NFL 2015 schedule and results: Broncos crush Packers in Denver

Smith went down hard and immediately called the training staff to attend him on the field. He was helped off the field he was unable to put any pressure on his right leg.

Smith seemed to take a bad step on his ankle after catching a pass from Joe Flacco:

Bush stayed down and the cart was brought in to take him to the locker room. The 49ers later announced that he was officially out for the rest of the game with a knee injury.

He hit the concrete hard before going into the wall:

If you decided to turn off the TV and head to bed early as the fourth quarter got underway on Monday Night Football, you missed a hell of a finish as the Panthers beat the Colts in overtime, 29-26. I’m guessing there were more than a few on the East Coast that saw Cam Newton hit Corey Brown for a touchdown to put the Panthers up 23-7 with 10:44 to go, and decided that was that. Hell, more than a few West Coasters likely did the same.

But Andrew Luck, battling rib and shoulder injuries and an atrocious start to the game, wasn’t quite finished. Luck -- who passed for 191 of his 231 yards in the 4th quarter and overtime -- led the Colts on three scoring drives (two touchdowns and a field goal) in the final frame to even up the game at 23 and send it to overtime. It was a wild finish that included a couple of dropped interceptions by the Panthers on the Colts’ game-tying drive, including one by Luke Kuechly in the endzone that would’ve sealed it, a few new refereeing flubs, and dropped touchdown pass by Ted Ginn Jr. in overtime. It was also a redemption story, as Kuechly picked off Luck in OT to redeemed his drop earlier drop, which set up a Graham Gano 51-yard field goal for the win, redeeming a missed extra point earlier in the game that allowed the Colts to even send it to an extra frame.

Both teams were coming off byes, and that should have been an advantage for Green Bay, which was 8-1 in its first games back from byes under McCarthy. Instead, it was Denver who looked sharper in every facet of the game.

Manning vs. Rodgers duel fails to live up to the hype

A five-game losing streak is bad enough, but even more has gone wrong for the Cowboys since Romo went down with his injury.

One thing after another

Lockette took a big hit from Jeff Heath on special teams while covering a punt. He immediately went down to the ground without moving. He was motionless on the field for several minutes and was surrounded by the medical staff before being lifted onto a stretcher and taken away on the cart.

While being attended to by medical staff, Lockette’s Seattle teammates surrounded him on the field while several Cowboys also came over to check on the situation. Lockette began moving his hands shortly after being loaded onto the cart, even signaling to his teammates while being taken off the field.

No, it was this air of divine right that the Steelers ooze over the Bengals. This air of Pittsburgh’s supremacy, an air of royalty and smugness, a persistent clarity in their minds on who is who and what is what in this divisional rivalry.

Pittsburgh had won eight of the last 10 games against Cincinnati. Here in Heinz Field, it had won four of the last five. Since this place opened in 2001, it had won nine of the 14 matchups here.

Dez Bryant returned to the football field Sunday after sitting six games with a broken foot, but it wasn’t a happy homecoming. The Cowboys lost, Bryant was held to two receptions for 12 yards and, controversially, he was accused of trash talking Seahawks players shortly after Ricardo Lockette had to be immobilized on a stretcher after being involved in a scary collision on the field.

After Lockette was injured, Bryant was spotted by cameras apparently pointing at Seahawks defensive end Bruce Irvin and uttering something that contained an expletive. The moment briefly went viral on social media.

“I know our coach would’ve did the same thing, so I thought that was a classless play by him,” Bennett said, via the Dallas Morning News. “That’s super scary because at the end of the day you guys talk about this or talk about that but at the end of the day it’s just a game. I don’t think people realize that. You guys take it a little bit too far. This guy has three kids.”

“I won’t ever, ever, ever, ever wish bad on a player that’s been knocked down,” Bryant said. “Come on man, stop with the bull s---. Not once did I say ‘Hey, that’s what you get.’ I got down on one knee and prayed for that man.”

The Green Bay Packers had the perfect play called for third-and-9. Aaron Rodgers hit James Jones for what looked like a 14-yard gain. Move the chains. Except the play didn’t end there. Instead, this happened:

Jones had the first down easily, but kept fighting after the initial contact. Somehow he broke a pair of tackles and broke free. Thanks to his extra effort, Jones was a runner again and not given forward progress. Had officials blown the whistle as soon as Jones started getting pushed backward, he would have been given forward progress and the play ends there. Instead he kept going, fumbled and turned a 14-yard gain into 2-yard gain.

The 29-10 win over the Packers was No. 186 in Manning’s career, improving his career record to 186-77. It took Favre much longer to reach his win total, retiring with a 186-112 record.

Despite the 7-0 record for Manning, the season has been one of the worst of his career. The 14-time Pro Bowler has been especially turnover-prone, but a win over the Green Bay Packers is the most impressive of the season for the Broncos.

The Broncos led 17-7 at the half, and the game didn’t seem nearly that close. Manning didn’t have a touchdown pass in the half, but he looked like a much younger version of himself, completing 14 of 18 passes for 212 yards and picking the Packers secondary apart at will.

