Panthers snap five-game losing streak, beat Redskins 21-13

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Most of the name players the Panthers have left are on offense.

But it was their defense that helped them snap a five-game losing streak, impressively shutting down Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III in a 21-13 road win.

The Panthers held the Redskins to a pair of field goals for the first 58 minutes, and played exceptional red zone defense to get their first win in Washington in franchise history. They also recorded four sacks, keeping RG3 in front of them effectively.

Cam Newton led a pair of 90-plus yard touchdown drives, with the big play an 82-yard pass to Armanti Edwards which set up Newton’s touchdown run. He also found Steve Smith for the veteran wideout’s first touchdown of the year, and the Panthers got a 30-yard touchdown run from DeAngelo Williams.

The loss drops the Redskins to 3-6 heading into their bye, and raises serious questions about their ability to help RG3. They were playing without a full deck, and the receivers out there dropped a number of passes.

Their defense also gave up plays downfield to a team that hadn’t made many, leaving a lot of questions to be answered in the next two weeks.

The Redskins talked about this being a must-win, and they didn’t.

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In a game that featured five touchdowns in about a two-minute span at game’s end, the Ravens got the final and deciding score, with Joe Flacco connecting with Marlon Brown on a nine-yard TD pass with four seconds left to give host Baltimore a 29-26 win over Minnesota on Sunday afternoon.

Brown’s touchdown capped a memorable sequence in which the teams kept exchanging the lead in increasingly stunning fashion in the snow.

It all began when Flacco hit Dennis Pitta for a one-yard TD with 2:05 left to give the Ravens a 13-12 lead. Baltimore added a two-point conversion for a 15-12 edge.

But back came the Vikings, who retook the lead on a 41-yard TD run by Toby Gerhart, who replaced the injured Adrian Peterson, who left the game with an ankle ailment in the second quarter. Gerhart’s sprint up the middle gave Minnesota a 19-15 lead with 1:27 left.

The excitement was far from over, though.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Ravens’ Jacoby Jones broke free for a 77-yard touchdown. Suddenly, the Ravens had a 22-19 edge with 1:16 left.

But that was short lived.

On the third play of the Vikings’ next drive, quarterback Matt Cassel threw a short screen pass to rookie wideout Cordarrelle Patterson, who did the rest, sprinting away for a 79-yard touchdown. Amazingly, the Vikings again had the lead.

Trailing 26-22 with 45 seconds left, the Ravens had 80 yards to go and two timeouts. They got 35 yards right off the bat when Flacco hit Brown down the middle on the first play of the drive. Baltimore used one of its timeouts to stop the clock.

Two plays later, though, Flacco was picked by Vikings safety Andrew Sendejo. However, Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway was penalized for pass interference, giving Baltimore an 18-yard gain and a first down.

The Ravens capitalized on the break. Flacco hit Pitta for 18 yards, moving the ball to the Minnesota 9. Then, on the next play, Flacco connected with Brown, who made an athletic catch to secure the lead — and ultimately victory — for the Ravens.

The win allowed the Ravens (7-6) to hold onto the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoff chase. The Vikings, who lost the game but no face whatsoever in another brave performance, fell to 3-9-1.

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The Chargers appear to have picked a winner when they grabbed wide receiver Keenan Allen in the third round this year.

Allen had 58 catches for 843 yards and three touchdowns heading into Week 14 and didn’t wait long to add to those totals. He caught a 43-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter to open up the scoring in San Diego and added another catch, setting a Chargers rookie record, for 12 more yards on the team’s next possession.

That one didn’t end as well for the wideout. Allen headed back to the locker room with a shoulder injury after that catch, robbing the Chargers of their most productive wideout just as the first quarter came to an end.

The Chargers got set up for Allen’s touchdown when Donald Butler intercepted an Eli Manning pass. The interception, which was intended for Rueben Randle and deflected, was Manning’s 19th of the season.

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It might be cold in Denver, but the only thing hotter than Mike Munchak’s seat on the Titans sideline might be the Titans themselves.

Tennessee has jumped to a surprising 14-10 lead over the Broncos on the road, but the Broncos just missed a couple of chances to tie it up.

The Titans were up early, with Shonn Greene and Chris Johnson running for touchdowns. Ryan Fitzpatrick hit Justin Hunter for a 57-yard strike, an unlikely big pass play combination in this game.

