CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bryce Young completed 15 of 20 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns — two of them coming on fourth down — and the Carolina Panthers forced three turnovers by Matthew Stafford to beat Los Angeles 31-28 on Sunday and snap the Rams’ six-game winning streak.
The Panthers intercepted Stafford twice with Mike Jackson returning one for a 48-yard touchdown and ended the 37-year-old’s NFL record of 28 straight TD passes without an interception.
Derrick Brown, who tipped a ball resulting in one of Stafford’s first pick, came up with a key strip-sack with 2:25 left in the game to preserve the win.
The win allowed the Panthers to remain a half game behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South. The Bucs held on to beat Arizona 20-17 on Sunday.
Stafford completed 18 of 28 passes for 243 yards with two touchdown passes to Davante Adams, his 13th and 14th of the season, for the Rams (9-3).
BUCCANEERS 20, CARDINALS 17
TAMPA, Fla. — Baker Mayfield tossed a two-yard touchdown pass to All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs, Tampa Bay’s defence held in the final two minutes and the Buccaneers beat the Arizona Cardinals 20-17 on Sunday to snap a three-game losing streak.
Mayfield, who started after sitting out the second half of a 34-7 loss to the Rams because of a left shoulder injury, threw for 194 yards and ran for 27 to help the Buccaneers (7-5) remain first in the NFC South.
Jacoby Brissett, making his seventh start filling in for Kyler Murray, threw a wide pass incomplete on fourth-and-2 from the Cardinals 17 with under a minute remaining.
Arizona (3-9) has lost four straight and nine of 10.
INDIANAPOLIS — Nico Collins scored the tiebreaking touchdown on a seven-yard run with 12:38 to play, Nick Chubb also ran for a score, and the Houston Texans’ top-ranked defence came up with a late stop on Sunday to seal a 20-16 victory over the slumping Indianapolis Colts.
Houston (7-5) won its fourth straight, moving within one game of AFC South rival Indy (8-4), which has lost three of four to fall into a first-place tie with Jacksonville. C.J. Stroud improved to 3-0 at Lucas Oil Stadium by going 22 of 35 for 276 yards with one interception in his first game in four weeks. He cleared the concussion protocol Friday.
Collins caught five passes for 98 yards.
Houston sealed the win by forcing a turnover on downs with 1:45 to play after Daniel Jones had taken Indy to Houston’s 31-yard line. The Colts have lost two straight for the first time this season, and this was the first time they were held under 20 points.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Nick Folk lined a 56-yard field goal through a heavy mist as time expired to lead the New York Jets to a 27-24 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
In a game between two struggling teams that was anything but pretty, Folk’s kick was also far from it. But in tough conditions, the 41-year-old got just enough on the football to bounce back from an earlier miss and was mobbed at midfield by his teammates as the Jets fans in a drenched and half-empty MetLife Stadium went wild.
Tyrod Taylor went 19 of 33 for 172 yards and a touchdown pass and also ran for a score in his second start in a row for the benched Justin Fields as the Jets (3-9) snapped a two-game skid. Adonai Mitchell had eight receptions for 102 yards and a TD, and Breece Hall ran for 68 yards and a score.
After the defence held Kirk Cousins and the Falcons to a three-and-out, the Jets got the ball back at their 43 with 35 seconds left and two timeouts remaining. Taylor had a 14-yard run and hit Mitchell for 10 and five yards on the drive to put Folk in position for his winner.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Trevor Lawrence threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns and the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Tennessee Titans 25-3 Sunday for their third straight victory.
With the win, the Jaguars (8-4) improved their AFC playoff hopes while chasing their first division title since 2022. The Jaguars still have two games left against Indianapolis, and the Colts fell to 8-4 with a 20-16 loss to Houston.
The Jaguars also beat the Titans for the sixth time in seven games.
Josh Hines-Allen had two of Jacksonville’s three sacks of rookie Cam Ward, and the Jaguars recovered two fumbles.
CLEVELAND — Brock Purdy rushed for a touchdown and passed for another score in the second half, and the San Francisco 49ers spoiled Shedeur Sanders’ first home start by defeating the Cleveland Browns 26-8 on Sunday.
