Castle Park High School alumnus John Fox had to wear a big grin on his face after last Sunday’s dramatic 18-17 come-from-behind win by the Chicago Bears over the host Kansas City Chiefs. The Bears had dropped their opening three games of the season before handing Fox his first career win as Chicago head coach with a thrilling 22-20 comeback victory against the visiting Oakland Raiders.
His second win might have been even more electrifying. The Bears rallied with two touchdowns in the final 3:05 to score their latest victory.
Cutler hit Marquess Wilson with a 22-yard scoring pass to cut Chicago’s deficit to 17-12. Cutler, after taking a bad snap, then delivered the game-winning touchdown pass to Matt Foote with 18 seconds to play.
The Chiefs attempted a 66-yard field goal that was short as time expired.
The win raised the Bears record to 2-3. They sit third out of four teams in the NFC North Division standings behind the unbeaten Green Bay Packers (5-0) and the Minnesota Vikings (2-2).
Green Bay defeated the visiting St. Louis Rams, 24-10, behind a pair of touchdowns from two-time NFC Offensive Player of the Year Aaron Rodgers.
“It was a very gutsy, good football-character victory,” Fox noted in his post-game press conference. “Not that we played poorly, we just didn’t play as well as we could have, not as tough and hard as we could have (in the first half). I think we turned that around in the second half. We have a lot of new guys out there. It was fun to see guys grow. It’s about playing tougher, smarter longer than your opponent.”
Cutler finished the game 26-of-45 for 252 passing yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and two sacks. He has passed for 878 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions in four games for an overall 85.4 quarterback rating.
Cutler needs three touchdowns to pass Sid Luckman (137) for the most in franchise history.
Cutler’s performance at Arrowhead Stadium was impressive in that he was missing his top two receivers – Alshon Jeffrey and Eddie Royal – both out due to injury.
The loss was a costly one for the Chiefs (1-4) in more ways than one as star running back Jamaal Charles left the game with a severe knee injury. Kansas City was leading, 17-3, when Charles departed the contest and the Chiefs’ offense was just not quite the same thereafter.
Preliminary diagnosis is that Charles may have an ACL injury that could sideline him for the rest of the season. He had rushed 12 times for 58 yards and caught one pass for 26 yards at the time of his injury against the Bears.
Kansas City finished the game with no rushing touchdowns. QB Alex Smith (Bonita Vista Middle School) threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to De’Anthony Thomas while Ramik Wilson recovered a fumble by Cutler in the end zone for a defensive score. Cairo Santos made one field goal and kicked two PAT conversions for the Chiefs.
Smith finished the game 16-of-30 for 181 passing yards with one touchdown, no interceptions and was sacked three times. On the season, Smith has passed for 1,291 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions for an 88.1 quarterback rating. He’s been sacked 21 times.
The Bears list 13 players on the injury list for their upcoming NFC North game against the Detroit Lions (0-5). “You’ve got guys that are backups that have to be ready…” Fox said in a post on the Bears Facebook page.
Tony Jefferson (Eastlake High School)
The host Detroit Lions scored first but the Arizona Cardinals piled on the next 35 points en route to capturing a key 42-17 NFC non-divisional win on Oct. 11. The win raised the Cardinals’ record to 4-1 and a two-game lead in the NFC West standings over the St. Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks, both at 2-3.
Tony Jefferson had one of the best games of his three-year career with 12 tackles, including eight solo stops for Arizona. Jefferson has 28 tackles this season to go with a 26-yard interception return for a touchdown. In 37 career NFL games, he has made 131 tackles. He is on pace to set a new season record for total tackles this season.
The Cardinal defense forced six turnovers in the win over Detroit, including fopur interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
Carson Palmer threw for 161 yards and three touchdowns to lead Arizona while David Johnson (two) and Andre Ellington (one) combined for three rushing touchdowns. John Brown (four catches, 73 yards), Larry Fitzgerald (five catches, 58 yards) and Darren Fells (two catches, 25 yards) each had touchdown catches.
The Lions – the only winless team in the NFL to start the 2015 season — totaled just 56 rushing yards but racked up 379 passing yards courtesy of quarterbacks Dan Orlovsky (191 yards) and Matthew Stafford (188 yards). Stafford was yanked after throwing three picks. Orlovsky, in relief duty, was intercepted once. Each had one touchdown pass in the loss.
Monday Night Football
The Chargers hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 12 in a match-up of 2-2 teams. Both teams entered the nationally televised prime time game banged up. The Steelers were playing without starter Ben Roethisberger (knee injury) while the Chargers continued to have issues with their offensive line.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the opening half was lackluster.
The Chargers led 7-3 at halftime after tight end Antonio Gates, returning from a season opening four-game suspension by the league, caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers in the first quarter. The TD reception was the 100th of his NFL career for Gates.
Chris Boswell kicked a 47-yard field goal for the Steelers in the second quarter.
Pittsburgh took a 10-7 lead on a 70-yard interception return by Antwon Blake with 3:21 left in the third quarter. The Chargers then tied the score, 10-10, on a 40-yard field goal by rookie Josh Lambo with 11 seconds elapsed in the fourth quarter.
