ATLANTA – On the day he became the NFL’s career leader in completed passes, Drew Brees’ biggest plays came as a runner.
Brees’s 1-yard run capped an 80-yard touchdown drive to open overtime that lifted the New Orleans Saints to a 43-37 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
That came after his 7-yard score late in the fourth quarter forced the overtime. After the Saints won the coin toss, Brees and the Saints held the ball for more than seven minutes.
Brees jumped over the pile on a quarterback keeper after his apparent 3-yard TD pass to Alvin Kamara was overturned. A review determined Kamara’s knee was down before he crossed the goal line. Brees scored on the following play, giving the Saints (2-1) the win.
“This was a wild one,” said Brees, who passed for 396 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two scores. Kamara had 15 catches for 124 yards and ran for 66 yards.
Brees’ biggest play before the winner might have been his improbable 7-yard scoring run with 1:15 remaining that forced overtime. He ran to his left and then spun to avoid tackle attempts by Brian Poole and Robert Alford.
“At some point, I felt they were coming to take my head off and I could probably spin out of it,” Brees said, adding he now has film evidence to show the youth flag football team he coaches that “spin moves work. Spin moves are good.”
With his 14th completed pass, the 39-year-old Brees broke the record of 6,300 career completions set by Hall of Famer Brett Favre. Brees set the mark with a 17-yard pass to Michael Thomas in the second quarter.
“I’m just very grateful,” Brees said. “I hope there’s a lot more coming. I just think about all the people who have had a hand in that. A lot of hands have caught a lot of passes. … They are all a part of this.”
Atlanta’s Matt Ryan had his first career game with five scoring passes. Calvin Ridley became the first Atlanta rookie with three scoring catches. That wasn’t enough for the Falcons (1-2) against Brees and the high-scoring Saints, who gained 534 yards.
Ryan bemoaned a lost opportunity when the Falcons were forced to punt when stopped at the Atlanta 44 with 25 seconds remaining in overtime.
“We had chances to finish the game today and we didn’t do that,” Ryan said. “That’s disappointing.”
Saints coach Sean Payton called the defensive stop “a huge part of the win.”
Ryan passed for 374 yards, including 146 to Ridley, who had seven receptions, including a 75-yard TD.
Ridley’s third scoring catch against the Saints was a 9-yarder early in the third quarter that held up following a review.
Ryan’s five touchdown passes tied the team record set by Wade Wilson on Dec. 13, 1992, at Tampa Bay.
Bills 27, Vikings 6
MINNEAPOLIS – Josh Allen played with the poise of a well-seasoned quarterback for the Buffalo Bills by accounting for three touchdowns in his first road start in the NFL. Allen made Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins look like the raw rookie in a stunning 27-6 upset of the Vikings on Sunday.
Cousins had three turnovers, including a lost fumble on a third-down sack inside Minnesota’s 20-yard line, on each of the first two possessions. Buffalo turned those recoveries into 10 points and was on cruise control by midway through the second quarter as the crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium cranked up the boos.
The Vikings (1-1-1) were 16 ½-point favorites when the game began, allowing the Bills (1-2) to become only the sixth such underdog in the NFL’s last 81 point spreads that big. After being outscored 75-9 over their first six quarters of the season, the Bills have enjoyed a 41-9 advantage over the last six periods.
Eagles 20, Colts 16
PHILADELPHIA – Carson Wentz threw a touchdown pass on his first drive in nine months, then Wendell Smallwood ran in from the 4 for the go-ahead score.
Adam Vinatieri tied Morten Andersen’s career record of 565 field goals by connecting on all three tries, but the Colts (1-2) couldn’t take advantage of two turnovers by Wentz inside the 20 in the second half.
The defending Super Bowl champion Eagles (2-1) needed two defensive stops against Andrew Luck in the final 90 seconds. Indy had a first down at the Eagles 11 and two cracks from the 4, but Luck’s pass to T.Y. Hilton sailed over his shoulder in the left corner of the end zone on third down and Derek Barnett sacked Luck on fourth down.
The Colts got the ball again at their 11 with 39 seconds remaining but couldn’t reach midfield. Jacoby Brissett threw a desperation pass on the final play that fell incomplete.
Rams 35, Chargers 23
LOS ANGELES – Jared Goff passed for 354 yards and three touchdowns, and Todd Gurley rushed for 105 yards and another score, leading the Rams over the Chargers in the franchises’ first meeting since their relocations to Los Angeles.
Cory Littleton blocked a punt in the end zone and Blake Countess recovered for an early touchdown for the Rams (3-0), who racked up 521 yards and remained one of the NFL’s four unbeaten teams.
Two seasons after the Rams kicked off professional football’s return to the nation’s second-largest market after 21 years away, two NFL teams based in Los Angeles met on the field for the first time since Nov. 13, 1994. The teams put on an uncommonly entertaining show for a Coliseum crowd of 68,947 containing a surprisingly significant turnout of Chargers fans, but the Rams’ offensive brilliance kept them ahead all day.
Seahawks 24, Cowboys 13
SEATTLE – Russell Wilson threw for two touchdowns in the first half, Chris Carson added a 5-yard TD run in early in the fourth quarter, and the Seahawks avoided an 0-3 start.
Wilson hit Jaron Brown on an 18-yard touchdown early in the second quarter, and later found Tyler Lockett streaking up the sideline on a 52-yard scoring pass as Seattle (1-2) built a 17-3 halftime lead and cruised past the Cowboys.
