Hurts, Eagles clinch playoff spot with win over fading Giants

Nailing down a playoff berth was first thing on the Philadelphia Eagles' wish list for the season. They want more and, with the league's best record and way they continue to blow out opponents, who's going to stop them?

"We got way bigger goals than this one," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said without referring to the NFC East title, the top playoff seed or the Super Bowl. "On to the next one. It's nice to get this win here because this is a good football team. It's nice to come out here and play well on the road."

Hurts improved his MVP credentials by throwing for 217 yards and hitting DaVonta Smith on a 41-yard fourth-down TD strike and A.J. Brown on a 33-yarder as the Eagles (12-1) scored on their first three possessions. The third-year quarterback also ran for 77 yards, highlighted by a 10-yard TD scamper late in the third quarter.

Hurts became the first QB in NFL history to rush for at least 10 touchdowns in consecutive seasons. Like most of the Eagles' players, he said he is just hoping to improve from week to week.

Miles Sanders ran for 144 yards, scored on runs of 3 and 40 yards and hit the 1,000-yard mark for the season (1,068) as the Eagles handed the Giants their worst loss under first-year coach Brian Daboll. Jake Elliott kicked two field goals and the defence finished with seven sacks, including three by Brandon Graham.

Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor threw touchdown passes for for the Giants (7-5-1). They have one win in their last six games (1-4-1) and their hopes of their first playoff berth since 2016 are slipping with four games remaining.

Lions upset Vikings

Jared Goff threw for 330 yards and three touchdowns, leading the surging Detroit Lions to a 34-23 win over the NFC North-leading Minnesota Vikings.

Detroit (6-7) has won five of six, its best stretch since its last post-season appearance in 2016.

The Lions invested a lot to give Goff deep-play threats this season, signing DJ Chark in free agency and trading up to draft Jameson Williams 12th overall. The moves finally paid off against Minnesota.

Goff started the scoring with a 41-yard touchdown pass to Williams, whose first NFL reception was his first catch since injurying his left knee 11 months ago playing for Alabama in the NCAA national championship game.

He threw a 48-yard, tiebreaking touchdown to Chark, who signed a $10 million US, one-year deal after an injury-shortened season with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Chark finished with a season-high six catches and 94 yards.

AFC-leading Bills beat Jets for 4th straight win

Josh Allen threw a touchdown pass and ran for a score on consecutive possessions and the Buffalo Bills persevered through wet, chilly and windy conditions to beat a banged-up Mike White and the AFC East-rival New York Jets 20-12.

The AFC-leading Bills (10-3) won their fourth straight since a two-game skid, which included a 20-17 loss at the Jets. Buffalo has won at least 10 of its first 13 games for the seventh time in franchise history.

The Jets (7-6) have lost four of six in a slump that has made their playoff chances shaky. New York, which hasn't qualified for the post-season since 2010, entered the week as the AFC's seventh seed, a win ahead of New England and the Los Angeles Chargers.

New York was undone by having White briefly sidelined twice by injuries to his ribs as well as a pair of costly turnovers in the second half. As a precaution, coach Robert Saleh said White was sent to the hospital after the game to be evaluated.

49ers lose Samuel to injury in win over Bucs

Brock Purdy threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score in his first career start and San Francisco's vaunted defense spoiled Tom Brady's Bay Area homecoming with a 35-7 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Purdy outplaying the NFL's most accomplished quarterback ever was partially overshadowed by another key injury for the 49ers (9-4).

A week after losing quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to a broken left foot that opened the door for Purdy to start, the Niners lost star receiver Deebo Samuel to an ankle injury. 

Samuel got hurt on a fumble in the second quarter in an emotional scene that saw dozens of his teammates come on the field to wish him well before he was taken away on a cart with his head in his hands.

Coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game that Samuel didn't break any bones, but likely sustained a high ankle injury that could sideline him for several weeks.

The last pick in the 2022 draft got right back up and led the Niners to one of their five touchdown drives on their first seven possessions of the game when Samuel scored on a 13-yard run.

San Francisco already led 21-0 at that point with Purdy having scored on a 2-yard run and a 27-yard TD pass to Christian McCaffrey.

He capped a near-perfect first half with a 32-yard TD pass to Brandon Aiyuk, joining Don Strock (1975) as the only players to throw at least two TD passes and run for another in the first half of their first career start, according to Sportradar.

Purdy finished 16 for 21 for 185 yards and two touchdowns.

McCaffrey, who ran for 119 yards, added a TD on the ground with a 38-yard run after Brady was intercepted by Tashaun Gipson on the first drive of the third quarter.

Kansas City outlasts Denver for 10th win of season

L'Jarius Sneed intercepted Broncos backup quarterback Brett Rypien late in the fourth quarter, Patrick Mahomes atoned for a three-interception day by leading Kansas City on a clock-chewing drive as his team held on for a 34-28 win over Denver, which lost QB Russell Wilson to a concussion.

Kansas City (10-3) extended its dominance of Denver with their 14th consecutive win over the Broncos (3-10), who made a game of it by scoring three touchdowns in a 3 1/2-minute stretch spanning halftime after falling behind 27-0.

