Sports Then and Now

Giants quarterback, Eli Manning, celebrated his latest 4th quarter comeback on Sunday, beating the Redskins 27-23.

As always, the latest week in the NFL left us eager for the next one to start.

Here are the biggest feats, news stories and injuries from the week that was around the NFL.

No surprise here, but Drew Brees threw a touchdown pass in a record 49th straight game, extending his own NFL record. The Saints came back from down 21-7 to beat the Buccaneers after a 4th down touchdown catch was refuted by a penalty to end the game. After an 0-4 start, the Saints have won their last two.

Brees ] threw for 313 yards in the 1st half – the most by a quarterback in the 1st half of a game since Michael Vick threw for 329 against the Redskins in 2010. It was also Brees’ 18th career 4-touchdown game, which is good for fourth all-time and 62nd career 300-yard passing game, which is good for a tie for third on the all-time list. He is now tied with Dan Marino for the most career games with 4+ touchdowns and 300 yards with 16.

Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, remained ten games behind Brees as he threw a touchdown pass in his 39th consecutive game in his team’s 29-26 overtime win against the Jets. New England extended its all-time series lead to 54-52-1 against New York. Rob Gronkowski caught two touchdowns and now has 10 multi-touchdown games since 2010 – more than anyone else.

This was just the fifth time in their history that the Patriots scored 29 points in a game. The last time was on Oct. 14, 2001 against the Chargers and also a 29-26 OT win. New England, who has won 15 of the last 19 meetings with the Jets, scored points with their offense, defense and special teams in the 1st half.

Mark Sanchez had not thrown an interception in his previous two games in Foxboro before throwing one on Sunday. With that pick, he has now thrown an interception in five out of seven games this season. Kicker, Nick Folk, has made 12 straight field goals and recorded his first 4-FG game since 2010 with four on Sunday. Rex Ryan had been 3-0 in overtime games as head coach of the Jets before the loss to the Pats. New England joined Houston and Baltimore as the only AFC teams over .500.

One week after losing Ray Lewis and Lardarius Webb to injuries, the Ravens defense struggled mightily, giving up 43 points to the Texans. After opening the scoring with a field goal, the Ravens let up 29 unanswered points to Houston, who was coming off its first loss of the year last week. Terrell Suggs did return for Baltimore and looked pretty good in his first game action of the year.

To make things worse, Joe Flacco had a terrible day, throwing for just 147 yards and two interceptions while posting a 0.3 quarterback rating. Coincidentally, the team with the higher QBR won every game on Sunday.The Texans defense also batted down an incredible 11 passes.  Running back, Arian Foster, recorded a touchdown in his team record ninth straight game.

The 43 points that Baltimore gave up were the highest since they allowed 44 to the Colts in 2007. Flacco’s quarterback rating of 0.3 was the worst by any quarterback since 2008. This also marked the first time ever that the Texans have beat the Ravens.

Both Eli Manning and Matt Hasselbeck led their teams to last minute comeback victories over the Redskins and Bills respectively. The Giants‘ winning drive lasted just one play as Manning hit Victor Cruz for a 77-yard touchdown pass to take the lead. This was the 23rd 4th quarter comeback of Manning’s career and his 8th in the last two seasons – more than anyone else in that span. Manning had thrown five interceptions and no touchdowns in his previous two games against the Skins.

There were 24 points scored in the 4th quarter of the game and five turnovers committed in the 2nd half. With his game winning catch, Cruz now has six touchdowns of over 70 yards in the last two seasons.

Hasselbeck led the Titans to a one-point win over Buffalo as he hit Nate Washington in the endzone in the final minute. The score came on a 4th & 9 play with the Titans trailing by six.

Chris Johnson scored his first two rushing TD’s of the year in the game as he exploded for 195 yards on 18 carries, including an 83-yard score. He now has an NFL-record four touchdown runs of 80 or more yards.

A third 4th quarter comeback came up just short as the Bucs couldn’t quite get it done against the Saints. Josh Freeman did throw for 420 yards and 3 touchdowns in the loss and Vincent Jackson racked up a Tampa Bay record with 216 yards receiving. Jackson had a 95-yard reception in the game, but did not score on it. It was the longest reception without scoring a touchdown since 1972.

Cam Newton also failed to cap a comeback attempt as the Panthers fell to 1-5 with a loss to the Cowboys. It was the ninth straight win for Dallas against the Panthers – their longest current winning streak against any team.

The Cardinals have imploded without quarterback, Kevin Kolb. After a 4-0 start, they lost their third straight game on Sunday, falling to the Vikings 21-14. This marked the seventh straight loss for Arizona in the series and they haven’t won in Minnesota since 1977.

Colts QB, Andrew Luck recorded two rushing touchdowns in Sunday’s win over Cleveland. This matched the total he had in his last 18 games at Stanford. The loss for the Browns was their 11th straight on the road, which ties the longest in franchise history.

Both late afternoon games went to overtime and were won by the first field goal kicked. The Patriots topped the Jets and the Raiders nipped the Jaguars. 

Jordy Nelson caught another touchdown for his fourth in two weeks while having another big game in another Packers win. Aaron Rodgers threw three touchdown passes and now has nine in his last two games. Rodgers had a completion percentage of 81% (30-37).

Ohio native, Ben Roethlisberger, improved to 27-5 against teams from Ohio in the Steelers win over the Bengals on Sunday night. He improved to 13-4 in his career against Cincy.

Andy Dalton became the second QB in Bengals history to throw an interception in each of his first seven games of a season. A.J. Green caught a touchdown pass for the sixth straight game making it the longest streak by a wide receiver since the start of last year.

The Bears gave up just seven points against the Lions on Monday night and improved to 5-1 atop the NFC North. Matthew Stafford remains the only quarterback in 2012 who has not thrown a TD pass in the 1st half of a game. This was the 165th meeting between the two teams, the second most of any two teams in NFL history.

Both participants in the NFC Championship game last year, the 49ers and Giants, are both 5-2 and in first place in their respective divisions.

The same is the case in the AFC as the Patriots (4-3) and Ravens (5-2) both lead their respective divisions through seven weeks.

The Lions are the only 2011 playoff team in last place through seven weeks.

Blaine Gabbert, Maurice Jones-Drew, Trent Richardson and Demarco Murray were all among those who suffered significant injuries this week. Murray and MJD have already been ruled out for next week and both Gabbert and Richardson are questionable.

And in other news, the Falcons remained undefeated, but in all fairness, it was their bye week.

Some information was taken from ESPN Stats & Info.

Follow me on Twitter @RealAndyLarmand.