Gates caught his 101st career TD – good for 11 yards — with 8:02 remaining in the fourth quarter to push the hosts ahead 17-10.
But veteran quarterback Michael Vick, embattled by the media for ineffective play since taking over for Big Ben, had an answer for his critics when he threw a 72-yard touchdown completion to Markus Wheaton to tie the score, 17-all, with 7:42 left in regulation.
Lambo kicked a 54-yard field goal with 2:56 to play to put the Chargers in front 20-17.
But Vick appeared to play his best when pushed to the wall by leading the Steelers on a 12-play, 80-yard drive scoring drive to win the game. The biggest play in the drive was a 24-yard run by Vick to the San Diego 17-yard line, followed by a pass to Heath Miller at the one-yard line with five second left on the game clock.
A penalty on an illegal defensive hit moved the ball to the half-yard line at which point Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin made his decision to go for the win.
Le’Veon Bell took direct snap in wildcat position and managed to put the ball across the goal line before knee came down.
Bell, the hero of the game, finished the night with 21 carries for 111 yards. Tomlin said he did not hesitate to call the running play with only a handful of seconds left in the game. “We’ve got to play to win and that’s what we did,” he said.
It is questionable if Pittsburgh had enough time, if Bell had come up short, to call a time-out to kick the game-tying field goal and send the game into overtime.
“I knew I wasn’t playing that well but it’s not how you start but how you finish,” Vick said.
Vick finished with 203 passing yards by completing 13 of 26 attempts with one touchdown and one interception. He was sack three times for negative nine yards.
Rivers completed 35 of 48 passing attempts for 365 yards with two TDs and one pick. He was sacked twice for negative 11 yards.
San Diego totaled 406 total yards to 353 total yards for Pittsburgh. San Diego had just 52 rushing yards – 42 by rookie Melvin Gordon and 10 by veteran Danny Woodhead. The Steelers had 155 rushing yards.
The Chargers started the game 1-for-10 in third-down conversions before picking up the pace in the latter stages of the second half.
San Diego (2-3) next faces undefeated Green Bay in Wisconsin on Sunday, Oct. 18. The game features the top two passes in the NFL: Green Bay’s Rodgers and the Chargers’ Rivers.
Rodgers has passed for 1,236 yards with 13 touchdowns and two interceptions fora 117.4 quarterback rating. He’s been sacked eight times.
Rivers has thrown for 1.613 yards with 10 touchdowns and five interceptions for a 103.9 quarterback rating. He’s been sacked 14 times.
Rodgers completed 19 of 30 attempts for 241 yards with two TDs and two picks in last week’s win at home over the Rams. James Jones (2 catches, 77 yards) and Ty Montgomery (four catches, 59 yards) each had touchdown receptions while Quinten Rollins scored on an interception return and kicker Mason Crosby booted a 35-yard field goal to go with three PAT conversions.
Roethisberger remains out when the Steelers (3-2) host the Cardinals on Sunday.
Extra points
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning passed for 441yards and three touchdowns in the prime time Sunday Night Football telecast to lead his team to a dramatic 30-27 win over the visiting San Francisco 49ers. Manning, who set a single game franchise record with 41 completions, tossed a 12-yard touchdown pass to Larry Donnell, who made an acrobatic over the head catch, with 21 seconds remaining to erase a 27-23 San Francisco lead.
NFL Leaderboard
AFC Top Teams
Cincinnati Bengals 5-0
Denver Broncos 5-0
New England Patriots 4-0
New York Jets 3-1
Pittsburgh Steelers 3-2
Buffalo Bills 3-2
Indianapolis Colts 3-2
San Diego Chargers 2-3
Oakland Raiders 2-3
Cleveland Browns 2-3
NFC Top Teams
Green Bay Packers 5-0
Carolina Panthers 4-0
Atlanta Falcons 5-1
Arizona Cardinals 4-1
New York Giants 3-2
Minnesota Vikings 2-2
St. Louis Rams 2-3
Seattle Seahwaks 2-3
Dallas Cowboys 2-3
Washington Redskins 2-3
Philadelphia Eagles 2-3
Chicago Bears 2-3
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2-3
NFL Scoreboard
Thursday, Oct. 15
New Orleans Saints 31, Atlanta Falcons 21
Sunday, Oct. 18
Cincinnati Bengals, 34, Buffalo Bills 21
Detroit Lions 37, Chicago Bears 34 (OT)
Minnesota Vikings 16, Kansas City Chiefs 10
New York Jets 34, Washington Redskins 20
Carolina Panthers 27, Seattle Seahawks 23
Green Bay Packers 27, San Diego Chargers 20
Denver Broncos 26, Cleveland Browns 23 (OT)
Houston Texans 31, Jacksonville Jaguars 20
Miami Dolphins 38, Tennessee Titans 10
Pittsburgh Steelers 25, St. Louis Cardinals 13
San Francisco 49ers 25, Baltimore Ravens 20
New England Patriots 34, Indianapolis Colts 27
Monday, Oct. 19
New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles
