NFL: Denver Broncos come from behind to beat Miami Dolphins, Seattle Seahawks beat Arizona Cardinals
Monday 24 November 2014 11:58, UK
The Denver Broncos overcame a fierce challenge from the Miami Dolphins with 22 unanswered points in the fourth quarter helping them to thrilling 39-36 victory to get them back on track and top of the AFC West.
The Dolphins came into Denver on a good run and got off to a great start in the first half with Daniel Thomas, Ryan Tannehill and Mike Wallace all scoring touchdowns as Miami opened up a 21-10 lead.
After two defeats in three Denver were on the ropes again, but Peyton Manning found Demaryius Thomas for his second TD 12 seconds before half time to cut the gap to four at 21-17.
Jarvis Landry caught a Tannehill TD pass in the third quarter but Denver took charge with another Thomas catch, a CJ Anderson run and Wes Welker grab to complete the turnaround. Landry caught another late on but when the onside kick was caught by Denver they’d done enough for the win.
Manning finished with 257 yards and four TDs, three of them to Thomas, while CJ Anderson had 167 yards rushing and a touchdown and Emmanuel Sanders caught nine passes for 125 yards as Denver’s offence finally managed to grind down a tough Dolphins defence to go to 8-3 for the campaign.
Cards sunk in Seattle
The Arizona Cardinals went into the weekend with the NFL’s best record at 9-1, but their six-game winning streak was ended in typical Seattle Seahawks fashion as the Super Bowl champions ran out 19-3 winners.
Seattle’s famed defence was back to its fierce best but the Cardinals were just as good as they sacked Seahawks QB Russell Wilson a season-high seven times and had him running and scampering for his life.
Wilson is an expert in that though, and he did just that to engineer a TD throw to Cooper Helfet that finally put the game away after Seattle were restricted to just four Steven Hauschka field goals.
Sadly for Arizona, although the defence did their part the offence just could not make an impact on the Super Bowl champs, with QB Drew Stanton also hassled all night long as they made a season-low 204 yards of total offence and one visit to the red zone.
The Cardinals remain the top seed in the NFC as NFC West leaders at 9-2 but Seattle are now 7-4 and chasing them down hard just two games back with another meeting between the two coming in Week 16 which could yet be a divisional decider.
Unlucky Rams
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San Diego Chargers beat the St Louis Rams 27-24 after intercepting Rams QB Shaun Hill in the dying stages as he foolishly tried to force a throw into traffic in the end zone despite being in position to kick a game-trying field goal.
Janoris Jenkins picked off Philip Rivers and ran back a 99-yard TD return, but the Chargers hit back with a Ryan Mathews 32-yard run, a fumble return recovery and later a Keenan Allen catch and run in from 29 yards.
Stedman Bailey caught a TD pass for the Rams in the fourth quarter, just after having one ruled out by a penalty, and Tavon Austin looked to have scored his second TD of the game as he returned a punt into the end zone, but that was also chalked off on what looked a soft penalty.
Still, the Rams had the chance to level late on when Hill went for too much and did the one thing he couldn’t do and lose possession. San Diego move to 7-4 and level with Kansas City just a game behind leaders Denver.
San Francisco 49ers are also now 7-4 and level with Seattle in the NFC West after edging a scrappy encounter 17-13 against struggling Washington thanks to a late four-yard touchdown run from Carlos Hyde.
Robert Griffin III’s struggles continued as he passed for just 106 yards , no touchdowns and was sacked five times as Washington leaned on running back Alfred Morris who ran for 125 yards and a touchdown.