But then Manning warmed up a bit on a 16-degree day, hitting Eric Decker for what appeared to be a 26-yard touchdown and then Wes Welker for a 7-yard touchdown, but both were overturned on review. Decker was ruled down short of the goal line, and Welker seemed to bobble the ball as he hit the ground.

The Broncos then had to settle for a field goal just before the end of the first quarter.

The Titans have to be encouraged by the goal-line stand, and they’re playing with confidence.

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For the better part of 59 minutes, Sunday was not a good day for the New England Patriots. Things wound up brightening up a lot at the very end, however.

Julian Edelman held onto a two-yard touchdown catch from Tom Brady despite a hit by Jordan Poyer that was flagged for unnecessary roughness with 1:01 left to play, Kyle Arrington recovered an onside kick and then Leon McFadden was flagged for pass interference in the end zone with 40 seconds left to play. It was a weak call by the officials, although New Englanders may think it just penance for the flag that was picked up in their loss to Carolina.

The Pats got the ball on the one and Brady hit Danny Amendola for a touchdown on the next play. They couldn’t get a two-point conversion, making the score 27-26 in a game the Patriots once trailed 19-3. It wasn’t over yet, as the Browns drove the ball into position for a 58-yard field goal with a second to play but Billy Cundiff was short and the Pats held on.

Brady finished the day 32-of-52 for 418 yards, two touchdowns and an interception on a day that went from a horrible start to a worse middle before the happy ending.

Tight end Rob Gronkowski, who missed the first six games of the season, had to be carted off the field after taking a shot to the knee from Browns safety T.J. Ward and initial reports about the severity of the injury suggest that they’ll end the season the same way they started it. Shane Vereen will likely be part of the plan for life without Gronkowski after catching 12 passes for 153 yards on Sunday afternoon, but it’s hard to overstate the magnitude of the tight end’s loss.

The comeback will overshadow another monster day for Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon. Gordon caught an 80-yard touchdown and had a 19-yard catch and a 34-yard run in the fourth quarter to set up another touchdown. Gordon had seven catches for 151 yards, breaking his string of 200-yard outings but setting a new Browns franchise record for single-season receiving yards.

That wasn’t enough to overcome another Tom Brady comeback, although there will still be plenty of people lamenting a loss in Patriots country on Sunday night.

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For a guy who never played in much snow, Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill isn’t bad at it.

Tannehill outdueled Ben Roethlisberger in a wild second half to lead the Dolphins to a 34-28 win at Pittsburgh.

The Steelers nearly won the game as time expired, as Antonio Brown went out of bounds at the 13-yard line to kill the hopes of a multiple-lateral finish. After the ball went through the hands of several Steelers players, Brown found a seam, and was celebrating in the end zone when officials conferred and determined he had stepped out.

The win moves the Dolphins to 7-6, pushing them to the top of the AFC sixth-seed pack. The Steelers fell to 5-8, ending any practical chance at the playoffs.

Tannehill was 20-of-33 for 200 yards and three touchdowns, hitting Charles Clay for his second touchdown of the day in the fourth quarter for control of a game that saw the lead change hands four times in the second half.

Roethlisberger was solid throughout the day, but the Dolphins made defensive stops when it counted, and thanks to Brown’s left foot, were able to hang on.

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In a bad game between two losing teams on Sunday in Tampa, the Buccaneers proved a much better team than the Bills.

Tampa Bay jumped out to an early lead when Bobby Rainey ran for an 80-yard touchdown on the second play of the game, and the Buccaneers never looked back. It was 14-3 at the end of the first quarter and 24-3 at halftime, and the Bucs cruised to an easy 27-6 win in the second half.

Despite an absolutely dreadful start to the season, the Buccaneers are now playing competitive football. Today’s win improves them to 4-9 on the season, and 4-1 in their last five games. This late run of winning may be enough to save Greg Schiano’s job.

But not all is well with the Buccaneers. Rookie quarterback Mike Glennon, who has shown so much promise this season, had a rough day. One of the most important questions facing the Bucs in the offseason will be whether Glennon is their franchise quarterback of the future, and his performance today did nothing to answer that question.

Still, the Buccaneers are in much better shape now than they were a few weeks ago. Tampa Bay is ending the season playing good football. Who saw that coming five weeks ago?

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In response to the ESPN report that Redskins coach Mike Shanahan nearly quit in January, Shanahan didn’t deny it.