Thomas finished with eight catches for 168 yards.

The Packers enter the week with a two-game lead on the NFC North and the Broncos have three games over the rest of the AFC West, so a loss for either team is far from a death sentence.

The wildest game of the day came was an Arena Football-like matchup between the Giants and Saints. Drew Brees and Eli Manning combined to throw an NFL-record 13 touchdowns, and the teams traded scores until Saints kicker Kai Forbath hit a 50-yard field goal as time expired to give New Orleans a 52-49 win. It was the first field goal by either team.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Kwon Alexander was all over the field on Sunday in Atlanta. He racked up 11 tackles, intercepted a pass and even forced and recovered a fumble. The game was the best of the rookie’s career and good enough to earn a game ball. A game ball he dedicated to his 17-year-old brother Broderick who died on Friday.

“It’s been hard, man, losing my little brother,” Alexander said after the game, via the Buccaneers. “I know he would want me to be strong for him so I came out here and dedicated this game to him. I’m just ready to be back with my family.”

Ben Roethlisberger found Bell for an eight-yard gain on first-and-10 in the second quarter. Bell’s leg got caught under Burfict as he made the tackle, resulting in the injury (which is currently believed to be an MCL injury). After the play, Burfict got up and ran back to the Cincinnati sideline. Some of the Steelers players thought he was celebrating Bell’s injury after the play.

“If you’re on the field with him, you know what I mean by that,” Foster said, via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “They’ll play it off; he’ll act dumb about it. But you don’t run across the field hyped, celebrating, jumping up and down when a guy goes down like that.”

One minute left in the fourth quarter. Cowboys trail the Seahawks 13-12. Time for Matt Cassel to get the Boys together and lead a game-winning drive. WOOO CRUNCH TIME LET’S DO THIS. Let’s see how it went!

Cassel threw a pass that started slipping out of his hands after he was hit by a rushing defensive lineman. The play was actually ruled a fumble returned for a touchdown on the field, but review showed that Cassel’s hand was coming forward on the play, and this was just an incomplete pass.

Greg Hardy suffered a left leg injury against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, and had into the locker room with the help of trainers according to reports. Hardy is tied for the team lead in sacks with three in his only two games of the season.

Hardy was ruled probable to return and was spotted on the Cowboys’ bench to open the second half. He had three tackles, one of them for a loss, before leaving. Eventually, he did return to the game and finished the game, a Cowboys loss, without issue.

Several recurring problems cropped up again.

The Cowboys were once again in the game because of their defense, but playing it safe on offense did little to help their prospects. The unfortunate reality for Dallas is that, despite all the good it’s doing on the defensive side of the ball, it may not be able to get better until it has a competent quarterback. Their only hope appears to be, still, Tony Romo’s return in the coming weeks.

Smith threw a couple touchdowns and an interception and threw for just over 250 yards. He was also sacked three times for a loss of 19 yards. He did take one big hit late on the sideline, and you can see it below:

Given Fitzpatrick’s injury, Smith might want to reconsider ducking and taking this hit on the sideline. It was a long run for him and he had plenty of time to step out of bounds rather than take that kind of hit. It’s probably safe to say the Jets coaches are going to tell him to go out next time something like that happens.

Jerry Jones’ unabashed support for Greg Hardy is appalling, but then he goes ahead and looks like a maniac as Hardy grabs his first interception.

That isn’t helping.

They’re playing in a tough division, but the Rams already own wins over all three divisional rivals. They’ll keep riding Gurley and see where they end up.

The Dallas Cowboys recently inserted La’el Collins into the starting lineup at left guard. This is probably the reason why:

Completely decimating two defenders on one play is incredibly impressive on its own. When you look closer and realize who those defenders are, this might just be the best offensive line sequence of the season. First, Collins overpowers and completely stonewalls All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner. Collins then sets his sights on All-Pro safety Earl Thomas and knocks him dang near out of AT&T Stadium.

Andy Dalton looked like the Andy Dalton we were all familiar with through most of Sunday’s game. He had thrown for under 200 yards and had two interceptions with no scores until the Bengals took over possession on the Steelers’ 45-yard line with 5:34 remaining. Until Sunday, Dalton had thrown two interceptions all season. The Bengals had also lost their last three meetings against the Steelers. It seemed history was repeating.

But when Dalton could have caved, he didn’t. He accounted for 35 of the Bengals’ 45 yards on the short go-ahead touchdown drive, ultimately hitting A.J. Green for a 9-yard touchdown to take the lead for good. With a 16-10 win, the Bengals improved to 7-0 for the first time in franchise history.

The latest episode of “The NFL Doesn’t Know What a Catch Is” is a scintillating one, this time to the advantage of the Cowboys. As Dallas drove downfield against the Seahawks, Matt Cassel dumped the ball off to Darren McFadden, who caught the ball, took a few steps, looked to tuck it under his arm, then fumbled it away to the Seahawks. Or so we thought.

The turnover was reviewed, and despite what rationally should be considered a catch, the NFL’s subjective and ambiguous catch rules, which require a player “establish himself as a runner,” struck again. The play was overturned.