Five touchdown passes. That was C.J. Stroud's afternoon at SoFi Stadium, where Houston beat the Los Angeles Chargers 44-22 in Week 9, according to NFL.com. Stroud threw for 384 yards. The Texans led 24-9 at the half, kept Los Angeles off the scoreboard in the third quarter, and got to Justin Herbert for eight sacks.
Jordan Love was nearly as sharp in Foxborough. Green Bay's quarterback missed on only six of his 29 throws, finishing with 372 yards and three scores in a 45-27 win over New England. Watson caught seven balls for 171 yards. Golden had 10 for 164. Drake Maye's day went the other way — three touchdown passes, yes, but also three interceptions.
Overtime in New Orleans
Sixteen-all after four quarters. That is where Saints-Browns stood before overtime settled it, 23-22 to New Orleans. The Saints took the extra period's opening possession 84 yards in 14 plays for a touchdown. Cleveland still had an answer: Shedeur Sanders hit Harold Fannin from 39 yards. Then the two-point try failed, Sanders's pass to Boston incomplete, and that was the ballgame. Sanders threw for 297 yards and two touchdowns. For New Orleans, Tyler Shough had 265 yards and one score.
Dallas needed a late drive in Indianapolis. Two Colts field goals in the fourth quarter had nudged Indianapolis in front 23-20, and the Cowboys answered with the drive that decided the game, Williams pushing in from a yard out with 1:10 left to win it 27-23. Prescott had kept his team in it all afternoon, his 335 passing yards and two touchdowns owing plenty to Lamb, who turned 10 catches into 195 yards, while Williams finished with 101 yards on his 20 carries.
Denver's comeback was quieter. Carolina still led when the fourth quarter began in Charlotte, which is when the Broncos finally put together the two touchdown drives that flipped the game and saw them home 26-21. Nix did his part with 237 yards and two touchdowns through the air. Across the field, Young posted the bigger numbers — 276 yards, three touchdowns — yet his interception and lost fumble hurt just as much, and by the time Carolina scored late, it only trimmed the gap to five.
Late kick settles Sunday night game
Sunday night ended with a kick. Tampa Bay's fourth-quarter rally at Soldier Field had pulled the Buccaneers level at 24-24, but Chicago used the final 2:51 to go 49 yards in 11 plays, close enough for the kick that settled a 27-24 game. Neither quarterback will frame this one. Williams's two touchdown passes for the Bears came alongside four interceptions, and Tampa Bay leaned instead on Irving, whose 20 carries brought 97 yards and both of the Buccaneers' rushing touchdowns.
Burrow leads Bengals in Madrid
Madrid hosted the day's international game, and Burrow rarely missed, connecting on 24 of his 29 throws as Cincinnati worked Atlanta over 34-17. His 271 yards and three touchdowns came without an interception, and his favorite target was easy to spot: Chase, 10 catches and 155 yards, including the 22-yard score in the third quarter that pushed the Bengals' lead out to 31-17. Robinson kept Atlanta respectable almost on his own, carrying 19 times for exactly 100 yards and a touchdown in defeat.
Kansas City's start was anything but clean. Four Jets field goals made it 12-0 at Arrowhead before the Chiefs woke up, and even at halftime New York was hanging around, down just 14-12, until a 14-point third quarter broke the game open on the way to a 35-12 final. Mahomes, once he settled, collected 242 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Walker handled much of the rest, rushing for 102 yards and a touchdown and catching two more scores. The Jets never scored after halftime.
Five turnovers buried Las Vegas in Santa Clara. Cousins kept giving the ball away — three interceptions in all, the costliest coming when safety Dugger took one back 35 yards for a touchdown — and with the Raiders' ground game producing all of 24 yards as a team, the 38-17 final was never really in doubt. Purdy, by contrast, had a quiet, tidy day for San Francisco, his 232 yards and two touchdowns more than enough on an afternoon when the other side kept handing it back.
Defense decides the rest
In Miami there was barely any offense worth the name, Detroit grinding out a 19-9 win over the Dolphins behind Gibbs, who scored the Lions' only touchdown while running for 74 yards, on a day when Goff and Willis each threw an interception for their respective sides.
Philadelphia hosted a strange one and lost it, the Giants leaving town with a 19-11 win despite splitting the quarterback work between J. McCarthy and Jameis Winston, the latter throwing the visitors' only touchdown pass when he found Likely during the third quarter. Barkley's touchdown was all the Eagles could manage, which was not helped by J. Milton taking seven sacks.
Washington led at the break in Landover, 10-6, but the Rams scored once in the third quarter and once in the fourth, and that was enough for a 20-13 win, with Nacua catching seemingly everything Matthew Stafford threw near him — 14 receptions, 150 yards and a touchdown. Daniels answered with 274 yards and a touchdown of his own for the Commanders, whose offense then went scoreless across the whole fourth quarter.
And then there was Seattle, where Arizona's first-quarter field goal turned out to be the Cardinals' entire output in a 17-3 loss at Lumen Field. Lock's touchdown pass found Barner, Charbonnet added 77 yards on the ground, and a game with no turnovers at all simply drifted away from the visitors after that early kick.
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