Cleveland took an 8-7 lead late in the second quarter when Sanders hooked up with Harold Fannin for a 34-yard touchdown and Quinshon Judkins’ run added the two-point conversion. But San Francisco (9-4) scored the next 19 points in its third consecutive win.
All three of San Francisco’s touchdowns came on short fields — two the result of recovering turnovers and another after a 66-yard punt return by Skyy Moore.
Purdy completed 16 of 29 for 168 yards. He ran it in on a two-yard keeper in the third quarter and then had a seven-yard TD pass to Jauan Jennings in the fourth quarter.
San Francisco star Christian McCaffrey finished with 74 scrimmage yards (53 rushing, 21 receiving) and a touchdown, with most of his yards coming in the second half.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — De’Von Achane rushed for 134 yards and a touchdown, and the Miami Dolphins won their third straight game by holding off the New Orleans Saints 21-17 on Sunday.
The Dolphins (5-7) trail first-place New England and Buffalo in the AFC East but kept their slim playoff hopes alive, while the Saints (2-10) have lost six of seven.
The Saints trailed 16-0 at halftime, but they closed to 19-17 with 1:17 remaining on Tyler Shough’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Devaughn Vele.
Shough was intercepted by Minkah Fitzpatrick on the two-point try, and the Dolphins safety returned it to the opposite end zone to give Miami two points.
SEATTLE — Ernest Jones IV returned an interception 84 yards for the first touchdown of his career, one of five takeaways by the Seahawks’ dominant defence, and Seattle blanked the Minnesota Vikings 26-0 on Sunday for its first shutout victory in more than a decade.
The Vikings were shut out for the first time since Green Bay beat them 34-0 on Nov. 11, 2007. Seattle’s most recent shutout win was 26-0 over Chicago on Sept. 27, 2015.
This one was a mismatch, with the Seahawks (9-3) going against an undrafted rookie quarterback in Max Brosmer, who was making his first NFL start for the free-falling Vikings (4-8). Seattle moved into a first-place tie with the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West, while Minnesota lost its fourth straight.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Justin Herbert threw two touchdown passes while playing through an injury to his non-throwing hand, and Kimani Vidal made a 59-yard scoring run during the Los Angeles Chargers’ 31-14 victory over the spiralling Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.
Quentin Johnston and Ladd McConkey had TD catches and Vidal rushed for a career-high 126 yards for the Chargers (8-4), who snapped back from an embarrassing loss at Jacksonville for their fourth win in five games to keep pressure on the Denver Broncos atop the AFC West.
Jaret Patterson rushed for his first NFL touchdown since 2021 to ice the victory with 1:55 to play.
Los Angeles comfortably beat its longtime West Coast rivals for the fourth straight time, sweeping the season series and emphasizing the current gulf between the Bolts and the Raiders (2-10), who had less support in the SoFi Stadium crowd than in past seasons.
PITTSBURGH — Josh Allen threw for a touchdown and ran for another, Joey Bosa sacked Aaron Rodgers to spring Christian Benford for a game-tilting, 17-yard scoop-and-score, and the Buffalo Bills pushed the Pittsburgh Steelers around in a 26-7 victory on Sunday.
Buffalo (8-4) bounced back from a loss at Houston by whipping Pittsburgh (6-6) up front. James Cook ran for 144 yards as the Bills piled up 249 yards on the ground and controlled the clock for nearly 42 minutes inside blustery Acrisure Stadium.
The swirling winds at one of the league’s trickiest venues made passing nearly impossible. Allen completed 15 of 23 for 123 yards with an interception and a three-yard scoring toss to Keon Coleman, who returned to the active roster after being a healthy scratch the last two weeks due to disciplinary issues.
The reigning MVP essentially put the game away when he bulldozed across the goal line from eight yards out early in the fourth quarter to give the Bills a 16-point lead. It was the 76th rushing touchdown of Allen’s career, breaking the NFL record for touchdown runs by a quarterback that he briefly shared with Cam Newton.