Monday 17 November 2014 11:21, UK
The St Louis Rams produced a stifling defensive performance to upset Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in a 22-7 victory in the pick of the early game results.
Manning had just one TD throw to Emmanuel Sanders to end his 15-game run of multiple touchdown passes while Shaun Hill threw a 63-yard TD bomb to Kenny Britt, who finished with 158 receiving yards.
Tre Mason ran for 113 yards against Denver’s top-ranked rush defence but it was the Rams defence that proved disruptive in the win, with two interceptions of Manning as Denver slipped to 7-3 and into a tie with the Chiefs.
The New Orleans Saints lost at home for the second straight week as Andy Dalton responded to one of the worst displays of his career to throw three touchdowns in a 27-10 victory for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Tight end Jermaine Gresham and wide receiver AJ Green caught the scoring passes from Dalton, while Jeremy Hill ran for 152 yards and the Bengals defence bottled up the Saints as they dropped to 4-6 but strangely still in the hunt in the poor NFC South.
JJ Watt continues to be a giant on both sides of the ball for the Houston Texans, as he caught a touchdown pass as well as producing another dominating defensive display with a strip sack and fumble recovery in a 23-7 win over the Cleveland Browns.
The Texans were missing star runner Arian Foster but rookie Alfred Blue ran for 156 yards as the 6-4 Browns lost for just the second time in seven games. Houston move to 5-5 mainly thanks to Watt, who now has four TDs for the season while also having another stellar defensive campaign.
Graham Gano missed a late 46-yard field goal to condemn the Carolina Panthers to a 19-17 reversal at home to divisional rivals Atlanta Falcons, who despite only moving on to 4-6 sit tied with New Orleans for the NFC South lead.
Matt Ryan threw for 268 yards and a touchdown while Matt Bryant booted four field goals, while Cam Newton was picked off twice early on but recovered somewhat throwing two TDs in the fourth quarter to Philly Brown and rookie Kelvin Benjamin.
After suffering a couple of humiliating blowout losses, the Chicago Bears found themselves 10-0 down to the Minnesota Vikings before Jay Cutler found his big receivers Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall (twice) to carve out a welcome 21-13 victory.
Cutler also threw two interceptions in another mixed bag of a performance, but his skill players had big days with Marshall having 90 yards and two scores, Jeffery 135 yards and one score and running back Matt Forte gaining 117 yards on the ground and another 58 in the air.
Eli Manning threw five interceptions as the New York Giants imploded again to suffer a fifth straight defeat after the San Francisco 49ers came away from the Big Apple with a 16-10 success. Colin Kaepernick threw just one touchdown to Michael Crabtree but that proved to be enough.
Manning did find Larry Donnell with a 19-yard TD but otherwise there was not much to shout about as the Giants slipped to 3-7 for the season. The 49ers were hardly prolific offence as despite dominating time of possession and having five turnovers they still only just about got the win, but it’s still a second road win in a row to keep their playoff hopes on track.
Robert Griffin III returned to action for the Washington Redskins, but he was intercepted twice, one for a pick six, and sacked six times as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended a five-game losing streak on the back of a monster performance by rookie wide receiver Mike Evans.
Evans had 209 yards receiving and caught two touchdown passes as Tampa Bay won for just the second time this season, while Washington sit languishing on 3-7.
