The Latest on Week 13 in the NFL (all times EST):
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The New England Patriots have a chance to be the first in the AFC to clinch a playoff berth with a victory thanks to a pair of losses earlier Sunday.
The Patriots came into the weekend with a chance to clinch a playoff berth under five different scenarios.
The simplest scenario featured a loss by Oakland and a victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday night for New England to clinch.
Another scenario would allow the Patriots to tie the Texans thanks to losses by both Indianapolis and Oakland with Tennessee beating the Colts 31-17 earlier Sunday and the Raiders following later with a 40-9 loss to Kansas City.
Now it’s up to the Patriots (10-1) to handle their part of the bargain with a win - or at least a rare tie.
The Saints clinched the NFC South with a win over Atlanta on Thursday.
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6:55 p.m.
Chargers receiver Keenan Allen made the catch look like the easy part.
The dive into the end zone? Now that was something.
Allen finished off a 36-yard touchdown by flying over the top of Broncos defensive back Will Parks. Allen landed hard in the end zone as he helped the Chargers tie up Denver at 17 early in the fourth quarter.
He has five catches for 68 yards and a score in which he took advantage of blown coverage. Allen was held to four catches for 18 yards when the Chargers lost to the Broncos in October.
The Chargers had a chance to take the lead after a Drew Lock interception. Michael Badgley’s 55-yard field goal hit off the left upright.
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6:05 p.m.
Broncos kicker Brandon McManus isn’t happy Denver passed up on a long field goal just before halftime.
How unhappy? He threw his helmet in frustration.
McManus trotted out with a second remaining to attempt a field goal of about 64 yards. Instead, he was called back to the sideline. He appeared to yell before tossing his helmet to the turf in frustration.
Matt Prater holds the NFL record for longest kick as he connected on a 64-yarder Dec. 8, 2013, when he was with Denver.
McManus’ career-long made field goal is 57 yards in 2015. He’s 0 for 4 in his career from 60-plus yards.
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5:50 p.m.
The Chiefs have seized control of their game against Oakland by taking a 21-0 lead into halftime, and possibly the AFC West as well.
Patrick Mahomes has touchdowns throwing and running for Kansas City, while Juan Thornhill returned an interception of Derek Carr 46 yards for another a score.
It was the second pick Carr has thrown in the game. Oakland also has lost a fumble.
The Chiefs have outscored the Raiders 49-0 dating to their meeting in Oakland in Week 2. That is the longest run of unanswered points in 122 meetings dating to Sept. 16, 1960.
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5:28 p.m.
Facing the NFL’s worst pass defense turned out to be just what Jared Goff and the Los Angeles Rams needed.
Goff has thrown for 322 yards and has his first TD pass in five weeks, giving the Rams a 10-0 halftime lead over the Arizona Cardinals.
The Rams were embarrassed in a 45-6 loss to the Ravens on Monday night. They’ve had no trouble slicing through Arizona’s porous defense.
Goff hit Tyler Higbee on a 2-yard TD pass, Todd Gurley had a 1-yard scoring run and Greg Zuerlein hit his second field goal, from 33-yards, on the last play of the half. Los Angeles has 389 total yards, its best half of the season.
The Cardinals have been limited to 63 yards coming off their bye week.
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5:03 p.m.
The Chiefs lead the Raiders 7-0 after the first quarter of their pivotal AFC West showdown.
Kansas City came into the game 7-4 and Oakland 6-5, and the Chiefs already have beaten the Raiders on the road. That means a win by the Chiefs gives them a comfy lead in the division race, while a loss moves the rivals into a tie for the lead.
The Chiefs took advantage of Tyrann Mathieu’s interception of Derek Carr by cruising 47 yards for the score. Patrick Mahomes capped the drive with a short TD pass to Darrel Williams.
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5 p.m.
Broncos rookie quarterback Drew Lock couldn’t have asked for a better first quarter to his career.
The second-rounder out of Missouri threw two touchdown passes against the Los Angeles Chargers - both to receiver Courtland Sutton.
On his ninth career pass, Lock lofted a pass toward the end zone. A diving Sutton pulled the football in with his right hand and pinned it against his pads as he hit the ground for a 26-yard score.
On his 13th career pass, Lock found a wide open Sutton for a 5-yard touchdown.
Locke is 9 of 13 for 73 yards and two scores to start off his career with a passer rating of 122.8.
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4:20 p.m.
The 0-16 watch is over for this season in the NFL.
The Cincinnati Bengals became the league’s last team to win a game, snapping snapped a 13-game skid dating back to last season with a 22-6 win over the New York Jets.
Andy Dalton threw a touchdown pass and helped the Bengals end their longest skid in franchise history. It’s also the first career victory for rookie head coach Zac Taylor who benched Dalton after Cincinnati’s eighth loss this season.