“It’s not the right time or place to talk about my relationship with Dan Snyder,” Shanahan told reporters after Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the Chiefs.  “Or it’s not the right time or place to talk about something that happened a year ago.”

(That last part could be construed as a confirmation.)

Shanahan consistently refused to talk about his future in Washington, insisting on focusing on next weekend’s game against the Falcons.

Shanahan added he expects to talk to Snyder after the season.  But Snyder could decide to talk about it now, perhaps including the sentence, “You’re fired.”

Amid suspicions that Shanahan leaked the report that he nearly quit due to the relationship between Snyder and quarterback Robert Griffin III, don’t be shocked if that sentence is uttered tonight.

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In a truly remarkable sequence in the snow in Baltimore, the Vikings have lost, retaken, lost and retaken the lead in a span of one minute and 22 seconds.

The Vikings currently hold a 26-22 lead in the final minute after Cordarrelle Patterson scored a 79-yard TD reception.

First, the Ravens took a 15-12 lead with 2:07 left when Joe Flacco hit Dennis Pitta for a one-yard TD on 4th-and-goal from the Minnesota 1.

Secondly, the Vikings struck back with a 41-yard TD run up the middle by Toby Gerhart, which gave Minnesota a 19-15 lead with 1:45 left.

Then, the Ravens counterpunched in dramatic fashion, with Jacoby Jones taking the ensuing kickoff for 77 yards and a touchdown to give the Ravens a 22-19 lead with 1:27 left.

Finally, we had Patterson taking a pass from Matt Cassel and sprinting away for a 79-yard TD.

Wow.

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On a snowy field in Philadelphia, the Eagles have taken a big step toward the playoffs, while the Lions have taken a big step backward.

With LeSean McCoy leading the way and gaining an Eagles franchise record 217 yards, Philadelphia ran over Detroit, winning 34-20.

The win improves the Eagles’ record to 8-5, and puts them in good position for a run to the playoffs: If they win their final three games, they win the NFC East.

The 7-6 Lions also need only to win their last three games to win their division, although they can’t feel particularly confident in their chances given the way they’ve played over the last month. With all the injuries in Green Bay and Chicago, Detroit has been virtually handed the NFC North. But they might lose it anyway.

Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford had a terrible time dealing with the snowy conditions, fumbling a whopping five times and completing just 10 of 25 passes for 148 yards. The Lions’ lousy offense wasted a brilliant day from return man Jeremy Ross, who had two touchdowns, one on a punt and one on a kickoff.

The Eagles’ offense, however, eventually figured out how to deal with the bad conditions. Although Philadelphia got off to a bad start, by the fourth quarter the Eagles’ offense was rolling, and by the end of the game Philadelphia had topped 300 rushing yards.

Now the question is what each team can do over the final three weeks. The Eagles look a lot more like a playoff-worthy team than the Lions.

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Yes, the Chiefs had lost three straight.

But after manhandling the Redskins 45-10 Sunday, it appears that’s a function of two of them being against the Broncos as opposed to a bigger problem.

The Chiefs improved to 10-3 with the win, which featured sterling play in all three phases.

Sure, the Redskins are a 3-10 dumpster fire at the moment, but the Chiefs held them to 260 yards, collecting six sacks.

Meanwhile, Dexter McCluster had 174 yards worth of punt returns and a touchdown, making the offense a bit of an afterthought.

Quarterback Alex Smith was a clean 14-of-20 for 137 yards and two touchdowns, while Jamaal Charles ran for 101 yards and scored two touchdowns.

For the Redskins, the game on the field got away from them early, and will quickly yield to the organizational drama of Mike Shanahan and what appears to be an inevitable, ugly divorce.

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The Patriots lost tight end Rob Gronkowski for Sunday’s game against the Browns after a low hit from safety T.J. Ward.  The Pats also may have lost Gronkowski for the season.

Per a league source, Gronkowski will have an MRI tomorrow on his injured knee.  But the MRI may be more about confirming the damage than determining it.

“Not looking good,” the source said, adding that the initial testing of the test is not encouraging.

The official diagnosis comes tomorrow.  The worst-case scenario would be a torn ACL along with damage to other knee ligaments and cartilage.

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If the Jets offense can play the way they did on Sunday for the final three weeks of the season, they’d have a pretty fair shot at grabbing the sixth seed in the AFC.

