Buffalo Bills clinch fifth straight AFC title in the snow
ALL WHITE ON THE NIGHT: Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills dives for a touchdown. Pic: Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)
The Buffalo Bills clinched a fifth straight AFC East title as they swept aside the San Francisco 49ers 35-10 in the snow.
Quarterback Josh Allen starred for the Bills, who moved to 10-2, as he became the first quarterback to score touchdowns passing, rushing and receiving in the same game.
Jake Moody opened the scoring with a field goal for San Francisco, but Buffalo’s Ray Davis responded with a touchdown in the dying seconds of the first term.
In the third quarter, Allen found wide receiver Amari Cooper, who was immediately cornered by 49ers defenders before passing the ball back to Allen who dived into the snowy end zone.
Christian McCaffrey, the 49ers running back, who was the last player to score in all three ways in 2022, suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury.
A 30-yard field goal from Chase McLaughlin helped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Carolina Panthers 26-23 in overtime to move to tie at the top of the NFC South.
The Philadelphia Eagles recovered from a two-score deficit against the Baltimore Ravens in the first quarter to win 24-19, their tenth of the season.
The Los Angeles Rams clinched a 21-14 win over the New Orleans Saints.
Matthew Stafford threw two touchdown passes in the victory.
The Houston Texans kept their play-off hopes on track with a 23-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars but only after knocking Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence out of the game.
Azeez Al-Shaair’s illegal hit on Lawrence sparked a huge brawl in the second quarter as the quarterback was forced out of the game with a concussion.
Joe Mixon ran for 101 yards and a touchdown for Houston, who moved to 8-5 after only their second win in five weeks.
SPIKE THAT 🤬 pic.twitter.com/B9jDBzypvo
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) December 1, 2024
Russell Wilson threw for 414 yards and three touchdowns as the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 44-38 in a shootout to improve to 9-3.
Wilson, who turned 36 on Friday, helped the Steelers put the most points on the board since they scored 52 against Carolina in 2018.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked four times, twice by TJ Watt, was intercepted and fumbled twice, but found Andrei Iosivas in the end zone to cut the gap to six with 2:39 left before Connor Heyward recovered an onside kick and Pittsburgh clung on.
The Minnesota Vikings needed a late comeback to win their fifth straight game as they edged out the Arizona Cardinals 23-22 to move to 10-2.
Sam Darnold found Aaron Jones with a five-yard touchdown pass as the Vikings went up by one point with 73 seconds left in regulation.
There was still time for the Cardinals, but Shaq Griffin sealed the win as he intercepted Kyler Murray with 40 seconds left.
Closed it out. #Skol pic.twitter.com/K1pmWMGmQF
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 1, 2024
The Washington Commanders scored three touchdowns in the first quarter as they got back on track with a 42-19 rout of the Tennessee Titans that ended a three-game losing streak.
The game was over not much longer after it began as Brian Robinson ran into the end zone from 40 yards to cap the Commanders’ first drive and Jayden Daniels ran in a second before finding Terry McLaurin from 16 yards for the third, with the same pair making it 28-0 to Washington in the second quarter.
Tennessee belatedly woke up but too late to stop the Commanders improving to 8-5.
Kirk Cousins was intercepted four times, the last of them with 52 seconds left on the clock as the Atlanta Falcons fell to a third straight defeat, going down 17-13 to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Cousins had already been intercepted once in the end zone and seen Tarheeb Still return another pick 61 yards for a score before Derwin James effectively ended the game by grabbing a ball intended for Drake London inside the final minute.