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3:45 p.m.
Redskins linebacker Ryan Anderson has been ejected from Washington’s game against the Panthers after delivering a helmet-to-helmet hit on tight end Greg Olsen.
Olsen was taken to the locker room for observation late in the third quarter after making an 8-yard reception. Then he took a shot to the head from Anderson as Olsen headed up field looking for more yardage.
The Panthers announced Olsen has entered the concussion protocol and will not return.
Olsen appeared to tuck his head while approaching contact as Anderson came flying in and hit him straight on with his helmet. Olsen remained on the field for about a minute after the hit, and the crowd booed relentlessly as replays where shown on the scoreboard.
- Steve Reed reporting from Charlotte, North Carolina.
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3:23 p.m.
The San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens are heading to the fourth quarter tied at 17.
San Francisco got the only points in the third quarter on a field goal by Robbie Gould, who’s back after a three-game absence. The kick was set up by Lamar Jackson’s first lost fumble of the year. Jackson had the wet ball stripped from his grasp by Marcell Harris at the San Francisco 20.
The Ravens are seeking their franchise-record eighth straight victory.
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2:55 p.m.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have benched Nick Foles, who turned the ball over three times in the first half against Tampa Bay.
Rookie Gardner Minshew took over after halftime.
Foles completed 7 of 14 passes for 93 yards, with an interception and two fumbles. He also was sacked three times.
The Buccaneers turned all three of Foles’ turnovers into touchdowns and led 25-0 at the break.
- Mark Long reporting from Jacksonville, Florida.
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2:50 p.m.
Miami Dolphins running back Kalen Ballage left their game against the Philadelphia Eagles with a left leg injury and has been ruled out for the second half.
Ballage carried three times for no yards before being hurt. He’s averaging 1.8 yards per carry, which would be worst full-season average by a running back with at least 70 carries since 1936.
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2:35 p.m.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield is dealing with an apparent injury to his right hand.
Mayfield left the field late in the first half against Pittsburgh after smacking his right hand off Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree’s facemask. Mayfield was attempting to go deep to Odell Beckham Jr. when his hand hit Dupree’s helmet on the follow through.
He was replaced by Garrett Gilbert and jogged to the locker room to have the hand evaluated. Mayfield was 10 of 17 for 98 yards and a touchdown at the time of the injury.
Gilbert threw a pair of incompletions to send the teams to the half tied at 10. The passes were the fifth and sixth of Gilbert’s career. He has not made an extended appearance in any of his four previous appearances in a regular season game.
The Browns and Steelers are tied at 10 at halftime.
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2:30 p.m.
The Baltimore Ravens are leading the San Francisco 49ers 17-14 at halftime of their possible Super Bowl preview.
The 49ers had a chance to tie it up at the end of the first half, but Robbie Gould’s 51-yard field goal try was blocked.
Lamar Jackson has run for a touchdown and thrown another for Baltimore. Jimmy Garoppolo has thrown for 101 yards and a TD for the 49ers.
Justin Tucker gave Baltimore a 17-14 lead with a 30-yard field goal with 1:58 left in the first half.
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2:25 p.m.
The Miami Dolphins have had trouble scoring all season with conventional plays, so they used trickery for the go-ahead touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles.
With the Eagles expecting a field goal attempt on fourth down at the 1, holder Matt Haack stood and took a shotgun snap, with four teammates flanked far to the left and five far to the right.
Place-kicker Jason Sanders, part of the group on the left, slipped into the end zone and caught a fluttery pass from Haack for the score and a 14-13 Miami lead.
It was the third consecutive week a trick play worked against the Eagles, with a non-quarterback throwing for a score each time.
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2:05 p.m.
Christian McCaffrey continues to get it done for the Panthers.
McCaffrey has surpassed Roger Craig (2,118 receiving yards) for the most yards receiving by a running back in his first three seasons in the Super Bowl era - and he still has 4 1/2 games to go to build on that mark. He has two catches for 24 yards as the Panthers lead the Redskins 14-6 in the first half.
McCaffrey leads the NFL in yards from scrimmage and touchdowns this season.
- Steve Reed reporting from Charlotte, North Carolina.
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2 p.m.
Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri has missed two more field goals in the first quarter against Tennessee, his sixth and seventh this season.
The first, a 55-yarder, tailed wide right. The second, a 53-yarder after Tennessee’s second lost fumble, was blocked by Austin Johnson.
Vinatieri has now missed 13 kicks this season - seven field goals and six extra points.
- Michael Marot reporting from Indianapolis, Indiana.
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1:50 p.m.
Jaguars quarterback Nick Foles is having a rough day against Tampa Bay.
