Dallas in the fight despite its negative record for the year
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs rallied from a 30-yard sack, four turnovers and a 10-point deficit to secure their fifth consecutive American Conference West title by beating the Miami Dolphins 33-27. .
Mahomes was intercepted three times, his first game with more than one interception in more than two years, but he threw for 393 yards and two touchdowns as he helped the Chiefs (12-1) to their eighth straight win.
Tyreek Hill pushed his way through and behind the Dolphins secondary, scoring on a 32-yard rush and a 44-yard catch when Mahomes hit him in the end zone.
Travis Kelce finished with eight catches for 136 yards and a touchdown, Mecole Hardman scored untouched on a 67-yard punt return and the Kansas City defense stood firm against Tua Tagovailoa and an injury-plagued Dolphin offense. Chris Jones sacked Miami’s rookie quarterback at a safety to give the Chiefs a 30-10 lead.
Kansas City reached 12 wins for the third consecutive season, the longest streak in team history, and has the best record after 13 games in franchise history. The Chiefs set a team record with their 10th. triumph followed as a visitor.
The Dolphins (8-5), for their part, suffered a severe blow to their playoff aspirations, losing for just the second time in the last nine games.
Dalton, flawless
Quarterback Andy Dalton made a triumphant return to Cincinnati, throwing two touchdown passes and helping the Dallas Cowboys defeat the Bengals 7-30 on the road.
The Cowboys (4-9) remained in contention in the East Division of the National Conference.
Cincinnati was a big help to its former quarterback veteran, who played at “Paul Brown Stadium” for the first time since the team released him before the start of the season.
The Bengals dropped the ball in their first three drives, a fumble returned for a score and led to 17 points in the first half for the Cowboys.
Dalton, who was the Bengals’ starting quarterback for nine seasons, completed 16 of 23 passes for 185 yards with two touchdown passes.
They have hope
Tom Brady threw for 196 yards and two touchdowns as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers propped up their hopes of reaching the postseason by defeating the Minnesota Vikings 26-14.
Before a bye week, Brady threw 48-yard touchdown passes to Scott Miller and two-yard passes to Rob Gronkowski to rebound after losing home losses.
The Bucs (8-5) lost three of four games to division title contenders, including a pair of 27-24 losses at home to the Rams and Chiefs. They started the day in sixth place in the National.
Tampa Bay sacked Kirk Cousins six times. The last catch led to a loose ball that ended any chance that the visitors could come back in the final minutes.
Cousins completed 24 of 37 passes and 225 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. Dalvin Cook rushed for 102 yards on 22 carries, but Minnesota was hurt by another poor performance from kicker Dan Bailey, who missed an extra point and three field goals.
They return to the fight
Haason Reddick posted a franchise record with five sacks and provoked three Giants turnovers for the Arizona Cardinals to spoil the return of quarterback Daniel Jones and return to the fight for a National Conference playoff berth with a triumph yesterday of 26-7 over New York.
Kyler Murray added a touchdown pass for Arizona (7-6) to snap out of a three-game losing streak and end a three-game winning streak that had brought the Giants (5-8) to the top of the division. East of the National.
Mike Nugent was taken off the practice team and hit his first four field goals in more than a year, while Kenyan Drake scored on a one-yard carry in just Arizona’s second win in the last six games.
The Cardinals finished with eight sacks. Reddick broke the team record of 4.5 sacks that Curtis Greer had set on Dec. 18, 1983 against the Eagles. — AP
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