TOM BRADY FLIPPED a one-yard touchdown pass to Cade Otton with nine seconds remaining to give Tampa Bay a 16-13 NFL victory over the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams last night.
The 45-year-old quarterback, winner of a record seven Super Bowl crowns, became the first player with 100,000 career passing yards, completing 36-of-58 throws for 280 yards.
Brady also delivered his NFL record 69th career game-winning drive in the last two minutes or overtime, playoff games included.
It was his 55th such drive in the fourth quarter or overtime in the regular season, breaking a tie with Peyton Manning for the most in league history.
More importantly for Brady, the victory halted the Bucs’ three-game skid, which had marked the first time Brady had dropped three games in a row since 2002.
“It’s all about the win, man,” said Brady, who drove the Bucs 60 yards in 35 seconds to snatch the victory.
“We needed it. We needed it, and we got it,” he added of a win that moved the Bucs to 4-5 while the Rams fell to 3-5.
In Kansas City, the Chiefs offense had its struggles but quarterback Patrick Mahomes came through in a 20-17 overtime victory over the Tennessee Titans.
Mahomes ran for a touchdown and two-point conversion that tied it up at 17-17 to force overtime.
With the first possession of the extra session Mahomes piloted a drive capped by Harrison Butker’s 28-yard field goal, and the Chiefs defense didn’t allow the Titans a first down on their overtime possession to secure the win.
“Our defense played their tail off,” Mahomes said. “They kept us in this game when we struggled for about three quarters. We just kept battling and we got our chance… we found a way to tie it up.”
Mahomes completed 43 of 68 passes for 446 yards and a TD, the Chiefs battling back from a 17-9 deficit after the Titans were buoyed by two rushing touchdowns from Derrick Henry.
Elsewhere, Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns in a triumphant return to Washington while the Buffalo Bills were upset by the New York Jets.
Cousins, who spent six largely frustrating NFL seasons with Washington before joining the Vikings in 2018, sparked Minnesota over the Commanders 20-17.
“I knew I was going to be emotional pulling in, seeing the player parking lot where we used to hang out. I about shed a tear,” Cousins said.
“But we had a job to do, and we got the job done.”
The Vikings, who trailed 17-7 in the fourth quarter, improved to 7-1 overall — their best start since 2009 — and stretched their win streak to six games.
At New York, the Jets drove 86 yards to set up Greg Zuerlein’s 28-yard game-winning field goal with 1:43 remaining to beat Buffalo 20-17 for their best start in 12 years.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen ran for two touchdowns but Jets defenders stifled the NFL’s top offensive unit as Buffalo fell to 6-2, still ahead of the Jets atop the AFC East division.
Miami improved to 6-3 in the AFC East as Tua Tagovailoa threw for 302 yards and three touchdowns in the Dolphins’ 35-32 victory at Chicago.
Chicago’s Justin Fields, who had three touchdown passes and a touchdown run in a losing cause, ran for 178 yards to set an NFL one-game regular-season record for quarterbacks, five more than Michael Vick’s old mark from 2002.
The Green Bay Packers suffered their fifth consecutive loss, falling 15-9 at Detroit as Aaron Rodgers threw three interceptions while Jared Goff threw two touchdown passes for the Lions.
Cincinnati’s Joe Mixon scored a team-record five touchdowns, running 22 times for 153 yards and four touchdowns and throwing for another TD to power the Bengals over visiting Carolina 42-21.
Travis Etienne ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns and Trevor Lawrence threw for another score as host Jacksonville rallied from a 17-0 deficit to defeat Las Vegas 27-20.
The elephant in the room is Cantwell she destroyed it.
@Kevin Byrne: I like to say she castrated it
An article that needed writing. The Sunday Game has become a fast forward show now. Can’t believe what they have done to it
Why not show more of the highlights and less of the back patting analysis the newest panelists are just yes men and dribble on.missed more good scores from play in highlights of munster game and spend 10mins talking waffle
It’s become a bit like sky’s coverage of soccer. Bland and too cosy,afraid to criticise the product ie hurling or football game that they have just watched.
Stop ticking boxes and go back to the grass roots of the program too many women covering the men’s game there I’ve said it
@Gareth: should get a real man like you in Gareth, that’d sort it.
McBennett has ruined sport on RTE. Has got rid of any entertaining pundits. Now it’s just drab, boring stats from the likes of Cora Staunton, Eamonn Fitzmaurice (Fr. Stone) and co. Nobody cares if Monaghan have won 62.8% of their long kick outs. Jacqui Hurley is decent, Cantwell is useless. She should be in a class room talking down to children and not front and centre of all sport.
