from Damon Huard, but was tackled by Nnamdi Asomugha for a6-yard loss. Holmes had no other catches and rushed four times for 9 yards,gaining a key first down with under 3 minutes left and Kansas City (4-3)protecting a 12-10 lead. The Chiefs were unable to run out the clock and the Raiders (2-4) took overat their 26 with 1:46 remaining and one timeout. Daunte Culpepper completed three straight passes to move the ball to the 44before Jarrad Page jumped in front of a slant pass to Ronald Curry with 35seconds left, sealing Kansas City’s fourth win in five games. It was another nailbiting finish for Kansas City against Oakland. Eight ofthe wins during the Chiefs’ streak have been by seven points or fewer. It’s thelongest streak any team has had against the Raiders, who have also lost 17straight division games.
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MIAMI — Tom Brady was flawless at the start and off the bench, too. With his team winning easily, Brady came out of the game early in the fourthquarter Sunday, then re-entered to throw a team-record sixth touchdown pass,capping unbeaten New England’s 49-28 rout of the winless Miami Dolphins. Brady’s TD total exceeded his career high of five, set last week againstDallas. Brady now has 27 TD passes after seven games. The NFL record is 49 setby Peyton Manning in 2004. If Brady maintains his current pace over 16 games, hewould finish with 61. Brady completed his first 11 passes for 220 yards and four scores, includingthrows of 35 and 50 yards to Randy Moss. His other touchdown passes covered 14and 16 yards to Wes Welker, 30 to Donte Stallworth and 2 to Kyle Brady. Willie Andrews returned a kickoff 77 yards for a touchdown to help thePatriots lead 42-7 at the half. |
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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Trent Dilfer became the latest quarterback tosuffer the wrath of Osi Umenyiora, Michael Strahan and the New York Giants’defense. Umenyiora scored on a 75-yard fumble return and the defense helped toaccount for 24 points as the Giants won their fifth straight with a 33-15victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. The dynamic four-end defense of the Giants (5-2) had a field day against theNFL’s worst offense. New York forced four turnovers by the 49ers (2-4), sackedDilfer six times and made him play with his head on a swivel while Alex Smithrested his ailing shoulder on the sidelines. Michael Strahan had his biggest sack performance since 2003, collecting 2 1/2 against his former defensive coordinator and current 49ers coach Mike Nolan. Eli Manning threw touchdown passes to Amani Toomer and Jeremy Shockey, andBrandon Jacobs ran for 107 yards and a touchdown for the Giants, who also gottwo field goals from the struggling Lawrence Tynes. |
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LANDOVER, Md. — This wasn’t a football game. It was a series of unfortunateevents. The Washington Redskins and Arizona Cardinals seemed poised to set footballback for decades Sunday with bad penalties and bonehead mistakes. Since theRedskins had the only thing resembling a normal scoring drive, it seemedappropriate they were the winner, 21-19, although they finished the day withonly 160 total yards and survived a 55-yard field goal attempt that was barelywide left with two seconds remaining. Arizona’s Neil Rackers missed what would have matched the longest field goalof his career. The attempt was set up when the Cardinals recovered an onsidekick following a touchdown and a failed 2-point conversion. No one expected a classic. The Cardinals showed up with a one-armedquarterback and two backups who barely knew the play book, while the Redskinshad to patch together a starting offense after injuries to three linemen lastweek. That didn’t do much to explain the combined 15 penalties for 128 yards. Orthe blocked punt by the Cardinals. Or the blocked extra point by the Redskins.Or the fact that the Redskins let the Cardinals back into the game by committingneedless dead-ball fouls after twice stopping Arizona during a long drive thatresulted in a touchdown. |
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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Bills finally built a lead they couldn’t squander,and upstaged Willis McGahee in his first game back to Buffalo. Making good on an opportunity to secure the starting job, rookie quarterbackTrent Edwards went 11-of-21 for 153 yards and engineered five scoring drives inhelping Buffalo to a 19-14 win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. The Bills’ defense did its part, limiting the Ravens to two scores despitesix drives into Buffalo territory. That included Baltimore’s final drive whenKyle Boller couldn’t convert a fourth-and-1 from the Buffalo 49, his passfalling just out of the reach of Musa Smith with 1:49 remaining. The Bills improved to 2-4 and eased memories of their last outing, a 25-24loss to Dallas in which Buffalo squandered an eight-point lead in the final 20seconds. It was the second game Buffalo lost in the final seconds after a 15-14loss to Denver in the season opener. Rian Lindell hit four field goals, including a 41-yarder, and Marshawn Lynchscored on a 1-yard plunge, giving the Bills a 19-7 lead late in the thirdquarter. |
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DETROIT — Jeff Garcia suddenly had trouble protecting the football, and theDetroit Lions took full advantage. The Lions scored touchdowns after Garcia’s two fumbles, including widereceiver Calvin Johnson’s 32-yard run midway through the fourth quarter, to beattheir former teammate and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-16 on Sunday. Detroit (4-2) pulled within a game of idle Green Bay in the NFC North, whileTampa Bay (4-3) lost a chance to move past idle Carolina in the NFC South. Garcia, who played in Detroit for one forgettable season two years ago,didn’t have a turnover in his first six games with the Bucs. Perhaps pressing against one of his former teams, he botched a handoff inDetroit territory in the first quarter. He also mishandled a snap on afirst-and-goal when the Bucs were a yard away from pulling within two pointsearly in the fourth. |
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