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NFL Round-up

©Associated Press
November 11, 2002

Ravens 38, Bengals 27

BALTIMORE -- Lamont Brightful and Adalius Thomas made sure Ed Reed's boneheaded play became just a footnote. Brightful returned a punt 95 yards for a touchdown and Thomas scored on a 25-yard interception return to lead Baltimore.

Reed, a rookie safety out of Miami, also had a chance to score his first NFL touchdown. But after picking off Jon Kitna's pass, he held the ball out in a premature celebration and had it batted away at the end of his 46-yard return.

T.J. Houshmandzadeh swatted the ball from Reed's outstretched arm at the 8, and Peter Warrick recovered in the end zone for a touchback to keep the score tied at 7.

"Like a kid in the candy store with no money. You see the candy but you just can't get it," Reed said sheepishly. "I won't make the same mistake twice."

He showed he had already learned from his blunder when he intercepted a pass later. This time, he tucked the ball to his side until he was tackled. The turnover set up Jamal Lewis' second touchdown, a 3-yard run that made it 38-20 with 6:14 left.

Brightful gave Baltimore a 24-14 halftime lead, gathering the ball at the 5, quickly breaking left and cruising down the sideline.

Brandon Bennett ran a kickoff back 94 yards for a score in the first quarter, the Bengals' first score in Baltimore since 1998. Cincinnati still lost its sixth straight on the road against the Ravens.

Packers 40, Lions 14

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Brett Favre was replaced by backup Doug Pederson again. Only this time, it was for the damage he inflicted.

Favre's sprained left knee gave him no problems in his second start since getting hurt as he threw for 351 yards and two touchdowns for Green Bay, which improved its league-best record to 8-1 and took a five-game lead over second-place Detroit in the NFC North.

"The knee feels fine," Favre said. "It's a little tight. The only time I felt it was when I tackled Terry Glenn in the end zone" on a score that was overturned by a review.

"He's fine," Favre said of Glenn. "He said he felt a little woozy."

Favre guided the Packers on seven scoring drives in 10 possessions and completed 26 of 39 passes. He had 295 yards passing by halftime, a career best.

"Green Bay put a football clinic on period." Detroit coach Marty Mornhinweg said. "We're not going to make any excuses."

Donald Driver caught a career-high 11 passes for 130 yards, and Ryan Longwell kicked four field goals in Green Bay's seventh straight win, its longest regular-season streak since 1963.

Rookie safety Marques Anderson had an interception return for a score as part of a 27-point second-quarter outburst by the Packers, whose defense regrouped quickly after allowing Joey Harrington's 64-yard touchdown to Az-Zahir Hakim on Detroit's first play.

Giants 27, Vikings 20

MINNEAPOLIS -- A woeful kicking game, plus a quarterback change by Minnesota, nearly cost New York, but it won thanks to Tiki Barber's late touchdown run and 460 yards of offense.

With the Giants up 13-3 after Ron Dayne's 30-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, Tom Rouen fumbled the snap on the extra point and was tackled. In the third quarter, Rouen bobbled the ball and again was tackled. Later in the third New York took a 19-6 lead on an 11-yard touchdown from Kerry Collins to Amani Toomer. Jesse Palmer replaced Rouen as the holder and Bryant missed the extra point after a high snap by Bob Jones.

"I'm proud of the way our guys came back," Giants coach Jim Fassel said. "It shouldn't have been that close. We left eight points off the board."

The Vikings pulled Daunte Culpepper after a three-and-out in the third quarter, and Todd Bouman nearly rallied them.

On his second drive, Bouman completed two passes to Randy Moss for 80 yards before Moe Williams plunged in from the 1 with 12:06 left to cut New York's lead to six. Michael Bennett scored on a 78-yard run that gave Minnesota its first lead, 20-19 with 8:36 left.

The Giants drove 80 yards in 10 plays to retake the lead on an 8-yard run by Barber.

"I'm still the quarterback," Culpepper said. "It's like in baseball when a relief pitcher comes in. That's how I look at it."

Colts 35, Eagles 13

PHILADELPHIA -- Indianapolis found its offense against the No. 2 defense in the NFL.

Peyton Manning threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns passes, and James Mungro ran for 114 yards and two scores for the Colts, who snapped a three-game losing streak.

Indianapolis' once-potent offense, outscored 64-10 in the first half of consecutive losses to Pittsburgh, Washington and Tennessee, had 446 yards against a defense allowing 266.9 a game.

Tony Dungy, in his first season as Colts coach after six in Tampa Bay, lost playoff games at Veterans Stadium the past two seasons. He was fired two days after Philadelphia beat the Buccaneers 31-9 in a wild-card game in January.

Dungy's Colts scored more points (14) in the first quarter against the Eagles than the Bucs did in the two playoff losses (12).

"We kept the vision, stayed focused and didn't doubt where we were going," Dungy said.

Manning threw scores of 57 and 43 yards to Marvin Harrison and 27 yards to Reggie Wayne. Mungro, making his first career start because Edgerrin James and Ricky Williams are out with hamstring injuries, had TD runs of 6 and 10 yards. Harrison had six catches for 137 yards.