McBennett’s been a disaster whether intentionally or by dint of being a shill of an organisation that’s long since ceased to be relevant or functional. The intensely poor presentation of Jackie Hurley or the robotic Damian Lawlor sits side by side with amateur, innane punditry where once there was entertainment and insight. Maybe they can’t be blamed for the bags the GAA has made of the schedule but they could at least try to inspire particularly amid reams of brilliant hurling games. It’s terrible. It follows the patterns of RTÉ’s collapse in standards in sports presentation and coverage in recent years.
I note that the other comments here are focussed on the punditry. I find that the quality of the production, camera work, editing of footage of the actual games has deteriorated significantly in recent years. It’s often disjointed in terms of editing, behind the play in terms of camera work , the colour etc can be poor quality and they highlights editor doesn’t capture the highlights in my opinion. Then you have the punditry. They have gone down the PC road. This is both in terms of make up of panel and approach to analysis. I remember seeing a Graeme Souness interview where he said that working for RTE was a breath of fresh air compared to working for Sky/BT because you were free to say what you thought without issue after the production. That no longer seems to be the case.
Good article. It’s gone far too boring, really. It was genuine entertainment back in the day. The average viewer doesn’t care too much for kick out stats or possessions. Very, very sterile and I’ve stopped watching.
I wouldn’t blame Joanne Cantwell, however. She is a fine presenter, just has had a different remit due to McBennett.
@An tEoghanach: Cantwell is a disaster.
Highlights too short for me
Cantwell is an awful presenter… Too patronising for my liking…
@Ray Farrell: I’d be a fan of Ursula. She doesn’t pretend to be something she’s not.
I’d be confident in saying that past pundits and presenters had a genuine interest in the sport and growing its popularity but that the new crew have a large interest in their self promotion and career advancement or at least it comes across that way.
Yes the show has got worse but lets look at the product..the football games year on year now are almost unwatchable, maybe 2 or 3 good games in the whole championship. Remember growing up watching the drawn Dublin/Meath games..full of exciting attacking play. No way could sit down now and watch a game except maybe semis or final. And then the genius GAA bring in a format where 4 teams get eliminated after 24 games. And everyone knows who they will be. Hurling TBF is exciting and a different watch completely.
Too many people with agendas like Joe canning and ml.duignan .
@john mcgrath: what about shane dowling? He declared on national TV that shoulders to the head are just part of munster hurling. Wonder was it because it was 2 of his buddies who were giving the shoulders to heads
@john doe: He didn’t say that. He was commenting on Back room team members running from the bench to strike players on the field. As is the norm now you have taken his comments completely out of context to suit your agenda. What he actually said was that things can happen on the field in the heat and pace of championship hurling but what should never happen and can never be accepted is mentors and/or officials entering the field of play and assaulting players. That is what he said.
@Tim Dawson: anyone who promotes gambling is dead to me
@Barry Baz: I wasn’t aware, until now, that he did. I don’t judge a man for making a legal living. I don’t support gambling either and recognize how damaging it can be.
@Barry Baz: what are you on about Barry Baz? Genuine question.
@john doe: no he didn’t?
@Tim Dawson: I actually think it is you that is removing the context. The conversation was about Flanagan’s foul that was ignored (I say ignored because in his report he said he saw it, but decided not to punish it) by the ref and when asked about it Dowling passed it off as part of the game and, in an attempt to deflect from it, highlighted the Waterford mentor’s dig at Gearoid Hegarty.
@Dappy McMahon: oh he most definitely did
With everything PC now, hard to get a balance between a good argument and all smiles like in the US and lately the UK coverages. A bit boring to say the least.
If you close your eyes while listening to Paul Flynn, you can almost imagine that Dave Fanning is on the panel.
On a more serious note, why is the live games on Sunday afternoon the first game on The Sunday Game that night? I know the obvious answer jumps out ,that being they are perceived as being the biggest games of the day..Obviously they are because they have already been chosen as the live games.
To spend so much time undermining the ref from x players, who should know better I guess they have to earn the money, when they have different camera angles, slowed to step by step movements
And zooming into action
I find that type of discussion infuriating
A ref gets one fleeting moment to call each action
Stick to comments as the game was played
And with out agendas
We all know why it’s gone sh it.
But not aloud say it.
Ha I’m sure as fu#% not. Well on this platform anyways