Jerry Jeudy caught three touchdown passes for Denver, the last one from Rypien after Wilson took a hard hit on a 14-yard scramble to the Kansas City 2 early in the fourth quarter. Wilson was escorted off the field and the Broncos ruled him out with a concussion shortly thereafter.

Kansas City reached double digits in wins for the eighth straight season and inched closer to winning their seventh consecutive AFC West crown. A Chargers loss Sunday night to the Dolphins would clinch the division for Kansas City, which hasn't lost to Denver since 2015.

Herbert leads Chargers past Dolphins

Justin Herbert threw for 367 yards and a touchdown and a short-handed Chargers defence got the best of the Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa as Los Angeles beat Miami 23-17 on Sunday night.

The Chargers (7-6) moved into position for the final AFC playoff berth, ahead of the New York Jets.

Herbert — the sixth overall pick in 2020, one behind Tagovailoa — completed a career-high 39 passes on 51 attempts for his 21st 300-yard game. He became the first NFL quarterback to throw for 13,000 yards in his first three seasons.

The Chargers held Miami to 219 yards despite not having safety Derwin James, cornerback Bryce Callahan and defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day because of injuries.

LA's offence was buoyed by the return of Mike Williams, who had missed four of the last five games with a high ankle sprain. Williams had six catches for 116 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown while getting both feet in bounds near the back of the end zone to extend the Chargers' lead to 10-0 early in the second quarter.

Austin Ekeler, who finished with 104 scrimmage yards, had a 1-yard run off left tackle with 18 seconds left in the quarter to extend the lead to 17-7.

Keenan Allen added 12 receptions for 92 yards.

Cameron Dicker kicked three field goals

Bengals top Browns for 5th straight win

Joe Burrow shook off a sloppy start to throw two touchdown passes and the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns 23-10 , ending a five-game skid to their Ohio rival.

The Bengals (9-4) have won five straight and nine of 11. They remained tied for the AFC North lead with Baltimore, which beat Pittsburgh 16-14. Burrow picked up his first win in five starts against the Browns (5-8), whose playoff hopes are now all but nonexistent.

But Watson also threw a fourth-quarter interception and couldn't hook up with Donovan Peoples-Jones on a late fourth-and-goal from the 6 that would have made it a one-score game. He turned the ball over downs again on the Browns' last drive when he threw incomplete to Amari Cooper.

Watson finished 26 of 42 for 276 yards, and his touchdown pass was the only one the Browns could muster as the Bengals bottled up Cleveland running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt.

Burrow was 9 for 21 for 110 yards in the first half, including a 15-yard TD to Ja'Marr Chase. In the third quarter, Burrow found Trenton Irwin for an easy 45-yard scoring pass when the Browns bit on flea-flicker.

Jackson-less Ravens edge Steelers

J.K. Dobbins ran for 120 yards and a touchdown in his return from a knee injury, helping the Baltimore Ravens overcome the loss of backup quarterback Tyler Huntley to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 16-14.

Huntley filled in for injured star Lamar Jackson but entered concussion protocol in the second half. He was replaced by undrafted rookie free agent Anthony Brown.

Brown essentially spent most of his quarter-plus of play handing off to Dobbins or Gus Edwards while the Steelers self-destructed. Baltimore ran for 215 yards, the most Pittsburgh has allowed since giving up 249 to the Ravens in the 2021 regular-season finale.

The Steelers (5-8) won that game to reach the playoffs. Any chance of making a late run at another post-season berth likely evaporated under a steady stream of turnovers, missed tackles and missed opportunities.

Pittsburgh lost Pickett to a concussion in the first half, and backup Mitch Trubisky — who was benched in favour of Pickett in early October — threw three interceptions in Baltimore territory to thwart potential scoring drives.

Cowboys avoid major upset against Texans

Ezekiel Elliott scored the go-ahead touchdown with 41 seconds remaining, and the Dallas Cowboys avoided a major upset with a 27-23 victory over the hapless Houston Texans.

Houston (1-11-1) appeared in position to end a seven-game losing streak after Dak Prescott's interception inside the Dallas 10 with 5:37 to go and the Texans leading by three.

The star quarterback delivered the second time, starting with a 21-yard completion to Dalton Schultz from the 2 on first down. Another 18-yarder to Schultz put Dallas at the Houston 4.

After Michael Gallup's attempted TD catch was barely broken up, Elliott scored on third down from the 2 to cap the 98-yard, 11-play drive.

Tony Pollard scored twice for Dallas, which was a 16 1/2-point favourite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The Cowboys stayed two games behind NFL-leading Philadelphia in the NFC East.

After going back to Davis Mills as the starter following a two-game benching, the Texans threw in a wrinkle with Driskel offering a hybrid wildcat/throwing role that included his first TD pass since 2020. Kyle Allen, the replacement for Mills the previous two games, was inactive.

Prescott directed the rally after throwing nine interception in his first eight games of a season for the first time. The first of his two in this game helped the Texans to a rare halftime lead, 20-17.