Another week, another slice of history for Tom Brady.
The 45-year-old NFL legend became the first quarterback to pass for 100,000 yards during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 16-13 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Rams in the clash of the last two Super Bowl champions.
The Buffalo Bills suffered a surprise defeat at the New York Jets, while Aaron Rodgers’ nightmare season got even worse as the Green Bay Packers were embarrassed by the Detroit Lions.
At the halfway point in the season, in another week of tight games and dramatic late finishes, the Los Angeles Chargers won with the last kick of the game, and the Minnesota Vikings did something similar to quietly move to 7-1 and the second best record in the league.
Patrick Mahomes produced more primetime magic as he dragged the Kansas City Chiefs to a 20-17 overtime victory over the tough Tennessee Titans, throwing for 446 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 63 yards and a score.
Mahomes is the first player in the modern-day NFL to combine 400 yards passing and a touchdown with 60 yards rushing and a touchdown as he showed why the 6-3 Chiefs continue to be Super Bowl contenders as long as he is at quarterback.
Brady breaks 100,000 barrier in record comeback win
Seven-time Super Bowl champion Brady has had little to smile about this season, and it looked like a similar story when he got the ball with the Bucs trailing by four points with only 44 seconds left.
The Rams had bottled Brady up all night, but he produced a classic drive to throw the winning touchdown pass to Cade Otton with nine seconds remaining.
It was a record 55th game-winning drive for Brady, to go with his incredible passing milestone. Considering they came in his 23rd season and 374th game, both will take some beating.
“That was awesome,” Brady said of ending a three-game losing streak that was his worst for 20 years.
On reaching 100,116 passing yards, he said: “It’s a credit to all the guys I’ve played with – I didn’t catch one ball. I’ve had a lot of cool things – I set the sack record a couple of weeks ago – so it’s nice to follow it up with a more meaningful one.”
The Rams are now in big trouble but the Bucs top their division despite being just 4-5 as they fly out to Munich for the first NFL regular-season game in Germany in history next week.
Brady will face a streaking Seattle Seahawks outfit who improved to 6-3 as their 31-21 victory over the Arizona Cardinals made it four wins in a row.
Rodgers’ nightmare continues as Packers lose five in a row
Rodgers had one of the worst games of his career as he threw three interceptions for only the fifth time, and the first since 2017.
The Packers’ season also hit a new low in the 15-9 loss in Detroit.
The Lions entered the game with only one win and the worst defence in the league, yet held the reigning back-to-back MVP to single figures, with Rodgers cutting a frustrated figure throughout.
At 3-6, the Packers could see their play-off hopes end sooner rather than later with games against the Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles coming up.
Green Bay are already well behind NFC North leaders the Minnesota Vikings, who overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Washington Commanders 20-17.
That made it six wins in a row for Minnesota – all by just only score. They now have a healthy four-game lead over the Packers and the Chicago Bears in the NFC North and look set for the play-offs.
Jets upset Bills in powerhouse AFC East
The Jets showed that defensively at least they are a force to be reckoned with as they shut down MVP candidate Josh Allen and his Super Bowl favourites the Bills in a shock 20-17 victory.
Buffalo’s five-game winning streak was ended by Robert Saleh’s young Jets side, who held the Bills to under 20 points for only the second time this season – their only two losses.
“We’re too young to flinch,” said Saleh. “I know a lot of people are going to be surprised, right? I don’t think there’s a person surprised in the locker room.”
The Bills dropped to 6-2 but still top the division, while the Jets are 6-3 alongside the Miami Dolphins, who were impressive on offence again as they survived a 35-32 shootout with the Chicago Bears.
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw three touchdowns as receivers Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle again had huge games with a touchdown each and combined 228 yards to remain the league’s biggest receiving threats.
Justin Fields had quite a game for the Bears with three touchdown passes and the most regular-season rushing yards for a quarterback in history, with his tally of 178 eclipsed only by Colin Kaepernick’s 181 in the 2012 play-offs.
In the toughest division in the league, the New England Patriots are still there at 5-4 after another defensive masterclass from head coach Bill Belichick helped them sack quarterback Sam Ehlinger nine times in a 26-3 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
Mixon scores five touchdowns as Bengals run riot
Running back Joe Mixon ran in four touchdowns and caught another from Joe Burrow as the Cincinnati Bengals battered the Carolina Panthers 42-21, with the game as good as over by half-time as the hosts led 35-0.
Mixon, who said later he ran out of touchdown celebrations, is the first player in 20 years to top 150 yards and score four touchdowns in the first half. He finished with 211 yards as the Bengals bounced back from Monday’s woeful loss at the Cleveland Browns.
LA Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker booted a game-winning 37-yard field goal in their 20-17 success against the Atlanta Falcons – only three days after signing for the team.
Dicker also kicked the winner for the Philadelphia Eagles in his only other game of the season.
After failing to score against the New Orleans Saints last week, the Las Vegas Raiders found a new way to lose this week as they blew a 17-point lead to go down 27-20 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