Chiefs 38, 49ers 27
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After winning his first three starts, all away from Arrowhead Stadium, second-year pro Patrick Mahomes finally made his regular-season home debut and torched San Francisco’s banged-up pass defense for 314 yards and three touchdowns. Mahomes now has 13 touchdown passes without an interception, breaking the NFL record for TD passes in the first three weeks of a season. Peyton Manning threw 12 to start the 2013 campaign.
Mahomes’ touchdown passes to Chris Conley, Demetrius Harris and Sammy Watkins , along with a pair of TD runs by Kareem Hunt, helped Kansas City (3-0) race to a 35-7 lead late in the first half.
Dolphins 28, Raiders 20
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Receiver Albert Wilson threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to put the Dolphins ahead midway through the fourth quarter, and then turned a short reception into a 74-yard score that sealed it.
Miami coach Adam Gase used creative play calling to overcome a wave of injuries and penalties, and a 17-minute deficit in time of possession. The Dolphins scored on a pair of shovel passes by Ryan Tannehill that each traveled less than a yard – one on the flip to Wilson, and an earlier similar pass that Jakeem Grant caught before turning the corner for an 18-yard score.
Panthers 31, Bengals 21
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Cam Newton threw for two touchdowns and ran for two others, while Christian McCaffrey racked up a career-high 184 yards rushing.
Newton completed 15 of 24 passes for 150 yards and ran for 36 yards as the Panthers (2-1) won their seventh straight home game going back to last season.
McCaffrey, who tied a franchise record with 14 receptions last week against Atlanta, did his damage on the ground this time with 28 carries. He surpassed his previous career high of 66 yards rushing and became the first Carolina player with a 100-yard receiving game and a 100-yard rushing game in back-to-back weeks.
Carolina had 230 yards rushing.
Ravens 27, Broncos 14
BALTIMORE – Joe Flacco picked apart Denver’s depleted defense for 277 yards and a touchdown. Connecting with eight receivers, Flacco went 25 for 40 without an interception on a rainy afternoon. He threw 28 passes in the first half, when Baltimore (2-1) took control.
The Ravens turned to their defense in the fourth quarter, twice stopping drives inside their 15.
Flacco’s success came against a Denver backfield that began the day without injured cornerback Adam Jones (thigh) and lost cornerback Tramaine Brock (groin) in the first quarter. As a result, rookie Isaac Yiadom saw significant playing time at right cornerback.
Javorious Allen caught a 12-yard touchdown pass and ran for a score for the Ravens.
Titans 9, Jaguars 6
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Marcus Mariota came off the bench and directed three scoring drives, including one in the fourth quarter. Mariota replaced Blaine Gabbert in the first quarter after Gabbert was knocked out of the game with a concussion.
Mariota sat out last week’s victory against Houston because of an elbow injury sustained in the season opener. He had been experiencing arm weakness along with numbness and tingling in two fingers. The injury affects the velocity and spin he gets on the football. Mariota wore a glove on his injured right hand and was able to do just enough to beat the Jaguars (2-1) for the third straight time and fifth time in the past six meetings.
Redskins 31, Packers 17
LANDOVER, Md. – Adrian Peterson ran for 120 yards and a pair of 2-yard scores, Alex Smith threw two touchdown passes – all in the first half – and the Redskins held on over a gimpy Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, who again had complaints about a roughing-the-passer penalty on Clay Matthews.
On a rainy afternoon, the Redskins (2-1) moved out to leads of 14-0 and, at halftime, 28-10, by putting together TD drives of 74, 75, 79 and 98 yards. Smith connected for TDs of 46 yards to Paul Richardson on the game’s fourth play and of 9 to Jamison Crowder in the second quarter.
Peterson, who ran 19 times, raised his career total to 102 rushing touchdowns, breaking a tie at 100 with Marshall Faulk and Shaun Alexander and moving him alone into seventh place in NFL history behind Emmitt Smith’s record of 164. This was Peterson’s 52nd game with at least 100 yards on the ground, and first since Nov. 5, 2017, for Arizona against San Francisco.
Giants 27, Texans 22
HOUSTON – Eli Manning threw for 297 yards and two touchdowns and rookie Saquon Barkley added a score.
The Giants (1-2) were up by 14 at halftime but had trouble moving the ball in the second half and the Texans (0-3) had cut the lead to five before Manning threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Sterling Shepard with about two minutes left.
Deshaun Watson threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Lamar Miller with 1 second left to cut the lead to 27-22, but New York recovered the onside kick.
Watson threw for 385 yards and two scores, but his interception was one of two second-half turnovers by the Texans, off to their worst start since dropping their first four games of 2008.
Bears 16, Cardinals 14
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Cody Parkey kicked his third field goal of the game, a 43-yarder with 4:31 to remaining, to rally the Bears.
Sam Bradford threw two first-quarter touchdown passes to put the Cardinals up 14-0, but was replaced by rookie Josh Rosen after fumbling the ball deep in Chicago territory late in the game.
Rosen, the 10th overall pick in this year’s draft out of UCLA, drew a standing ovation from the Cardinals crowd as he jogged on the field. He drove Arizona past midfield, but on fourth-and-5 from the Bears 45, his pass was intercepted by Bryce Callahan with 1:10 to play.
Arizona got the ball back one more time and the game ended with Rosen sacked by Sherrick McManis, who also had one of two of Bradford’s interceptions.