Given the results of that offense in the 12 games before Sunday’s 37-27 victory over the Raiders, that’s not a great bet to make but it’s one you can make if you choose because their playoff hopes remain alive. How good they are will depend on other results, but the Jets did what they had to do.

They did it behind an offense that looked functional for the first time in weeks. Geno Smith completed 16-of-25 passes for 219 yards and a touchdowns while running for 50 yards and another touchdown. It was the kind of performance that generated much excitement about Smith early this season, although more than a month of horrible play will probably keep everyone in check after this game. Chris Ivory ran well, Kellen Winslow was productive and the Jets moved the ball all day without much issue.

Can that happen against non-Raiders opponents? We’ll find out in Carolina next weekend where a much tougher defense waits to potentially snuff out any playoff life left in the Jets.

If the Raiders were trying to spark Matt McGloin by pulling him for a series in the first half, it paid off eventually. McGloin threw a pair of touchdowns in the second half and looked much more assured running the offense than he did immediately after returning to the game. He wound up 18-of-29 for 239 yards and two touchdowns, and continued to show an ability to throw the ball that Terrelle Pryor hasn’t shown this season.

That wasn’t enough to get a win, but that should be enough for him to hold onto the job for the rest of the season.

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As the Panthers prepare step onto the biggest NFL stage in prime time, they know it will be loud  in the Superdome.  And they don’t care.

At least they say the don’t care.

“I’ll be honest with you, as loud as the places get now, it really doesn’t matter,” coach Ron Rivera said of the noise in New Orleans on Friday’s PFT Live.  “Atlanta is a very loud place, Minnesota is a tough place to go in and play.  I think it’s just part of it now, it really has been and I think with the way that fans get into the games today, it’s just something that you’ve got to be able to match.

“The thing that we try to talk about is what happens between the white lines and not what’s happening outside of them.  It was great to hear some of our players that said that in their press conferences.  Thomas Davis, most notably, came out and said it’s really about what we do and what we are going to try to do between the white lines.”

That doesn’t mean the Panthers haven’t prepared for the coming storm of sound.

“[W]e have the noise piped in [to practice] and in fact we’ve had a couple of neighbors complain about this,” Rivera said.  “We work on the silent counts because it is really all about getting the snap count off correctly, changing it up on how we do the silent count.  There are many different things that we do to try to do to get the communications across to each other.  We’re going to do some things differently on the defensive side as well because even though it isn’t going to be as loud for the defense, there is still going to be some communication things that we are going to be really good with.”

The best way to deal with the sound would be to jump on the Saints early and take the crowd out of the game.  If the Panthers can do that and in turn win, they’ll be well on their way to the No. 2 seed in the NFC.

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The Bengals are playing like a club that knows a first-round playoff bye is within the realm of possibility.

In a second half dominated by the offenses, the Bengals have pulled to a 35-21 fourth-quarter lead against the Colts n Cincinnati.

After the Colts had cut the Bengals’ lead to 21-14 in the third quarter, the Bengals responded with two straight TDs. First, they extended their lead to 28-14 on a one-yard TD pass from Andy Dalton to tight end Jermaine Gresham. Then, after forcing a three-and-out, the Bengals added another touchdown, with Dalton hitting A.J. Green for a nine-yard score.

The Colts, who have stayed in the game on the strength of their passing game in the second half, would rebound to draw within 35-21 with 9:54 left on a Luck-to-Lavon Brazill TD pass. The touchdown was Brazill’s second of the half.

With a win against the Colts and a Patriots loss to Cleveland, the Bengals would move into the No. 2 seed in the AFC. The Patriots are currently losing 19-11 to the Browns early in the fourth quarter.

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The biggest names on the inactive list for the Giants on Sunday are defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and cornerback Corey Webster, but we knew they were ruled out before the game.

Running back Brandon Jacobs‘ status was less clear. Jacobs made the trip across the country to San Diego with the team after being listed as doubtful to play because of a knee injury. Jacobs missed last week’s victory over Washington as well and Peyton Hillis will serve as Andre Brown’s backup against the Chargers on Sunday.

Quarterback Ryan Nassib, linebacker Allen Bradford, guard Stephen Goodin and tight end Adrien Robinson are also inactive for the Giants.

The Chargers will go without quarterback Brad Sorensen, wide receiver Lavelle Hawkins, cornerback Crezdon Butler, safety Brandon Taylor, offensive lineman Steve Schilling, tackleKenny Wiggins and defensive tackle Kwame Geathers.