Mungro's 6-yard TD run gave the Colts a 7-3 lead. Manning's 57-yard score to Harrison on the final play of the first quarter made it 14-3.

"This was a breakdown in all facets of the game," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "We did not come out and play with emotion and that is my fault."

Titans 17, Texans 10

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- After the first meeting between Houston's old team and its new one, the Titans went out of their way to praise the expansion Texans.

Houston earned the respect by showing that this could soon become an interesting rivalry.

Steve McNair threw for two touchdowns and 109 yards and Eddie George ran for 86 to help the Titans, formerly the Houston Oilers, defeat the team that succeeded them.

"People can criticize," Tennessee's Kevin Carter said, anticipating surprise at the close game. "But again, you have to capitalize on your chances. One thing people don't realize is that Houston team has some really good players."

The Texans got within a touchdown on David Carr's 10-yard touchdown to Jarrod Baxter with 3:05 left. Houston got the ball back, and the Titans didn't seal the victory until Lance Schulters intercepted Carr's pass at the Tennessee 46 with 1:11 left.

"It was kind of scary there at the end," Titans defensive tackle Henry Ford said.

The Titans have won four straight and stayed tied atop the AFC South with Indianapolis but struggled offensively. The Texans intercepted two of McNair's passes, one in the end zone. Tennessee had 251 total yards but held the ball for more than 33 minutes.

The Titans held the league's worst offense to 233 yards. They sacked Carr four times and forced three turnovers.

Seahawks 27, Cardinals 6

TEMPE, Ariz. -- For a half, Mike Holmgren must have thought he was watching his glorious old Packers, not his sputtering Seahawks.

A 30-minute, methodical manhandling of fading Arizona was more than enough for Seattle, which scored on all five possessions in the first half.

Matt Hasselbeck completed 23 of 31 for 260 yards, 4 yards shy of the career best he set a week ago against Washington.

During the scoreless second half, Arizona fumbled the ball away three times inside the Seattle 10.

"It was ugly," Arizona's Jake Plummer said. "It just kept getting worse and worse."

Marcel Shipp fumbled after Arizona had reached the 1 and 5 in the third quarter. Both were recovered by linebacker Marcus Bell, who grew up in tiny St. Johns, Ariz., and played in college at Arizona.

Plummer fumbled a bad snap from backup center Jason Starkey at the Seahawks 8 with 7:30 left.

Seattle rolled up 293 yards in the first half, 209 passing by Hasselbeck, who threw 16 yards to Ryan Hannam for one of the Seahawks' three touchdowns. Shaun Alexander ran 5 yards and 1 yard for the other two TDs and Rian Lindell kicked field goals of 23 and 30 yards.

Arizona got field goals of 40 and 27 yards from former South Florida kicker Bill Gramatica.

Patriots 33, Bears 30

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Tom Brady's poise and David Patten's fancy footwork combined to give the Patriots one of their most memorable comeback victories.

With a wild finish that saw officials spend almost as much time viewing replays as patrolling the field, the Patriots came from a three-touchdown deficit in the second half.

"When you're down three touchdowns in the third quarter, it shows what kind of fight you have," Brady said after his 20-yard TD pass to Patten with 21 seconds lifted the Pats.

On third and 3 from the Bears 20, he found Patten in the back of the end zone. Patten had a step on defensive back R.W. McQuarters and dived to haul in the pass.

Officials initially ruled a touchdown, then reviewed it. They upheld the ruling, saying Patten had his right foot down and dragged his left foot in the end zone before going out.

Not once, but twice in the final minute, video replays did not go the Bears' way.

Chicago took a 30-19 lead with 5:22 left on Paul Edinger's 32-yard field goal, and the Bears thought they had stopped New England's final drive when defensive lineman Brian Robinson intercepted a pass. But he juggled the ball as he went down before losing it. Officials said he was down before teammate Rosevelt Colvin recovered. Then they reviewed the play and said Robinson never had possession, resulting in an incomplete pass.

49ers 17, Chiefs 13

SAN FRANCISCO -- From the opening snap to the final play, Julian Peterson was all over Tony Gonzalez -- and everyone else on the 49ers' surging defense piled on Priest Holmes.

Garrison Hearst and Kevan Barlow each rushed for a touchdown, and San Francisco bottled up Kansas City's offensive stars for its sixth win in seven games.

San Francisco had just 323 yards and got shut out in the second half, but the Niners grabbed another victory with the defensive precision and quick adjustments they have lacked most of the year. And they did it against the Chiefs, who led the league in scoring.

Peterson, the 49ers' fleet-footed third-year linebacker, drew one of the toughest chores: man-to-man coverage of Gonzalez, the Chiefs' All-Pro tight end.

With the help of teammates, Peterson held Gonzalez to one catch for 6 yards, and when the Chiefs drove to midfield on their final possession, Peterson ended the threat with a deflection of Trent Green's fourth-down pass to Gonzalez.

"I never thought we'd clamp down on their offense like that, but we had a great plan," Peterson said. "The guys were giving me a lot of the credit, but I'd say that everybody came together."

The Niners held NFL rushing leader Holmes to 51 yards rushing and one reception, though he scored his league-leading 16th touchdown on a 12-yard run in the second quarter.

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