Foles has three turnovers in three drives. He threw interceptions to end the first two and then fumbled in the red zone on Jacksonville’s third possession.
The home crowd clearly turned on the former Super Bowl MVP, booing him and chanting “We want Minshew! We want Minshew!” in the second quarter.
Foles returned from a broken left collarbone, replaced popular rookie Gardner Minshew and lost his first two starts in lopsided fashion.
The Buccaneers lead 15-0.
- Mark Long reporting from Jacksonville, Florida.
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1:36 p.m.
Andy Dalton is making his mark in his return as the Bengals starting quarterback.
His 17-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd put the Bengals ahead of the Jets 7-3 and broke a tie with Ken Anderson for the franchise record with 198 TD passes. Dalton was benched for three weeks as the organization decided to see how rookie Ryan Finley fit in its future plans.
The Bengals are the only winless team left in the NFL.
- Joe Kay reporting from Cincinnati.
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1:35 p.m.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns played nice during the first quarter of their highly anticipated rematch at Heinz Field.
Just 17 days removed from Cleveland’s fight marred victory that ended with Browns defensive end Myles Garrett getting suspended indefinitely for hitting Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph with his own helmet, both teams kept their emotions in check as the Browns took an early 3-0 lead.
There were only two penalties over the first 15 minutes, both of them procedure calls. The trash talking most expected was also kept to a minimum. The teams traded civil handshakes before kickoff and referees did not need to get involved to separate players.
- Will Graves reporting from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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1:30 p.m.
The Ravens have tied their game against the 49ers and set a franchise record with their 48th touchdown of the season, breaking the mark held by the 2009 team.
After the 49ers became the first team since Oct. 13 to register first-quarter points against Baltimore, the Ravens recovered a fumble by Jimmy Garoppolo. The Ravens then converted the turnover into points with a 20-yard pass from Lamar Jackson to tight end Mark Andrews.
Jackson has 14 TD passes and no interceptions over his last 5 games.
- Dave Ginsburg reporting from Baltimore, Maryland.
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1:10 p.m.
Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry has become the fourth player in the league to reach the 1,000-yard mark this season.
Henry achieved the feat on the first play against division rival Indianapolis. He ran for nine yards before losing a fumble at the Titans 39-yard line. He came into the game fourth in the league in rushing with 991 yards, trailing only Christian McCaffrey of Carolina (1,123), Nick Chubb of Cleveland (1,117) and Dalvin Cook of Minnesota (1,017).
Henry is the first Titans player to rush for 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons since Chris Johnson in 2012-13.
- Michael Marot reporting in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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1:06 p.m.
A heavy rain is pelting the field at the start of the showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and Ravens, and it’s hard to say how this will impact fleet-footed Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson or Baltimore’s top-ranked rushing attack.
The 49ers rank No. 2 in rushing, but their first run gained nothing. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo scrambled for 3 yards before squeezing off a short pass to Kendrick Bourne that gained 30.
- Dave Ginsburg reporting from Baltimore, Maryland.
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12:25 p.m.
The war of words between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns has spilled into their wardrobes.
After Browns coach Freddie Kitchens was spotted wearing a T-shirt that read “Pittsburgh started it” - a reference to the brawl that marred the end of Cleveland’s 21-7 win over the Steelers on Nov. 14 - Cleveland wide receiver Jarvis Landry rocked a sweatshirt emblazed with “Revenge” walking to the visiting locker room at Heinz Field hours before kickoff in the rematch.
Several Steelers responded with provocative T-shirts of their own.
A handful wore shirts that screamed “Free Pouncey,” a nod to starting center Maurkice Pouncey, who is serving the second game of a two-game suspension for kicking and punching Browns defensive end Myles Garrett after Garrett ripped off Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet and smacked him with it on the next-to-last snap of the first meeting.
Pittsburgh cornerback Cam Sutton took a cruder approach, sporting a sweatshirt of a child in a Steelers helmet urinating on someone dressed in Browns gear.
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11:45 a.m.
A rivalry already steeped in ill feelings got a lot uglier last month with the brawl between the Steelers and Browns in Cleveland.
On Sunday, the teams meet again in Pittsburgh, with both on the outskirts of playoff contention and needing a victory.
But the focal point, at least heading into the rematch a mere 17 days after the massive fight that resulted in Garrett being suspended indefinitely, is on how high the level of animosity might be. And whether it will impact the performances of the Steelers (6-5) and Browns (5-6).
“I know that it is going to be a lot of trash talking out there and a lot of guys are going to try and get into your head and do things to try and get you out of character,” Browns defensive back Denzel Ward said. “You just have to think about the betterment of the team and just go out there and win the game, but do not do any stupid penalties or anything toward the other team that could hurt this team.”
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